I submit that swimming is one of the worst sports in terms of following fad techniques simply because someone has been successful using that technique.
I submit that talent or genetics, aerobic capacity, workout intensity as well as mental toughness play a far greater roll than mere stroke technique in the end.
Seems like the US latches on to the winner's stroke techniques all too often as the way explain success and teach kids. Front quadrant swimming like Ian Thorpe..... head down sprinting like Popoff..... these guys would be successful in their events with or without these techniques in my opinion.
Except for the latest cheating techniques...... i.e. flip turns on backstroke, underwater dolphin kick on backstroke, head under on breastroke, full body suits, and the soon to be dolphin kick on breastroke pull outs, the sport has not improved a whole lot in the last 25 years.... especially when you compare it to 25 years previous to 1980..... (1955)
Thought for the day...... :-)
John Smith
Parents
Former Member
Some of us got our feel for the water by lots of yardage as 10 or 12 year olds. For them water is a natural environment and they naturally know how to move through it. The best swimmers two generations ago were the ones that had the natural feel for the water. They got it by lots of early yardage and natural ability.
However, if the right way can be taught because now we know how to swim, it should be, rather than relying on natural ability to figure it out. That is why there is so much more depth now, because the right way to swim is taught. I am very impressed by the quality of the strokes and overall technique that I see in youth USSwimming; it is far better than it was back in the seventies, and the kids are faster.
What little stroke advice we got was often wrong. I carefully followed the advice to move my hands in an 'S' shape, while the most natural swimmers swam in a way that felt to them the best and fastest way to swim. Only now do I think that my freestyle is starting to feel like freestyle should feel.
So today we were asked to swim a 100 back in fewer than 55 strokes. I did it in 28, most everyone else struggled to make it. There is still a lot of room for improved technique, and it would be a waste to tell these swimmers that all they needed to do is to work harder.
Some of us got our feel for the water by lots of yardage as 10 or 12 year olds. For them water is a natural environment and they naturally know how to move through it. The best swimmers two generations ago were the ones that had the natural feel for the water. They got it by lots of early yardage and natural ability.
However, if the right way can be taught because now we know how to swim, it should be, rather than relying on natural ability to figure it out. That is why there is so much more depth now, because the right way to swim is taught. I am very impressed by the quality of the strokes and overall technique that I see in youth USSwimming; it is far better than it was back in the seventies, and the kids are faster.
What little stroke advice we got was often wrong. I carefully followed the advice to move my hands in an 'S' shape, while the most natural swimmers swam in a way that felt to them the best and fastest way to swim. Only now do I think that my freestyle is starting to feel like freestyle should feel.
So today we were asked to swim a 100 back in fewer than 55 strokes. I did it in 28, most everyone else struggled to make it. There is still a lot of room for improved technique, and it would be a waste to tell these swimmers that all they needed to do is to work harder.
