After the I.M. thread and watching my daughter at her meet I got to wondering if being good at certain strokes has anything to do with heredity. If you read the I.M. thread you know that I am terrible at the breaststroke. Today my daughter had to do the 100 I.M. She was second after the fly and doing the backstroke. She had at least a 1/4 of a pool length on the two swimmers behind her. All the parents around me were commenting on how good she looked. I told them to wait and see what happens on the breaststroke. What do you know the two swimmers behind her caught her and past her on the breaststroke. She dropped down to fourth place. Is she destined to be a terrible breaststroker like me? Keep in mind that she has always done lessons at the Y and not with me.
Parents
Former Member
I remember reading an article in a swimming journal years ago that looked at that question. It actually looked at the body type of swimmers and what strokes they were proficient at.
Now don't necessarily quote me on this, but here it goes...
Flyers have broad/square shoulders
Backstrokers have sloping shoulders and are bow legged
Breaststrokers have "duck feet" I suppose that they walk around with feet pointing outward a bit...
Cant really remember about freestylers --I think they were very lean and tall...
The line that stuck in my head was something to the effect of.. If there was a broad-sloping-shoulder-bow-legged-duck-footed-tall-lean-swimmer, they probably swim the IM! :p
P.S. (Personal Story) I am a very good flyer, Rock and Roll as a backstroker --come to a dead stop on the ***, float to the top D.O.A. on the free! It has nothing to do with practice --at least for me, I swam so much free as a youth, I just didn't go anywhere with it. The team laughed at me with the *** stroke too. However, as "nonproductive" as I was --technically proficient ~personally slow, my fly and back were ranked pretty high on the state and regional levels. We all have our talents, I think there is a bigger genetic piece for stroke performance that we know...
I remember reading an article in a swimming journal years ago that looked at that question. It actually looked at the body type of swimmers and what strokes they were proficient at.
Now don't necessarily quote me on this, but here it goes...
Flyers have broad/square shoulders
Backstrokers have sloping shoulders and are bow legged
Breaststrokers have "duck feet" I suppose that they walk around with feet pointing outward a bit...
Cant really remember about freestylers --I think they were very lean and tall...
The line that stuck in my head was something to the effect of.. If there was a broad-sloping-shoulder-bow-legged-duck-footed-tall-lean-swimmer, they probably swim the IM! :p
P.S. (Personal Story) I am a very good flyer, Rock and Roll as a backstroker --come to a dead stop on the ***, float to the top D.O.A. on the free! It has nothing to do with practice --at least for me, I swam so much free as a youth, I just didn't go anywhere with it. The team laughed at me with the *** stroke too. However, as "nonproductive" as I was --technically proficient ~personally slow, my fly and back were ranked pretty high on the state and regional levels. We all have our talents, I think there is a bigger genetic piece for stroke performance that we know...
