Had a chance to swim with a pal over the weekend who swam D1. So fun to watch someone swim with that kind of knowledge. I noticed he has a very pronounced location of his cheek close to or actually pressing against his shoulder until his arm gets well into the insweep/propulsive phase. We chatted about it and he said the difference in drag is massive in his opinion if he doesn't do it.
I messed around with it and kinda sorta could do it, but methinks my inflexibility is a limiter. Obviously I don't want to contort my neck downward to get my cheek on my shoulder right? So it's a matter of bringing the shoulder up to my cheek? How does one go about this and still keep their shoulders wide enough? My biggest issue was that I felt I had to narrow up my shoulders so much that I couldn't catch quite like I'm used to.
Thanks for any insight.
My initial thought is this: my shoulders come close to or graze my cheek on every cycle, when I am fully extended (rotated on my side). This is more common for distance events or long sets in practice. However, I would say that it breaks shortly thereafter and not well into the downsweep (by which point in time I am completely flat, as opposed to on my side). But it's all a matter of inches, so I guess it depends on how you define "close." The shoulders should not be shrugged at all.
I'll think about this more when I've had a chance to get in the pool.
Check go-swim Fr drills "The Shoulder Catch" and "The Shoulder Breath".
Both emphasize cheek to shoulder contact as drills. I also heard a clinic instructor mention something about having a grapefruit sized space there instead, which contradicts this if I am interpreting what she said correctly.
My initial thought is this: my shoulders come close to or graze my cheek on every cycle, when I am fully extended (rotated on my side). This is more common for distance events or long sets in practice. However, I would say that it breaks shortly thereafter and not well into the downsweep (by which point in time I am completely flat, as opposed to on my side). But it's all a matter of inches, so I guess it depends on how you define "close." The shoulders should not be shrugged at all.
I'll think about this more when I've had a chance to get in the pool.
Ok thanks that makes more sense to not shrug the shoulders. I have the wing span on an adult condor;) Gotcha on 'close' and my assessment on the when his shoulder/cheek breaks was really just eyeball from the side. FWIW my pal swam @ Auburn in the late 80's and dude can make wakes! I don't follow any advice blindly, but I tend to listen to guys who get scholarships for their swimming skills. To the other poster who says 'wrong' please feel free to expound...love to learn new things, but I can't glean much from 'he's wrong'. Are you saying that narrowing up the frontal profile.....makes one slower?
I thought that this was what Thorpe and Hackett were doing and that there is a noticeable shoulder shrug.
Err. Yeh, now that I think about it, I should clarify on that...when I say shrugged I mean the effort of bringing your shoulders up (like the weight lifting exercise). The shoulder is close to the cheek as a result of reaching/extending while rotated on the side of the body, not the effort of using your deltoids to bring them up. And in that situation, it's only one shoulder that is close to the cheek/ear, not both. Swimming with both shoulders shrugged simultaneously throughout a race does not seem like the right body position to me.
Getting the shoulder to the cheek seems a little too far but the shoulder should definitely get to the chin (or under the ear). It is important that you are not lifting the shoulder in a shrugging motion or moving your head to the shoulder. The rotation needs to come from the hips and the upper body will follow. This rotation allows you to get into a powerful position for the catch.
All the best
Mitchell
I used to put vaseline on any part of the body that touched another part of the body. Put vaseline on rubspots from my swim suit also when swimming in the marathon races. The back of the neck creases as they would rub raw if I did not cover with vaseline.
