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?
Finally! Finally got to watch two races.
One, the 50 free with Salim Iles. I didn't know he had a two-beat kick. I watched his swimming in Athens, and his kick didn't seem out of the ordinary. Maybe he changed it to give his upper body more energy to use.
Two, the 100 *** final. I've given myself a couple of minutes to calm down so I can type this without being too upset. Kitajima used the dolphin kick again. Twice. It's not footfall, as you might think. They give us underwater footage of the start live, then replay the 50 turn. It's obvious. as comparison, look at Hansen's feet at the start and you'll get a better idea of what could be judged as footfall.
I'm upset, but not so much because Hansen still beat him. The next time they meet, the kick will be legal. I bet Brendan's practicing it now.
I will, however, say that I have been working on the dolphin kick on the pullout and notice that it's advantage is in your first stroke. The dolphin kicks helps maintain your speed a little bit longer on the pullout, and if you don't make your glide longer, you can use that speed into your first stroke, which will be more powerful and can translate to less translation frompullout to swimming.
Also, I noticed that Hansen and Kitajima's hand recovery on their pullouts are not what I would consider to be good. They create so much drag by recovering outside of their midline that I can't believe they're so fast. Also, Brendan takes his head out of the neutral position on his pullouts, which is more drag.
Small things that, if fixed, I'm sure could get Brendan down to 58.9.
Sorry to get this thread off-topic. I'll go now.
Finally! Finally got to watch two races.
One, the 50 free with Salim Iles. I didn't know he had a two-beat kick. I watched his swimming in Athens, and his kick didn't seem out of the ordinary. Maybe he changed it to give his upper body more energy to use.
Two, the 100 *** final. I've given myself a couple of minutes to calm down so I can type this without being too upset. Kitajima used the dolphin kick again. Twice. It's not footfall, as you might think. They give us underwater footage of the start live, then replay the 50 turn. It's obvious. as comparison, look at Hansen's feet at the start and you'll get a better idea of what could be judged as footfall.
I'm upset, but not so much because Hansen still beat him. The next time they meet, the kick will be legal. I bet Brendan's practicing it now.
I will, however, say that I have been working on the dolphin kick on the pullout and notice that it's advantage is in your first stroke. The dolphin kicks helps maintain your speed a little bit longer on the pullout, and if you don't make your glide longer, you can use that speed into your first stroke, which will be more powerful and can translate to less translation frompullout to swimming.
Also, I noticed that Hansen and Kitajima's hand recovery on their pullouts are not what I would consider to be good. They create so much drag by recovering outside of their midline that I can't believe they're so fast. Also, Brendan takes his head out of the neutral position on his pullouts, which is more drag.
Small things that, if fixed, I'm sure could get Brendan down to 58.9.
Sorry to get this thread off-topic. I'll go now.
