Core Muscles

Certainly the more you derive your power from the center of your body, the less you will be relying on your arms and legs for strength. So rotation certainly would require solid strong psoas muscles, which would allow perhaps your legs and arms to be more relaxed and stay stronger longer. Look at a lot of the Paralympians: some with no legs, or shortened legs, or no arms, or shortened arms, yet at the Paralympics at Beijing, some very fast times. They clearly are using central trunk muscles like the psoas. Good observation! By the way, that seems to imply someone with a larger torso and shorter limbs is better physically equipped for swimming, though long legs are desirable for walking and running.

...Actually was glad to dance and forget about stupid psoas and X axis because sometimes so much self-conscious thinking got in my way. There are times to let it go and just feel the motion, I think. True with dance technique, true with swimming technique, though some on this forum may disagree. Very interesting thread... definitely an "Ah-Ha!", "light-bulb" moment! I'd been hearing about "core muscles and strength" for years before I really began to understand what it was about. As I swam and did Yoga I created mental images of building a strong core, but it wasn't until I really began to make progress in my Butterfly practice that I really got it. So my suggestion is that if you want to get a deeper understanding of how core strength influences your swimming, then take your fly practice up a notch or two (or three for four). ;) Everything I'd heard about Pilates made it sound like Yoga re-hashed, but after reading the Wikipedia page on it, it seems to be more of a fusion of Yoga, Aerobics, and Dance. While I intend to stick with Yoga (2000+ years of training, practice, and development has to trump 85 years every time), it appears that Pilates is every bit as good a cross-training supplement to swimming... along with Dance (and movement) training. (I first heard of pro football players taking ballet classes back in the mid '80's.) Before now, if I'd ever heard mention of the psoas, I just did not get the significance. And I'm fairly positive I've never heard of the "X axis" mentioned. (Which now has just hungry for more on the overall topic.) It all makes a whole lot of sense though, and it is very easy to see the connections of their importance in "controlled movement". While both concepts are very important overall, it seems to me that the psoas is most fundamentally important to the short-axis strokes, while the "x axis" concept is most fundamentally important to the long-axis strokes. In any case, having a strong "core" will definitely help hold everything together. And being able to engage kick and pull muscles that make the transition between limbs and "core" can only help with endurance and pure power. I wholeheartedly agree that at some point you just have to let it all go and simply experience the movement for what it is. This is for sure the peak meditative aspect of the whole process for me. The long sessions of training and concentration... giving way to simply letting the act flow on its own. The pinnacle of this process of course being the moments between the start and finish in a competitive event. :)

the "X" axis of movement, where right arm connects all the way down across the body to left leg, all governed by central power of psoas. Actually I might be making that part up but it seemed that all we talked about if we weren't dancing were the psoas and the X axis, and keeping those diagonals connected fingertip to toe. I think that could apply to swimming. That is very interesting, because sometimes when I have a dropped hand, I feel as if it was pulled down by the opposite leg. Could it be actually pulled by a muscle or ligament between the hand and the opposite leg? :confused:

My psoas get enough of a workout everyday in mostly everything I do so I dont have to work them specifically and have them enhance my existing love handles.:2cents:

That is very interesting, because sometimes when I have a dropped hand, I feel as if it was pulled down by the opposite leg. Could it be actually pulled by a muscle or ligament between the hand and the opposite leg? :confused: That is how you balance in dance positions, thinking of your right hand/arm connecting all the way to your left foot. I believe we are set up to walk oppositionally (arms swing in opposition to legs, right arm forward with left leg).* *Unless you are like me, which means that when you are nervous you start to walk like Frankenstein, stiff in the shoulders and lurching right side (arm and leg) forward, then left, cetera. Wonder if I do this when swimming. Don't like to think about it.