Hey everybody!! Just a few questions about your elbows!
1. During the freestyle recovery, how high do you need to have your elbows? some say 90 degrees to your shoulder at the height...but watching the Olympics and the SCM World Championships...It looked like they had their elbows a lot lower.
2. During the underwater pull on backstroke, do you bend your elbows or not? I dont' because sometimes it hurts the inside of my elbows and I feel like I get a better pull going straight back.
3. During the butterfly recovery, do you bend your elbows or not? I've seen people with little to none and people who almost drag their fingertips.
Thanx to everyone for all your help!!
~Kyra
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Former Member
IMHO I think that a high elbow recovery in freestyle is optimal....The reason why is because this seems to be the most relaxing recovery possible (i.e. it is the most energy efficient)....The forearm can be almost completely limp during this kind of recovery....If you have a lower elbow recovery, I believe it creates more tension to both the forearm and shoulders? (but I'm not an expert).
As far as butterfly goes.....I think that you should recover with very little bend in your elbows at all.....Think of your arms as two oars pulling a row boat.....You want to barely clear the water with them on each recovery....once again, it's all about energy conservation. It also helps to time your kick so that you are getting the maximum propulsion from your kick as your recovering your arms, ....Try and keep your head as low as possible and let your hips drive the front of your body "slightly" downward as your arms recover....Proper timing is crucial with butterfly! When taking breaths, take them quickly ...(and once again don't lift your head very high when your breathing). I believe that proper stroke mechanics is the real key to swimming butterfly (perhaps more so than any other stroke b/c poor mechanics can tire you out faster in butterfly than any other stroke IMHO).
I don't know as much about backstroke b/c I am predominantly a butterflier (The 200 butterfly was my best event many many moons ago). I do like the I.M. events though, and so I do swim some backstroke as a result, ....My belief is that you must bend your elbows during the "pull" part of the backstroke, and the last part of the pull is a kind of snap of the elbow (like a tricept curl).
I hope that helps....I have really enjoyed reading your posts here!....Congrats on getting such good "distance per stroke" out of your freestyle ...After I read your post about that I counted my strokes per length today during warm up and I was also getting around 12 strokes per length....(when I was pulling with hand paddles I was getting more like 10 or 11 strokes per length b/c I really exaggerate the long pulls when I'm wearing hand paddles).
Keep up the good work Seagurl!
newmastersswimmer
IMHO I think that a high elbow recovery in freestyle is optimal....The reason why is because this seems to be the most relaxing recovery possible (i.e. it is the most energy efficient)....The forearm can be almost completely limp during this kind of recovery....If you have a lower elbow recovery, I believe it creates more tension to both the forearm and shoulders? (but I'm not an expert).
As far as butterfly goes.....I think that you should recover with very little bend in your elbows at all.....Think of your arms as two oars pulling a row boat.....You want to barely clear the water with them on each recovery....once again, it's all about energy conservation. It also helps to time your kick so that you are getting the maximum propulsion from your kick as your recovering your arms, ....Try and keep your head as low as possible and let your hips drive the front of your body "slightly" downward as your arms recover....Proper timing is crucial with butterfly! When taking breaths, take them quickly ...(and once again don't lift your head very high when your breathing). I believe that proper stroke mechanics is the real key to swimming butterfly (perhaps more so than any other stroke b/c poor mechanics can tire you out faster in butterfly than any other stroke IMHO).
I don't know as much about backstroke b/c I am predominantly a butterflier (The 200 butterfly was my best event many many moons ago). I do like the I.M. events though, and so I do swim some backstroke as a result, ....My belief is that you must bend your elbows during the "pull" part of the backstroke, and the last part of the pull is a kind of snap of the elbow (like a tricept curl).
I hope that helps....I have really enjoyed reading your posts here!....Congrats on getting such good "distance per stroke" out of your freestyle ...After I read your post about that I counted my strokes per length today during warm up and I was also getting around 12 strokes per length....(when I was pulling with hand paddles I was getting more like 10 or 11 strokes per length b/c I really exaggerate the long pulls when I'm wearing hand paddles).
Keep up the good work Seagurl!
newmastersswimmer
