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?
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Originally posted by craiglll@yahoo.com
Jazz Hands, is it part of the World 2005 videos or in another section. I've watched most of the freestyle videos inthe regular part.
Also, Twisting my upper torso and keeping my hips flat is very un-TI. Most TI swimming would tar & feather me. I just know that when I was first really coached, the coach always said to think of catapolting(sp) your body over your hands. That can only be done if you have a big shoulder twist. Oddly, when he was a younger man he won the Big 10 pole vaulting.
The video is in the World 2005 section.
I think the twisting motion lines up fairly well with TI's main principles. Terry Laughlin wants his students to learn the feeling of anchoring their hands in the water. In my experience, this feeling is stronger with the winding-up arch motion. Without a strong pivoting motion, it feels like my arms are slipping. And hip rotation still occurs. The faster the race, the less the hips rotate. I presume that's because a higher stroking/twisting force limits hip rotation.
Originally posted by craiglll@yahoo.com
Jazz Hands, is it part of the World 2005 videos or in another section. I've watched most of the freestyle videos inthe regular part.
Also, Twisting my upper torso and keeping my hips flat is very un-TI. Most TI swimming would tar & feather me. I just know that when I was first really coached, the coach always said to think of catapolting(sp) your body over your hands. That can only be done if you have a big shoulder twist. Oddly, when he was a younger man he won the Big 10 pole vaulting.
The video is in the World 2005 section.
I think the twisting motion lines up fairly well with TI's main principles. Terry Laughlin wants his students to learn the feeling of anchoring their hands in the water. In my experience, this feeling is stronger with the winding-up arch motion. Without a strong pivoting motion, it feels like my arms are slipping. And hip rotation still occurs. The faster the race, the less the hips rotate. I presume that's because a higher stroking/twisting force limits hip rotation.
