Does being tall give you an advantage?

C'mon, Frodo, where's the normally fun filled witty person we know and love? Who says I'm not laughing? Besides Dumb-ledore, I already admitted to being a power dwarf, which means you should have used Gimli. Edited for clarity.

Darn, Geek beat me to the post. He must be taller than you...

I'm not that big of a geek, no idea what you are talking about. Go back to your afternoon session of Dungeons and Dragons. Your Momma wears combat boots...I mean if we're going playground... LOL

Gentlemen. Really. Haven't you all learned yet that size only matters to those who don't have it? Just go behind the school with a ruler, measure and be done with it.

:D (Horrors I used a z where a s should be) How did you pronounce "z"? :wave:

How did you pronounce "z"? :wave: The way it's meant to be pronounced.

Being taller gives you an advantage in the long axis strokes because longer ships are faster(hull speed.) It is not as big a factor in short axis strokes as the undulation can disturb the bow wave.Judging by who I can beat LCM but not(yet) SCY being tall is an advantage on the turns(although SDK mitigates against the height advantage in BK and Fly.) The height advantage can be overcome of course by training,technique and power.(Once you go faster than hull speed,wave drag goes up as the cube of speed,but it goes up as the square of speed for form drag so if you are stronger and more streamlined you can be short and faster.)

I wish I could find it again but an old article about cycling said the cyclists with the very highest VO2 capability were smaller than average. I suppose a physiological reason - such as the heart doesn't have to pump blood as far - exists to explain this. Gymnasts in general are small because it is easier to make a smaller, lighter, body spin and tumble. Race car drivers are not huge because that extra weight and height is a disadvantage for power to weight ratio and to fit in some very small cockpits. Etc.... There will always be exceptions to these kinds of things - but I think it is clear height is an advantage for swimmers if not a sure-fire predictor of performance. I'm 5'8 and I know I've beaten a fair number of people taller than me. I've also been beaten by many older and fatter than me. Damn.....

size matters most world class 100 freestylers are 6'3" or taller shape matters technique matters conditioning matters strength matters flexibility matters I was wondering if being tall gives you an advantage in swimming because alot of the olympic male swimmers today are over 6 feet. What do you guys think? :D

size matters most world class 100 freestylers are 6'3" or taller shape matters technique matters conditioning matters strength matters flexibility matters So for non-elite masters swimmers, it's a total crapshoot. I'm sticking by what Allen Stark just said, hard though the science was to decipher, and my SDKs. Just so I beat Team Flaky Fish.