What is the concensus on the modern freestyle pull for sprints; is it straight back or slightly curved (S-shaped like the butterfly pull but with less curve)?
Additionally, links to diagrams/articles would also be greatly appreciated!
Originally posted by Gil
I am just coming back to swimming after a long lay off. These comments about the pull have me slightly confused. What happened to the theory that the S pull was to be used because the swimmer is searching for still water rather than water that is already moving backwards?
I'm not a coach myself, but I've been told by a couple of coaches (my team's coach and a coach who ran a training camp I attended a couple of years ago) that that was an "after-the-fact" theory to explain the "S pull" that people THOUGHT they saw. In fact, what they were seeing was just a function of body rotation, so the hand looked as if it was moving in an S pattern relative to the body (but not the pool bottom) -- almost an optical illusion. Of course, some side to side motion is inevitable because of the way the arm is constructed, but as I understand it, very few coaches now teach a deliberate S pull, especially for sprinters.
Originally posted by Gil
I am just coming back to swimming after a long lay off. These comments about the pull have me slightly confused. What happened to the theory that the S pull was to be used because the swimmer is searching for still water rather than water that is already moving backwards?
I'm not a coach myself, but I've been told by a couple of coaches (my team's coach and a coach who ran a training camp I attended a couple of years ago) that that was an "after-the-fact" theory to explain the "S pull" that people THOUGHT they saw. In fact, what they were seeing was just a function of body rotation, so the hand looked as if it was moving in an S pattern relative to the body (but not the pool bottom) -- almost an optical illusion. Of course, some side to side motion is inevitable because of the way the arm is constructed, but as I understand it, very few coaches now teach a deliberate S pull, especially for sprinters.
