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?
Parents
Former Member
Matt,
All of my instincts lead me to feel that the horizontally balanced, symmetrical stroke is the best way to go. Even "Magaschilo" in "Swimming Fastest" seems to have come round to this view. I have trouble believing that you can hydroplane at speeds of less than 2 metres per second !
However, there are a lot of people who swim very fast with the other style, and coaches who believe in it. I will be studying the swimmers at the UK Nationals this month to see which styles the swimmers are using.
I guess i just want to fully understand all viewpoints, so that I can do a better job of coaching.
With the "elite" swimmers, some elements of their stroke may work for them because of greater than average flexibility, or for bio-mechanical reasons. Not all that they do should be emulated by the less blessed.
For instance, I don't think I will be coaching a straight arm recovery to my swimmers.
I do feel that swimmers with poor "plantar flexion" and hence a weak kick should keep "catch-up" to a minimum and use a higher stroke rate than others, which does seem to be an area that Ti does not emphasise.
That may be for the reason that one of the areas Ti is focused on is lengthening the stroke and the swimmers that they usually teach really need this advice. Perhaps telling them to raise their stroke rate would confuse them or they might not be ready for that advice.
I am, finally, going on my first TI clinic next month, so I will find out first hand where they are at !
Matt,
All of my instincts lead me to feel that the horizontally balanced, symmetrical stroke is the best way to go. Even "Magaschilo" in "Swimming Fastest" seems to have come round to this view. I have trouble believing that you can hydroplane at speeds of less than 2 metres per second !
However, there are a lot of people who swim very fast with the other style, and coaches who believe in it. I will be studying the swimmers at the UK Nationals this month to see which styles the swimmers are using.
I guess i just want to fully understand all viewpoints, so that I can do a better job of coaching.
With the "elite" swimmers, some elements of their stroke may work for them because of greater than average flexibility, or for bio-mechanical reasons. Not all that they do should be emulated by the less blessed.
For instance, I don't think I will be coaching a straight arm recovery to my swimmers.
I do feel that swimmers with poor "plantar flexion" and hence a weak kick should keep "catch-up" to a minimum and use a higher stroke rate than others, which does seem to be an area that Ti does not emphasise.
That may be for the reason that one of the areas Ti is focused on is lengthening the stroke and the swimmers that they usually teach really need this advice. Perhaps telling them to raise their stroke rate would confuse them or they might not be ready for that advice.
I am, finally, going on my first TI clinic next month, so I will find out first hand where they are at !
