Ok, when I was a kid on the swim team back in the early 1980s, we were taught that for freestyle, the pull arm begins the pull as the recovery arm lifts out of the water to begin the recovery. This is how I always swam freestyle. But then the other day, I was told by a coach that the timing has been modified. Now, apparently, the pull arm begins the pull towards the end of the recovery instead of the beginning. I should have known something was up months ago with all those catch up drills we were doing and when I heard my other teammates talking about their "glides" and not knowing what the hell they were talking about (as a sprinter, I never glided).
Then, I found out that now, when swimming breaststroke, the head is kept low into the water instead of forward with the top of the cap always peaking through the surface. When I learned breaststroke, letting the top of the cap (i.e., your whole head) under the water was grounds for disqualification. Is that no longer true?
And last but I'm sure not least, I found out that back flip turns are no longer practiced. Why not?
And what else has changed since the 1980s that I need to know about?
Every stroke has had huge changes since the early 80s. The biggest difference affecting all strokes is moving from sculling to pulling.No more exaggerated Ss in free or even fly. Pulling is as straight back as physiologically possible (which does leave some mild outsweep and insweep.)
In free fly and back you can go 15M underwater on the starts and turns.People with good dolphin kicks are really taking advantage of this.
In free, front quadrant swimming is "in" for distance swimmers.Many sprinters,especially the stronger men are basically windmilling,to get the maximum thrust as fast as possible.
In back,you can now turn over on your front and do a regular flip turn as long as it is one continuous motion.(you can't do any actual swimming once you turn over.)
Breaststroke has had the most changes.The rule changes are that your head must break the surface every stroke,you can recover your hands and forearms(not your elbows) over the surface,you can do one dolphin kick on the pullout after initiating your pull and before your breaststroke kick, and you can not overlap your hand on the touch at the turns and the finish.
In terms of BR technique,keep your head neutral all the time and raise from the chest to breathe.The kick is narrow,keep your knees no wider than your hips.Recover your feet by bending almost entirely from the knees only,with very little hip flexion. The idea of recovering the hands over the surface turns out to not be a big advantage.Shoot your hands directly forward.If you are riding high in the water this may mean they come out of the water.The important thing is shooting them forward.
Every stroke has had huge changes since the early 80s. The biggest difference affecting all strokes is moving from sculling to pulling.No more exaggerated Ss in free or even fly. Pulling is as straight back as physiologically possible (which does leave some mild outsweep and insweep.)
In free fly and back you can go 15M underwater on the starts and turns.People with good dolphin kicks are really taking advantage of this.
In free, front quadrant swimming is "in" for distance swimmers.Many sprinters,especially the stronger men are basically windmilling,to get the maximum thrust as fast as possible.
In back,you can now turn over on your front and do a regular flip turn as long as it is one continuous motion.(you can't do any actual swimming once you turn over.)
Breaststroke has had the most changes.The rule changes are that your head must break the surface every stroke,you can recover your hands and forearms(not your elbows) over the surface,you can do one dolphin kick on the pullout after initiating your pull and before your breaststroke kick, and you can not overlap your hand on the touch at the turns and the finish.
In terms of BR technique,keep your head neutral all the time and raise from the chest to breathe.The kick is narrow,keep your knees no wider than your hips.Recover your feet by bending almost entirely from the knees only,with very little hip flexion. The idea of recovering the hands over the surface turns out to not be a big advantage.Shoot your hands directly forward.If you are riding high in the water this may mean they come out of the water.The important thing is shooting them forward.
