In the overgrown jungle known as "the Fastest Age", this idea came up:
Originally posted by gull80
I thought that anchoring was more a figure of speech, although I did read in TI that your arms/shoulders are much less important than your core muscles (which I still find hard to believe).
I brought up the baseball pitcher analogy that is popular. Craig mentioned he knew of that example, but the pitcher gets to push off the ground. I gave a counter example of throwing in water polo (in an all-deep pool ;) ). At that point, we both got sucked back into... ah... another discussion.
I wanted to start this thread, to see if it would yield any interesting insights. I was talking to a Masters swimmer who went to a training camp at the Olympic Training Center, and she mentioned that the main emphasis was to engage the core muscles during your swim.
I'm certain that I am not using ideal power transfer. I hope that I am not misrepresenting Craig, in saying he is not sure about how this is done.
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For me, using my core muscles really depends on the event. In distance events I don't use my legs much. Thus I let them drag much more than I would on a 50 fr. In the 50 I'm using my legs a lot, which also means I'm keeping them higher in the water. So that means I'm using my hips and abs to help stay high in the water. Same goes with my upper body for distance(lower in the water = using less abs/legs to stay high).
But for all of the strokes I'd say I'm using my core muscles much more. Maybe not as much in back stroke, but definately in *** & fly (should be obvious for those 2).
For me, using my core muscles really depends on the event. In distance events I don't use my legs much. Thus I let them drag much more than I would on a 50 fr. In the 50 I'm using my legs a lot, which also means I'm keeping them higher in the water. So that means I'm using my hips and abs to help stay high in the water. Same goes with my upper body for distance(lower in the water = using less abs/legs to stay high).
But for all of the strokes I'd say I'm using my core muscles much more. Maybe not as much in back stroke, but definately in *** & fly (should be obvious for those 2).
