Ernest Maglischo, arguably swimming science's brightest mind, was a huge proponent of the Bernouli principle, sculling, the hand as foil, etc. In his newly released revision of his classis Swimming Fast (which begat Swimming Faster), a book that weighs approximately 5 lbs and is called Swimming Fastest,
Maglischo repudiates his own former view, now claiming that the stroke is like an oar going through the water--no sculling benefits to propulsion. He is incredibly thorough in his argument, citing all kinds of tests involving casts of human hands in various aquatic test chambers, etc. Frankly, the stuff is so complicated I don't have the time (and probably not the intellect) to understand it. But I just wanted to recommend this book to any physicists out there--plus add the fact that sculling may just end up being one of swimming's myths.
Ernest Maglischo, arguably swimming science's brightest mind, was a huge proponent of the Bernouli principle, sculling, the hand as foil, etc. In his newly released revision of his classis Swimming Fast (which begat Swimming Faster), a book that weighs approximately 5 lbs and is called Swimming Fastest,
Maglischo repudiates his own former view, now claiming that the stroke is like an oar going through the water--no sculling benefits to propulsion. He is incredibly thorough in his argument, citing all kinds of tests involving casts of human hands in various aquatic test chambers, etc. Frankly, the stuff is so complicated I don't have the time (and probably not the intellect) to understand it. But I just wanted to recommend this book to any physicists out there--plus add the fact that sculling may just end up being one of swimming's myths.
