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
Perhaps we're discussing different things. Terry has used the analogy of a baseball pitcher, a skater, a golfer, etc. I do not believe this analogy holds water (pun intended). Look, why do the astronauts train under water? Because the physics is different. I don't particularly like the baseball pitcher analogy neither. On that angle, I concur with Maglischo's latest statement on this topic (found in the 3rd edition of his book).
Feet and even hips are so far from the real anchor points in freestyle (namely hands).
Really, I like to use a much simpler analogy to qualify weight shift in swimming freestyle. That of starting a relunctant gazoline fueled "lawn mower". The body twist we typically use to add more power to our motion would equate to the upward body motion while swimming free style.
And for the downward body motion, given that I synchronize it with the downsweep occuring while catching, I would compare it to the action of wedging a waterpolo ball (or a water polo opponent ;) )
Perhaps we're discussing different things. Terry has used the analogy of a baseball pitcher, a skater, a golfer, etc. I do not believe this analogy holds water (pun intended). Look, why do the astronauts train under water? Because the physics is different. I don't particularly like the baseball pitcher analogy neither. On that angle, I concur with Maglischo's latest statement on this topic (found in the 3rd edition of his book).
Feet and even hips are so far from the real anchor points in freestyle (namely hands).
Really, I like to use a much simpler analogy to qualify weight shift in swimming freestyle. That of starting a relunctant gazoline fueled "lawn mower". The body twist we typically use to add more power to our motion would equate to the upward body motion while swimming free style.
And for the downward body motion, given that I synchronize it with the downsweep occuring while catching, I would compare it to the action of wedging a waterpolo ball (or a water polo opponent ;) )
