Swim smarts: Engineers? Drag increases as speed increases?

Former Member
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!
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  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Thanks for all the input folks this is great. I was fiddling around with what I overheard from the club coach and darned if it wasn't immediately noticeable when I kept my shoulder to cheek. I had unknowingly been allowing a big gap between there simply b/c I didn't know it mattered. What I felt was just easier momentum, less surgey, which I took as less resistance allowing me to keep my speed up a bit better. Thanks again for dumbing it down for me:)
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  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Thanks for all the input folks this is great. I was fiddling around with what I overheard from the club coach and darned if it wasn't immediately noticeable when I kept my shoulder to cheek. I had unknowingly been allowing a big gap between there simply b/c I didn't know it mattered. What I felt was just easier momentum, less surgey, which I took as less resistance allowing me to keep my speed up a bit better. Thanks again for dumbing it down for me:)
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