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.
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.
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.
