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So I read this and the study did not take into account physiology, or more specifically height when measuring underwater kicking performance.
I would be curious if shorter swimmers can underwater kick as fast or faster than taller swimmers and if they should work to exploit this more than the typical effort given to underwater kicking.
Nick Thoman's coach had mentioned that taller swimmers have difficulty staying *connected* to their underwater kicks as compared to shorter athletes. Not sure why, but he says that Nick takes advantage of u/w kicking with his shorter height.
Interesting that he and Matt Grevers both went :44 for the 100 scy back this year. And Grevers is a giant in comparison.
www.youtube.com/watch
Phelps is 6'4" and his underwaters were pretty good as I recall.
According to a DVD about his performance in the Olympics in 2008, Phelps is both perfectly tall and perfectly short. His torso and wingspan are long, but he's got relatively short legs. If I recall correctly, his torso is that of someone about 6'7" and his legs of someone about 6'. (My memory on this seems decent, based on a quick Googling: www.theguardian.com/.../michael-phelps-olympics)
At a much, much lower level of performance than the Thomans and Phelps out there, I can anecdotally attest to the ease of shorter swimmers at SDK. I'm 5'9" and usually have some of the best underwaters at meets, and have the best at practice. At the bigger meets, I'm usually one of the shortest in my heat, if not the shortest. Relatively speaking, I've got a long torso and shorter legs. One of my teammates is 6'1" with a shorter torso and longer legs. We swam the 100 back next to each other a few weeks ago and I crushed him underwater. He made up ground on the surface, but I definitely had an advantage underwater, even with both of us taking about the same number of kicks off each wall.
I think it is less related to torso to leg length ratio, as it is to lower body power to leg length ratio.
I recently did a quick poor-man's experiment which involved wall pushed, 25 free efforts at 95% every 1:00. I alternated through SDK's, flutter kick, and no kick at all, to breakout and observed the times. The push-off glide swims were consistently faster (and use less energy) than both the flutter and SDK's (which were about equal).
My lower body strength is relatively weak (and long), which probably make me a non SDK'er, though I can glide fairly decent.
My 12 year old is tiny, not yet 5 feet tall, and 80 pounds or so. Breaststroke has always been her best event. At the start after her single dolphin kick and pull down she is always in the lead. Then the tall 11-12 year old girls do(SCY) 9 or 10 strokes to her 15 and beat her, but at the wall she gains on them again. This probably explains why she does so much better in short course than long course against the same girls.
