Dives: Once and for all, how much faster do they make you?
Former Member
Ok so we all know how well dives make you go faster, compared to pushing off the wall or flip turn, but how much faster??
I ask this mainly because I am sure I'm not the only one during training curious on how much faster that 100 or 200 would've been if I dove in. Maybe a second??
Also: RELAY EXCHANGES
I'm also curious on average how much faster are you relay splits than your regular races just because of the relay exchange??
Thanks for your help!! :D
Operating on memory here instead of a detailed study, but sometimes the results for the really fast meets show the reaction times for swimmers, and they are usually in the .70 to .80 range. There is also information available for reaction time for relay starts, and they can get down to .10 to .25 for really good relay starts in very competitive races. This is pretty consistent with the .5 to .7 rules of thumb that are posted here and that I have heard in the past.
To see how much a start helps, you can compare the splits in 50s and 100s for good swimmers as they should not slow down the second half of the race. I think you would find that those splits are pretty consistent with the 2 second advantage from a start versus a push off rule of thumb.
Operating on memory here instead of a detailed study, but sometimes the results for the really fast meets show the reaction times for swimmers, and they are usually in the .70 to .80 range. There is also information available for reaction time for relay starts, and they can get down to .10 to .25 for really good relay starts in very competitive races. This is pretty consistent with the .5 to .7 rules of thumb that are posted here and that I have heard in the past.
To see how much a start helps, you can compare the splits in 50s and 100s for good swimmers as they should not slow down the second half of the race. I think you would find that those splits are pretty consistent with the 2 second advantage from a start versus a push off rule of thumb.
