Swim smarts: Engineers? Drag increases as speed increases?
Former Member
I overheard one of the local club team coaches prepping the kids before a technique based drill make the statement that the faster you go the more drag you encounter. He was having them ensure they kept their shoulder to cheek on their free sets to narrow the frontal profile. While I am not questioning the coach I just wanted to know if one of you smart Masters swimmers might be able to dumb that down for me.
So to ensure I lay this out to the best of my understanding which is probably wrong: for two physical clones swimming freestyle in lanes next to each other with completely identical technical strokes down to the mm. The drag for the 1:20 pace swimmer will be less than the swimmer peeling off 1:10 splits? I'm a big dummy so wrapping my head around that idea just isn't sinking in.
Thanks for the Saturday morning hydrodynamics lesson!
"the faster you go the more drag you encounter."
Probably.
Here's a couple thoughts to consider:
1) when a swimmer is swimming freestyle, what if, the faster a swimmer moves through the water, the less of his body is actually in the water. Like a boat.
2) what if, the faster a swimmer SDKs underwater, the more the water around their body compresses their body making their profile slightly thinner. Also the deeper a swimmer SDKs, the more the water compresses them.
It would be interesting to see the complex physics calculations to really figure this out.
One that took into account body mass shape, skin, hair, suit coverage, compression, floatation . . .
Also if there's any truth to the notion that the faster a swimmer swims the less of their body is actually in the water.
"the faster you go the more drag you encounter."
Probably.
Here's a couple thoughts to consider:
1) when a swimmer is swimming freestyle, what if, the faster a swimmer moves through the water, the less of his body is actually in the water. Like a boat.
2) what if, the faster a swimmer SDKs underwater, the more the water around their body compresses their body making their profile slightly thinner. Also the deeper a swimmer SDKs, the more the water compresses them.
It would be interesting to see the complex physics calculations to really figure this out.
One that took into account body mass shape, skin, hair, suit coverage, compression, floatation . . .
Also if there's any truth to the notion that the faster a swimmer swims the less of their body is actually in the water.
