So I'm a middle-aged guy who took up swimming a few years ago--and loves it! Not a great swimmer, but a person who has pretty solid mechanics in three sports. So here's my prologue, then my question.
Some actions are fluid: running, shooting a layup with normal elevation. By fluid, I mean you transfer the energy forward in a continuous motion without "cocking" or "setting up" the next stride, or the upward motion off the court.
Other actions we may call "fluid," but they are not: high jumping, a tennis serve, swinging a golf club. In all these, there is a hesitation (very slight) while one gathers so that energy can be properly delivered to the key motion. A tennis serve should be smooth, but if there's not that instant when you are setting yourself up for the explosive movement, then it will never be a powerful serve.
So which is swimming? Specifically, the reach in freestyle? I know you are not supposed to have a "dead spot" in your stroke, but is the idea a continual forward rolling motion, or does one stay relaxed, yet **** a bit, or set up each reach? Is it a flywheel, or is it a smooth, relaxed succession of spear thrusts with a little torque behind them? Not sure that it matters, but in my case I'm asking as someone who has (or at least tries to have) more of a hip driven stroke.
I've had a little coaching and have read a lot of stuff, but I can't say I know the answer. Thanks for considering this!
That's helpful, thanks, Allen. And I think the start of that section of that Tennyson poem with your signature--if memory serves--is fitting for a swimming forum: "Push off, and sitting well in order, smite the sounding furrows" (i.e., the waves).
I'll try to smite them fluidly and with no cocking motions.
Of all the other motions you mentioned, swimming is most similar to running. You grab the water and pull yourself past it, much like you push backward against the ground while running. It's also a little bit like rock climbing. Definitely fluid. That's only a small part of swimming technique, though. You also need a much much stiffer posture than you think you do, and you need to reach much much farther above your head with your arms than you think you do.
I’ve heard two schools of thought when it comes to swimming. One is to grab the water and pull yourself through it. The other is to grab the water and push it behind you. I seem to go back and forth with this mentality while I’m swimming. I guess it depends on the effort…how fast I’m trying to go.
As a runner also...I’ll also tell you there are two schools of thought about that too. One is to push off with the grounded foot. The other is to think of lifting a foot and extending forward…and grounded foot follows. Again…it’s just a way of thinking about it, and it probably changes depending on how hard one is trying to run.
Dan
Of all the other motions you mentioned, swimming is most similar to running.
Thanks, the connection with running is helpful. Brings to mind a track coach who once had mercy on a slow basketball player (me, now a slow swimmer) and worked with me on lengthening my stride. He took me out on the football field and had me reach out for yard line markers to lengthen my stride, which seems very much like lengthening the swim stroke.
