Does being tall give you an advantage?

In freestyle, I seem to recall seeing that physics limits the maximum speed that a person can achieve "on top" of the water and excluding dive/turn effects, to be about 1 body length per second. At higher speeds than this, one has to overcome the bow wave, which comes at a enormous energy cost. Therefore, all other things being equal, a taller person does have an advantage, at least as far as potential top end is concerned. - LBJ (5'11", distance free type)

Has anyone ever heard of a 7 foot swimmer at the elite level. The ex-basketball player Kiki Vanderway was once an age group swimmer and held 11-12 year olds backstroke records before he switch from swimming to basketball And he is 6'10. Maybe, height at a certain level you lose your flexabilty and some motor skills for effective swimming.

Well, it depends upon your swimming generation. In my day back in the 1970's there were no 6'0" women. Shirley Babashoff was a little over 5'10". Her height was not the only advantage to why she was the best US swimmer of the 1970's. She workout harder than most swimmers in practice. Now in the previous generation Debbie Meyer was the Janet Evans of the day. She was at the most 5'6" and won the 200 and 400 and 800 meter freestyles in the 1968 olympics. John Naber came along and male swimmers started being 6'5" and above. And as for childhood swimming, the better swimmers like Shane Gould and Laurie Val when they were younger still dominate against people that didn't make nationals or the olympics. In my age group, I sure that the three top breaststrokers that have most of the records swam in nationals during the early and mid 1970's. And in women I would say its 55 and over genration would be included as well, many of the top 55 to 59 swimmers swam as kids or started master swimming at young ages. Yet, there are some of us who don't make the top ten and swam as kids. Also, the Netherlands that produced Inky and Hoogie also has one of the highest average heights. Males at 5'11" and females at 5"6" and half.

What do you need to be a top competitive masters swimmer? The following: 1) A good swimming background as a youth. I know I sound like Ion, but he is correct - how many top ten swimmers in the younger age groups (less than 60 yrs if male, 50 if female) did not swim as youths? 2) Lots of Quality yardage. Lots of yards, and good yards, with a good coach (which may be the swimmer.) 3) Some combination of physical characteristics that put the swimmer outside of average. These can include height, strength, flexibility, big arteries, big feet, strong heart, ability to remove lactic acid, . . . 4) Graceful aging. In the older age groups this may mean just making it. But it also means avoiding serious accidents and diseases, including lifestyle diseases. The best swimmers need all four, so of course the top swimmers are typically taller and stronger. I am taller than the average american male, but my wife's first comment when she saw me next to Tall Paul and Bill Specht in a 100 fly heat was that "You didn't look like you belonged." (I didn't win, either.) I think this list is necessary and sufficient. I do not know what people mean by 'heart' (metaphorical) or 'moral', these do not win races. It's easy to give it all in a race and still lose, and easy for the loser to be morally superior or more deserving ethically than the winner, or for the loser to work harder in workouts. I know it is PC to say that anyone can do it if they work at it, but it is not true.

And don't forget body fat percentage, how many hours of sleep they had, what did they eat the night before, how long were they awake before the meet started, are you in a bad mood because your sports team lost, good mood because a teammate just had a great swim, etc. (Just wanted to point out that there are a lot of variables that can affect your swim.)

Hey, some of you statistical guys and gals out there here is a study for you. At the next Master's National have everyone complete a survey with questions such as height, weight, current age, years swimming masters, age at which began swimming masters, years swimming age group, age at which began swimming age group, event(s) times(s), etc. Then throw it all into a regression equation and see what falls out. Humm, you could even get more wild and crazy, with VO2 max, circumfrence of arms, legs, chest, etc. Lainey

Had to laugh at your description of the little Hercules. I swim with a fellow who is a foot taller then me and I am nipping at his heels. Now he is 51 and I am 42, so neither of us are young pups. Yes he gets me at the turns because of height, but I play your game of good streamline and actully catch him before I break the surface because his streamline is not as good. Alas, he then buts his long stroke into play and I then have to catch him at the next turn as well. I am getting closer, instead of lapping me on the 400 IM, he only beat me by 5 seconds, and on the 500 free the differential is only 15 seconds instead of minutes like it used to be. Yep, I am the pup yapping at his heels!

didn't think about the mood issue... oh and don't forget shaved/unshaved, length of taper, average yardage during taper, average yardage during regular season practices, type of suit worn during event, practice with fins? type of fins, degree of flexibility of various joints, etc. Now as motivation to complete this '20 page questionaire' and to submit to all the measurements necessary, there should be a big, hyped social, free to those swimmers who turn in a questionaire at the door. There should also be a drawing from the questionaires for a terrific door prize. Lainey

Instead of a regression equation, it sounds as though a Pearson Correlation Coefficient test would be better. Even more interesting might be to feed the information into a neural network and then perturb each of the input variables by several percent and see which one(s) give the largest percentage output change. Sorry - my math/comp sci geekiness is showing... -LBJ

But, don't you think that it is more likely to be a combination of variables that best predicts speed... simple correlations wouldn't tell you that. :confused: