Starts. Most of us don't get to practice them enough. More people have questions than answers,but I wanted to start a thread for both.
I did the grab start for many years and was convinced that since it gave me 2 legs with even thrust that it should be better for me. A Forumite explained the physics of why the track start would be faster,so I have gone to the track start. It had the surprising advantage of being much easier on my back. With the track start I had more trouble consistently getting a clean entry.I saw the Olympians were getting into the starting position(albeit relaxed) well before "take your marks."I tried it and found it was easier to get my foot position and balance exactly like I wanted it,making for more consistent entries.
I try to follow the same routine every time I step up on the blocks: I set my set my forward (left) foot on the front of the block, then set my back (right) foot, with both feet about shoulder width. I'll then grab the front with my hands, again at shoulder width, with my head looking down. At "take your mark", I'll rock back a little to load or tension my arms. At the beep, my first move is to pull up with my arms. In the past I've started my leg drive with my front foot, but my coach has me working on actually starting with the back foot, then the front. As soon as I launch from the blocks, I try to lock into a tight streamline to enter the water.
Here's a sequence of pictures that my coach took from a meet back in June, that's interesting for the variety of start techniques on display (I'm in lane #4 in the blue suit).
In particular, notice how the guy in lane #3 and I got off the blocks together, but his arms came apart in the water right away, creating a lot of drag. I did a pretty good job of staying in a tight streamline and managed to glide out to about a 1/2 body length lead by the last picture. (No, I didn't win the race, thanks for asking... )
107671076810769107701077110772
I try to follow the same routine every time I step up on the blocks: I set my set my forward (left) foot on the front of the block, then set my back (right) foot, with both feet about shoulder width. I'll then grab the front with my hands, again at shoulder width, with my head looking down. At "take your mark", I'll rock back a little to load or tension my arms. At the beep, my first move is to pull up with my arms. In the past I've started my leg drive with my front foot, but my coach has me working on actually starting with the back foot, then the front. As soon as I launch from the blocks, I try to lock into a tight streamline to enter the water.
Here's a sequence of pictures that my coach took from a meet back in June, that's interesting for the variety of start techniques on display (I'm in lane #4 in the blue suit).
In particular, notice how the guy in lane #3 and I got off the blocks together, but his arms came apart in the water right away, creating a lot of drag. I did a pretty good job of staying in a tight streamline and managed to glide out to about a 1/2 body length lead by the last picture. (No, I didn't win the race, thanks for asking... )
107671076810769107701077110772
