front quadrant swimming

I think lots of people returing to the pool hear that phrase. It's a quote from the book Gold in the Water, thanks to other board users who suggested it. Here are two paragraphs of a triathlon coach's notes from an ASCA (American Swim Coaches Association) conference. You can find all of his notes here (www.byrn.org/swimconf.htm) Elements of Modern Freestyle Any deviations from these points tend to be either poor technique or a compensating movement for some other error (specifically when legs move out of alignment). # Horizontal body with no vertical shoulder movement on entry. # Immediate catch with vertical alignment of hand, wrist and forearm -- minimal downward pressure post-entry and rapid transition of horizontal pull. # Head down at all times (look down or to the side when breathing) # Hips and shoulders rotate together and to same degree. # Legs within body shadow # Kick rotates with hips # Upper arm aligned with shoulders for pull and recovery (tough for swimmers that have inflexible shoulders) # Streamlined feet Forbes' video was excellent. It covered 100 years of swimming and showed that there was very little technical progress until the last 20 years. He had some great comments as well. My two favorites were: "Think of how fast they could have gone if they knew how to swim" -- speaking about Olympic Champions in the early 1900s. "Pretty good technique, I wonder why he wasn't faster" -- speaking about Mark Spitz! Stroking Action Forbes emphasized that the catch should be straight back and that there is no s-shaped movement. This came through loud and clear watching his video of the elites. Enter, snap catch, crank back, repeat with perfect body position. Forbes also emphasized that the muscles involved in the swimming stroke, "take years of judicious practice" to reach their potential. No doubt this is due to the fact that an efficient swimming stroke is not something that comes naturally to humans. Also an excellent case for correcting our technique ASAP.

I think lots of people returing to the pool hear that phrase. It's a quote from the book Gold in the Water, thanks to other board users who suggested it. Here are two paragraphs of a triathlon coach's notes from an ASCA (American Swim Coaches Association) conference. You can find all of his notes here (www.byrn.org/swimconf.htm) Elements of Modern Freestyle Any deviations from these points tend to be either poor technique or a compensating movement for some other error (specifically when legs move out of alignment). # Horizontal body with no vertical shoulder movement on entry. # Immediate catch with vertical alignment of hand, wrist and forearm -- minimal downward pressure post-entry and rapid transition of horizontal pull. # Head down at all times (look down or to the side when breathing) # Hips and shoulders rotate together and to same degree. # Legs within body shadow # Kick rotates with hips # Upper arm aligned with shoulders for pull and recovery (tough for swimmers that have inflexible shoulders) # Streamlined feet Forbes' video was excellent. It covered 100 years of swimming and showed that there was very little technical progress until the last 20 years. He had some great comments as well. My two favorites were: "Think of how fast they could have gone if they knew how to swim" -- speaking about Olympic Champions in the early 1900s. "Pretty good technique, I wonder why he wasn't faster" -- speaking about Mark Spitz! Stroking Action Forbes emphasized that the catch should be straight back and that there is no s-shaped movement. This came through loud and clear watching his video of the elites. Enter, snap catch, crank back, repeat with perfect body position. Forbes also emphasized that the muscles involved in the swimming stroke, "take years of judicious practice" to reach their potential. No doubt this is due to the fact that an efficient swimming stroke is not something that comes naturally to humans. Also an excellent case for correcting our technique ASAP.