Since getting back into masters swimming after a long (12 year) hiatus I've been playing around with the track start which came into vogue after my first "retirement". I'm still torn between the two and have been trying to find what fits me best.
The last month or so I've had a chance to watch ASU, UA, Auburn and UNLV swim meets and what's interesting is that I only saw one or two swimmers using a traditonal "grab" start. I know a few of these coaches and they all said the same thing, it's hands down the fastest start of the two.
Recently a new group has introduced a program caller "PowerStarts" (www.quickgetaway.com) which advocates the complete opposite philosophy. By the way, I'm NOT endorsing this TI type program but do find it interesting!!!
I've had a chance to discuss some of this with Wayne and have basically come to the conclusion that a traditonal grab (power start style) start still works best for my body type (and lack of fast twitch ability!). I do however need to commit the workout time to run a series of 15 M sprints and see what really works.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
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Former Member
Interesting thread. We have recently had access to the OMEGA FIN (OSB12) blocks, while hosting some Olympic squad swimmers, so have had a few weeks to compare the 2.
I have always been a grab starter. We were taught grab starts as a kid, and despite trying the track start when I returned to swimming as a master, timed 15M swims confirmed grab start was much quicker for me.
A number of competing swimmers did some tests using both traditional grab start, track start and track start with fin. The test was consistent over 15M and the results were quite surprising. Even for a dinosaur grab starter like me, the track start with fin was consistently quicker, Across all swimmers we reckoned 0.3-0.4 secs per 15M. Quite a margin. The only issue I had was getting the entry right - the depth seemed inconsistent compared with a grab start, but that could just be my inexperience in that type of start.
Interesting thread. We have recently had access to the OMEGA FIN (OSB12) blocks, while hosting some Olympic squad swimmers, so have had a few weeks to compare the 2.
I have always been a grab starter. We were taught grab starts as a kid, and despite trying the track start when I returned to swimming as a master, timed 15M swims confirmed grab start was much quicker for me.
A number of competing swimmers did some tests using both traditional grab start, track start and track start with fin. The test was consistent over 15M and the results were quite surprising. Even for a dinosaur grab starter like me, the track start with fin was consistently quicker, Across all swimmers we reckoned 0.3-0.4 secs per 15M. Quite a margin. The only issue I had was getting the entry right - the depth seemed inconsistent compared with a grab start, but that could just be my inexperience in that type of start.
