Long-time lurker, first-time poster. I've been watching the videos of the Montreal World Championships from swim.ee, a great web site. At the start of the second semi-final of the men's 50 freestyle, I saw something quite shocking. In the first underwater shot, right after the dive, Salim Iles is very clearly doing a two-beat crossover kick. It's an eye-catching technique at sprint speed, because he appears to be "squirming" through the water. Look at it yourself. Slow motion will help you see it better. Also watch the segment at 1:16 in, where Iles is in the background, still on the shoulder of Roland Schoeman, still using a classic non-overt kicking style. His time for the race was 22.14, a personal best.
What do we make of this? Could Iles go faster with a six-beat kick? Should we slower swimmers, especially those with inflexible ankles and/or small feet, consider this style of sprinting?
Sweden's Anders Holmertz always swam his 100 and 200 frees with a two-beat kick. But I think he was mostly a 200-400 guy.
It's amazing that he got away with a two-beat kick in the 50. But it works for him. It's not to say that it would work for everyone ... like breathing every stroke in butterfly.
And yes, the download is slow. I could swim to Montreal in the time it's taking to play.
Sweden's Anders Holmertz always swam his 100 and 200 frees with a two-beat kick. But I think he was mostly a 200-400 guy.
It's amazing that he got away with a two-beat kick in the 50. But it works for him. It's not to say that it would work for everyone ... like breathing every stroke in butterfly.
And yes, the download is slow. I could swim to Montreal in the time it's taking to play.
