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
1. The muscles in our arms and shoulders are relatively small. It makes sense to me that their best use is to hold the limb in position, rather than accelerate that limb against resistance.
2. If you can effectively anchor -- i.e. make your hand "stand still" rather than move back -- you have a "lever" of sorts to provide traction while you use some other means (than pushing water back) to move forward.
3. Weight shifts are the most powerful form of athletic movement and are present in every sports movement from throwing or hitting anything to roller blading or x-c skiing to running, even high-jumping using the Fosbury Flop.
4. We have the potential to use them in swimming, side-to-side weight shifts in free and back, front-to-back weight shifts in fly and ***.
This is one of your concepts which I have to question. "Weight shifts" occur in other sports because we are on solid ground, not in a liquid medium. I do not believe the same principles apply to swimming. Again, Silvia referred to shoulder adduction--active movement of the humerus toward the midline--not "anchoring" the arm in the water. I think the emphasis on "weight shifts" is misleading and erroneous.
On the other hand, physics was never my best subject.
1. The muscles in our arms and shoulders are relatively small. It makes sense to me that their best use is to hold the limb in position, rather than accelerate that limb against resistance.
2. If you can effectively anchor -- i.e. make your hand "stand still" rather than move back -- you have a "lever" of sorts to provide traction while you use some other means (than pushing water back) to move forward.
3. Weight shifts are the most powerful form of athletic movement and are present in every sports movement from throwing or hitting anything to roller blading or x-c skiing to running, even high-jumping using the Fosbury Flop.
4. We have the potential to use them in swimming, side-to-side weight shifts in free and back, front-to-back weight shifts in fly and ***.
This is one of your concepts which I have to question. "Weight shifts" occur in other sports because we are on solid ground, not in a liquid medium. I do not believe the same principles apply to swimming. Again, Silvia referred to shoulder adduction--active movement of the humerus toward the midline--not "anchoring" the arm in the water. I think the emphasis on "weight shifts" is misleading and erroneous.
On the other hand, physics was never my best subject.
