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!
Parents
  • Would a tech suit with a hydrofoil be something like a "fish suit?" Has anyone tried creating something like that? I'm picturing a rigid, bullet-shaped suit with a large mono fin out the back and large flippers on the side for the arms. I was watching seals at an aquarium recently and it seemed that with the slightest movement of their side flippers, they'd shoot off with amazing speed. Maybe I'm in lala land, but it would be cool!
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  • Would a tech suit with a hydrofoil be something like a "fish suit?" Has anyone tried creating something like that? I'm picturing a rigid, bullet-shaped suit with a large mono fin out the back and large flippers on the side for the arms. I was watching seals at an aquarium recently and it seemed that with the slightest movement of their side flippers, they'd shoot off with amazing speed. Maybe I'm in lala land, but it would be cool!
Children
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