I am trying to improve my freestyle. I have been working on balance,timing,counting strokes.
When watching videos of world classs swimmers, I noticed that on swimmers like Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, that their arm in the water is fully extended(straight) and angled below the corresponding shoulder. It looks as though the arm that is about to catch the water is angled to where it points towards where the pool wall and pool bottom meet. Not pointed directly down but not pointed directly straight out from the shoulder to the wall.
It seems like most of the best freestylers have their extended arms pointed below their bottom shoulder at an angle before the pull. This also appears to only happen once they have finished the rotation to that side.
Has anyone else noticed this or am I way off?
Thanks,
David
Parents
Former Member
I am trying to improve my freestyle. I have been working on balance,timing,counting strokes....
This is the 1st thread I can recall where someone specifically emphasized the idea of better swimming (or athleticism in general) by learning to activate the muscles you need while deactivating the ones you don’t need at the time. If you want some specialized training on this concept I strongly recommend an earnest study of Yoga.
The 1st thing I look at in any swimmer is how relaxed their recovery is. I find this to be a tell-all sign, especially in front crawl. Tension between the upper and lower body is a big factor too, but harder to see (yet easy to feel if you pay attention).
This link leads to a page that includes an incredibly detailed analysis of Ian thorp’s free technique.
www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../200007-01st_art.asp
This nugget is what really gets my attention:
"The fact that Thorpe takes five-tenths of a second to accomplish this movement in a 1.5-second total stroke cycle demonstrates the importance of this positioning movement to the stroke."
A recent thread here included a link to this site where I found the following article. It advocates slowing down to get faster/better, which is pretty much the core of my swimming philosophy.
www.svl.ch/svl_swim_like_a_fish.html
HTH
Have Fun!
I am trying to improve my freestyle. I have been working on balance,timing,counting strokes....
This is the 1st thread I can recall where someone specifically emphasized the idea of better swimming (or athleticism in general) by learning to activate the muscles you need while deactivating the ones you don’t need at the time. If you want some specialized training on this concept I strongly recommend an earnest study of Yoga.
The 1st thing I look at in any swimmer is how relaxed their recovery is. I find this to be a tell-all sign, especially in front crawl. Tension between the upper and lower body is a big factor too, but harder to see (yet easy to feel if you pay attention).
This link leads to a page that includes an incredibly detailed analysis of Ian thorp’s free technique.
www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/.../200007-01st_art.asp
This nugget is what really gets my attention:
"The fact that Thorpe takes five-tenths of a second to accomplish this movement in a 1.5-second total stroke cycle demonstrates the importance of this positioning movement to the stroke."
A recent thread here included a link to this site where I found the following article. It advocates slowing down to get faster/better, which is pretty much the core of my swimming philosophy.
www.svl.ch/svl_swim_like_a_fish.html
HTH
Have Fun!
