Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

orca1946 — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 04:57:42 GMT

Not so funny!! We had 2 H S coaches who could not swim. One of my team swimmers had to pull a drowning kid out of the pool when one of them could not go in after the kid. We then had H S swimmers get paid to be life guards during the lunch hour to have some safety.

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

rtodd — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 09:29:55 GMT

I looked it up, 54.09. I forgot it was meters. He said the breastroke was hard.

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

rtodd — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 09:26:02 GMT

his 100im was probably only like a 49.

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

Former Member — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 07:47:19 GMT

I was swimming laps yesterday and I overheard the swim coach tell the high school swim team that they should be swimming flat with no rotation of the hips. He told them that at no point they should not be kicking on their sides and that swimming flat decreases drag. I've had one other person tell me the same thing when I first started swimming and I ended up with severe shoulder (rotator cuff) pain. It wasn't until I learned how to rotate from side to side that the pain resolved. No worries here.. well. No worries... I reckon it could be worrisome. Here's the full story. Not that long ago (at least I believe), some paper got published on swimming. Some researchers found out that the fastest swimmers in this study happened to be the ones that were rotating less. That's all. Now where things are starting to drift is, well twofold: 1. They found out that the faster swimmers (in this study) were the ones rotating less, but that doesn't mean they're not rotating or avoiding rotating or even trying to rotate as little as possible. 2. (more importantly). I believe that this observation is probably due to the fact that faster swimmers did have the higher stroke rate (bare in mind that they studied Sprinters, not distance swimmers) and that logically, the higher the rate, the less time to rotate, which probably explains that the fastest folks, displaying the fastest stroke rate, were as a result of this rotating less. I think that some new swimmers learning through these coaches that are always keen to apply new theories at large, regardless of the level, will suffer a bit from bad advising for a whilst. That's unfortunate, they will be asked to rotate as little as possible. Other coaches will certainly understand how this principle should be applied, but not all will do. I think it's worth remembering at this point that body rotation in FreeStyle should be sufficient for allowing the arms to recover over water with a high elbow, but not any higher (especially applied to Pool swimming). The best possible drill I can think of to define a fair individual rotation level is certainly the finger trailing drill. It is often used to teach relaxed high elbow recovery (and it performs well at this task), but it can (and should) also be used to shape a symmetrical recovery with just enough rotation (not more) to allow for arms to recover above surface. Anyway, my :2cents: And of course, my ref: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../18981935

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

Former Member — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:27:13 GMT

Speaking of Thorpe, a less than stellar comeback today, but he didn't really swim a freestyle race to the best of my knowledge, just an IM. He will do the fly interestingly enough also. Keep in mind that Thorpe hasn't raced since 2006. He only officially started his comeback 9 months ago. 9 months of training won't erase 4 1/2 years of not training. I think too many people are being too hard on him for a 100 im preformance that was his first race in a meet in years.

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

Debugger — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:20:20 GMT

My high school coach was a good example of that. At the final meet of my senior year, we beat our rivals; something we had not been able to do the previous two years. So, we threw our coach into the pool during the celebration- and found out our coach didn't know how to swim! :worms: She panicked and burst into tears as she clawed her way to the edge of the pool. We had no idea she was a gym teacher who got stuck with the swim team when nobody else wanted it. (No wonder I never learned strokes from her; I learned by watching the other breaststroker in my lane!) Unbelievable! SHOCK!!! :bolt:

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

Former Member — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 08:19:37 GMT

unless he was talking about fly/*** or idk....you should ALWAYS be rotating your hips/body during the freestyle and backstroke stroke cycle. Not necessarily. Many sprinters tend to keep a flatter position on the water in order to generate a higher stroke rate. Bernard 50m free underwater 0.25 speed - YouTube Alexander Popov Freestyle Stroke Technique - YouTube

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

Former Member — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 06:54:17 GMT

I'm sorry, Elaine, but that's hilarious.

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

funkyfish — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 06:41:36 GMT

Keep in mind that Thorpe hasn't raced since 2006. He only officially started his comeback 9 months ago. 9 months of training won't erase 4 1/2 years of not training. I think too many people are being too hard on him for a 100 im preformance that was his first race in a meet in years. Didn't see the race, but I'd bet that his "lackluster" performance still beats the snot out of my best effort…life's not fair :cry:boo hoo hoo…

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

taruky — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 05:37:55 GMT

Not necessarily. Many sprinters tend to keep a flatter position on the water in order to generate a higher stroke rate. Bernard 50m free underwater 0.25 speed - YouTube Alexander Popov Freestyle Stroke Technique - YouTube Interesting you say that. That would make sense to me, as I have a difficult time getting a high stroke rate when rotating a lot. But a recent article I read on Thorpe's new style being coached by Touretski for 50 and 100M sprints was saying that Touretski wanted Thorpe to rotate more. I guess there is more power (or less drag?). Speaking of Thorpe, a less than stellar comeback today, but he didn't really swim a freestyle race to the best of my knowledge, just an IM. He will do the fly interestingly enough also.

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

Elaine Krugman — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 05:08:04 GMT

I'm sorry, Elaine, but that's hilarious. No "sorry" needed! The more time that passes, the funnier it gets! :D (Apologies to Coach Carol who just may be in a mental institution, due to the trauma of it all... :afraid:)

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

Former Member — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:39:56 GMT

A lot of high school (and even some college) coaches are converted (pick any sport) coaches and have little formal swimming training. Wow.

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

Former Member — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:13:33 GMT

unless he was talking about fly/*** or idk....you should ALWAYS be rotating your hips/body during the freestyle and backstroke stroke cycle. No, this was a freestyle practice they'd just completed. That's why was wondering why he said that.:confused:

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

Former Member — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:30:23 GMT

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

Elaine Krugman — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 09:20:42 GMT

A lot of high school (and even some college) coaches are converted (pick any sport) coaches and have little formal swimming training. My high school coach was a good example of that. At the final meet of my senior year, we beat our rivals; something we had not been able to do the previous two years. So, we threw our coach into the pool during the celebration- and found out our coach didn't know how to swim! :worms: She panicked and burst into tears as she clawed her way to the edge of the pool. We had no idea she was a gym teacher who got stuck with the swim team when nobody else wanted it. (No wonder I never learned strokes from her; I learned by watching the other breaststroker in my lane!)

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

TRYM_Swimmer — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 08:15:27 GMT

A lot of high school (and even some college) coaches are converted (pick any sport) coaches and have little formal swimming training.

RE: Heard a high school coach tell team to swim flat?

jaadams1 — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 06:55:03 GMT

I was going to lap swim last night which happened to fall directly after the high school girls practice got done. They are in their final two weeks leading into the State meet. Well, the coach was trying to tell the girls that after their flip turn the need to get as quickly as they can to their stomachs to begin dolphining off the walls because it's much faster. The few girls he was talking to were all confused and a few were telling him that isn't really correct, that she comes off the wall and as she's coming off the wall "on her side" she is dolphining until she is almost ready to break out, then comes horizontal. He said no..., they said yes..., etc. etc. After overhearing this I said that I do the same thing (that the girls were saying) as coming off the turn start dolphining while on my side and then rotating toward my stomach to break out. He wasn't convinced and I had to get in to show him. So I did, afterward the girls said "See, he does it too!!" The coach didn't know what to say, and I just started swimming. Funny though. :)