Does being overweight affect swimming performances?

1: Am I pulling an extra 20lbs with each pull? At first it seems an obvious yes, but I wonder if being in water makes it different. Yes. Water does not make this different. Being slimmer also helps in reducing your frontal area, thus decreasing drag in the water.

The second issue isn't apropos to this, but there is another drag, wave drag. It isn't a big factor at low speeds, but since it increases as roughly the cube of speed, it quickly becomes the main drag. The best way to deal with wave drag is to avoid it hence SDK and BR pullout. Actually, I wonder if it is relevant. She mentioned "having a tough time pushing streamlined of the wall". That can be due to a number of things, including it just being plain difficult to streamline. The first week or so I was back in the pool I encountered this drag force head on and it felt like a load of bricks stopping me in my path. I was surprised because I never had felt anything like it in all my years swimming and was shocked at how strong it was despite my slow speeds. I just remembered I needed to get under that bugger and fixed it up. To the OP, since you have a coach, you might want to get their opinion of your turn. They could tell you if you're deep enough but coming up short or too shallow and getting knocked around and help you to fix it up.

Drag is going to slow you down, but you also need to exert force against the water to actually accelerate you forward and that is directly related to weight (via mass). F= ma. A greater force is required to accelerate a heavier object. F does = ma, and in a vacuum m would be the only thing affecting a. As noted above, in a fluid there are other forces affecting a that are much more important than weight. Which is going to take more force to accelerate in the water a 10 lb surfboard or a 5 lb open parachute?

So --- I'm not over weight I'm shorter than I should be ?? OK I'll work on that for a while. LOL:D

AHEM! As an over weight swimmer most of my life, I can attest to body size and swimming. I am 69 now and still as fast as many in my age group that are thinner than myself. I lost 22 lbs. this past season getting ready for state & SC Nationals and was somewhat quicker. I think the lbs. loss along with a much more robust gym workout routine for strength helped as well.I have more "endurance" than "sprint" events. I know that I feel better when I am down lbs. as to my "non season" weight.

All good points on the physics of swimming, Allan and Kirk. I didn't mean to forget or dispel mass entirely (F=MA unless we approach light speed :), and I hinted at the "tweaking" that can be done too, through streamlining, sdk, tech suits, etc. to reduce drag. A good coach should be able to bring Pam along with these kinds of tweaks or refinements. One of the big differences in swimming that many new swimmers don't realize results from the inefficiency of the propulsive force pulling on water. On the land the propulsive force to move forward is 100% efficient (unless your feet slip) cause the ground doesn't move, but in the water, the water just moves out of the way and slips by, as we all well know. It takes a lot of practice and technique to minimize that slip and I think Pam would likely benefit more from work on technique than worrying about 20 lbs. I've noticed on my starts and turns that if my arms aren't already out in a streamlined position when I enter the water or push-off the wall from a turn, they get slammed back; talk about drag! I don't have the strength to resist the force of my push-off cause my legs are much stronger than my arms and velocity is initially high. Maybe younger stronger guys can recover from this error, but I can't. I'm guessing Pam's arms aren't already out in front when she's coming off the wall and a coach could help her fix that pretty easily. At age 66 I know my biggest limitation is largely due to strength at this point - gaining strength and conditioning is much harder now than when I was 20ish, a bit discouraging, but it happens with persistence. A good diet, some dryland work, and cross training seems to help too.

Lots of great thoughts here! I think it is wonderful that you've started on the swimming journey and are keen to improve. Although it is great to continue losing the weight, that is not the only key to improvement in swimming. In fact, size is not really as much of an issue as is the level of conditioning you have and the efficiency of your technique. Continuing to develop your conditioning and improving your technique, in addition to the carefully planned additional loss of weight, will all work in your favor. You mentioned that you swim on a masters team - would your coach be able to work with you on your turn technique? Your difficulty in pushing off the wall underwater may not be weight-related. It may have to do with where you are placing your feet on the wall before pushing off, or how you are transitioning off the wall. In swimming, conditioning and technique are the ultimate keys to success. Good luck and keep us posted on how you are progressing!

F does = ma, and in a vacuum m would be the only thing affecting a. As noted above, in a fluid there are other forces affecting a that are much more important than weight. Which is going to take more force to accelerate in the water a 10 lb surfboard or a 5 lb open parachute? Of course, Allen, but I just felt like I need to add to what Sojerz' said. Forces act in opposition. If you aren't accelerating yourself by applying a force against the water drag doesn't enter the equation. Propulsive forces accelerate you, drag forces decelerate you.

the fastest swimmers on the planet seem to be around 200lbs Aren't they all around 6'5" as well? I wouldn't mind weighing that much if I was that tall. :)