starts

We were always taught not to transfer our energy into the block itself. By grabbing onto the block your potential energy is transferred into the block itself and by putting your foot at the back of the block you are placing your body, in a sense, away from the other end of the pool. I would place a bet that a swimmer who has good reaction time will have a faster start by using the "grab start" over the track start. "Grab start" is a misnomer due to the fact that you should not actually grab the block. By lightly touching the block and leaning forward just enough to slide a sheet of paper below your heal, you can react quicker than if you grab a handful of block and lean backwards. IMO Also, if you react with a burst forward with your arms rather than backwards or up, I've been taught, you can get a jump on your competition. We used to do this drill called 'Bleacher Starts.' We would dive into a 3' deep pool from bleachers set 3' from the edge of the pool. Some could start from the 4th bleacher up and scoop well enough that you did not scrape your head or body on the bottom . If you didn't do it right... you can imagine the consequence. It did teach us to start quick and enter the water vertical and scoop to avoid going to deep.

We were always taught not to transfer our energy into the block itself. By grabbing onto the block your potential energy is transferred into the block itself and by putting your foot at the back of the block you are placing your body, in a sense, away from the other end of the pool. I would place a bet that a swimmer who has good reaction time will have a faster start by using the "grab start" over the track start. "Grab start" is a misnomer due to the fact that you should not actually grab the block. By lightly touching the block and leaning forward just enough to slide a sheet of paper below your heal, you can react quicker than if you grab a handful of block and lean backwards. IMO Also, if you react with a burst forward with your arms rather than backwards or up, I've been taught, you can get a jump on your competition. We used to do this drill called 'Bleacher Starts.' We would dive into a 3' deep pool from bleachers set 3' from the edge of the pool. Some could start from the 4th bleacher up and scoop well enough that you did not scrape your head or body on the bottom . If you didn't do it right... you can imagine the consequence. It did teach us to start quick and enter the water vertical and scoop to avoid going to deep.