In Cecil Colwin's book "Breakthrough Swimming," the author writes that in freestyle the swimmer should "SEE THE HAND ENTER BEFORE TURNING THE HEAD TO BREATHE." He makes this point several times and refers to it as "a stroke fundamental."
Is there general agreement that this is correct? Should you actually be able to see your forward hand enter the water before turning (rotating) to breathe?
I understand that Coach Colwin is making a point that some swimmers have a tendancy to breathe too early in the stroke, but it seems to me that if you try see your hands as they enter and extend just under the surface, you must look upward, your head position then becomes too far forward and out out of alignment with your body.
Does anyone have any experience with this or an opinion about it?
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I have the Cecil Colwin book "Breakthrough swimming" and i have read that quote.
I feel that his views are not " up to date" on all strokes. He advocates pushing the chin forward on fly to breathe and makes no mention of the new " front end fly " technique. The chapters on Back and *** also miss a few of the newer developments.
However, his chapters on " flow control" and hand shaping are excellent.
To do as he suggests on freestyle, watching the hand enter the water, is too have a very high head position.
There has been a fascinating discussion on " rec.sport.swimming" forum ( do a google search for it ) about this. Larry Weisenthal is a strong proponent of holding the head very high, arching the back to try to hydroplane and using a ' loping ' assymetric stroke, with a fast stroke rate. He feels that the whole TI paradigm of lowering the head, being horizontal in the water and emphasising long stroke length is incorrect.
I have been heavily influenced by the core- body, Boomer, TI paradigm but I want to fully examine alternative view points.
I coached a guest swimmer last month who was up from London. He had all of the characteristics of the head high, back arch, hydroplaning, loping stroke. He was also very fast, being ranked 24th in the 50 free ( 19 yrs ) in the UK. His 100m free was 58 seconds using only 29 cycles ( 58 strokes ).
Could he be faster if he lowered his head and swum horizontally through the water or does his technique contribute to his speed?
He also has big hands and feet and great ankle flexibility which leads to a great kick.
My initial views are that if you have a very propulsive kick then the high body position can work for you. The hips naturally sink if you raise the head and upper body. However a strong kick can keep the hips up.
If you have poor ankle flexibilty and hence a weak kick ( runners and tri people ) and tried to swim this way then your hips and legs would sink in the water, creating 20 % extra drag, and you would swim more slowly than if you kept your head lower in the water.
I am still evaluating all of this and seeing what works. At the end of the day if it works for some swimmers then use it, we can't force everyone to swim the same way. The elite swimmers tend to make the breakthroughs and we play 'catch up'.
I have the Cecil Colwin book "Breakthrough swimming" and i have read that quote.
I feel that his views are not " up to date" on all strokes. He advocates pushing the chin forward on fly to breathe and makes no mention of the new " front end fly " technique. The chapters on Back and *** also miss a few of the newer developments.
However, his chapters on " flow control" and hand shaping are excellent.
To do as he suggests on freestyle, watching the hand enter the water, is too have a very high head position.
There has been a fascinating discussion on " rec.sport.swimming" forum ( do a google search for it ) about this. Larry Weisenthal is a strong proponent of holding the head very high, arching the back to try to hydroplane and using a ' loping ' assymetric stroke, with a fast stroke rate. He feels that the whole TI paradigm of lowering the head, being horizontal in the water and emphasising long stroke length is incorrect.
I have been heavily influenced by the core- body, Boomer, TI paradigm but I want to fully examine alternative view points.
I coached a guest swimmer last month who was up from London. He had all of the characteristics of the head high, back arch, hydroplaning, loping stroke. He was also very fast, being ranked 24th in the 50 free ( 19 yrs ) in the UK. His 100m free was 58 seconds using only 29 cycles ( 58 strokes ).
Could he be faster if he lowered his head and swum horizontally through the water or does his technique contribute to his speed?
He also has big hands and feet and great ankle flexibility which leads to a great kick.
My initial views are that if you have a very propulsive kick then the high body position can work for you. The hips naturally sink if you raise the head and upper body. However a strong kick can keep the hips up.
If you have poor ankle flexibilty and hence a weak kick ( runners and tri people ) and tried to swim this way then your hips and legs would sink in the water, creating 20 % extra drag, and you would swim more slowly than if you kept your head lower in the water.
I am still evaluating all of this and seeing what works. At the end of the day if it works for some swimmers then use it, we can't force everyone to swim the same way. The elite swimmers tend to make the breakthroughs and we play 'catch up'.
