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
On the issue of power from hip rotation, it is interesting to consider butterfly True that.
Butterfly is also much more energy consumming, hence the limited distances that people are typically able to swim. Breaststroke (no rotation)? It's a much slower stroke, and one where kicking contribution is huge.
Really, I donno.
If that much power was generated from body rotation, could we expect backstroke to be faster than it is? Well... food for thoughts.
I think it was in Swimming Fastest that the author cited a study that showed that the "kinetic chain" may be a viable "feel" but that it isn't feasible in terms of physics. Not sure if science can really rule in or out the potential contribution of body rotation.
It's funny you should mention Swimming Fastest. Because one of the main highlight of this edition, as far as freestyle is concern, was that the author admitted having been wrong in with his "anchor theory". You certainly remember its two previous editions (Swimming Faster, Swimming Even Faster). He was the biggest defender of the "Lift theory" in accordance to which the hand does't travel backward at all. Not even one inche. The underlying theory was that swimmers actually move their hands from side to side, in some sweeping motions, using them as propelor blades creating solid lifts. Maglischo, the same way that Terry does at the moment, did promote the "anchor" theory for roughly 2 decades. His main opponent was Rushall if I'm not mistaken. Well Maglischo only recently (2003) retracted in the very first pages of Swimming Fastest.
And to tell you the truth Lyndsay, I expect him to retract on the body rotation power statement as well (page 80). He got distracted by the "hip" thing (power generated by the hips). And that's unfortunate I find. Because while I have difficulty to see how power can be generated from the hips, I definitely see or feel that the back muscles (latissimus dorsi) benefit from this body rotation. Again I'll refer to my relunctant fuel "Lawn mower". When we need to start it for the first time of year, with the huge cloud of blue smoke, we naturally give it a huge body twist. I see a analogy with swimming the free style, though I might be wrong.
On the issue of power from hip rotation, it is interesting to consider butterfly True that.
Butterfly is also much more energy consumming, hence the limited distances that people are typically able to swim. Breaststroke (no rotation)? It's a much slower stroke, and one where kicking contribution is huge.
Really, I donno.
If that much power was generated from body rotation, could we expect backstroke to be faster than it is? Well... food for thoughts.
I think it was in Swimming Fastest that the author cited a study that showed that the "kinetic chain" may be a viable "feel" but that it isn't feasible in terms of physics. Not sure if science can really rule in or out the potential contribution of body rotation.
It's funny you should mention Swimming Fastest. Because one of the main highlight of this edition, as far as freestyle is concern, was that the author admitted having been wrong in with his "anchor theory". You certainly remember its two previous editions (Swimming Faster, Swimming Even Faster). He was the biggest defender of the "Lift theory" in accordance to which the hand does't travel backward at all. Not even one inche. The underlying theory was that swimmers actually move their hands from side to side, in some sweeping motions, using them as propelor blades creating solid lifts. Maglischo, the same way that Terry does at the moment, did promote the "anchor" theory for roughly 2 decades. His main opponent was Rushall if I'm not mistaken. Well Maglischo only recently (2003) retracted in the very first pages of Swimming Fastest.
And to tell you the truth Lyndsay, I expect him to retract on the body rotation power statement as well (page 80). He got distracted by the "hip" thing (power generated by the hips). And that's unfortunate I find. Because while I have difficulty to see how power can be generated from the hips, I definitely see or feel that the back muscles (latissimus dorsi) benefit from this body rotation. Again I'll refer to my relunctant fuel "Lawn mower". When we need to start it for the first time of year, with the huge cloud of blue smoke, we naturally give it a huge body twist. I see a analogy with swimming the free style, though I might be wrong.
