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
One way to think of this is to consider a simple pendulum. In the absense of friction or drag a pendulum, once started will continue to swing back and forth indefinately. If you immerse the pendulum in a very viscous fluid it will settle to the bottom and stop. In a less viscous fluid it will swing past a ways but will swing less each stroke until it stops.
With a free swinging pendulum if you move the hinge at the top back and forth with the correct timing you can cause the weight at the bottom to swing back and forth. But if the pendulum is in a very viscous fluid you can't build momentum this way, the fluid just absorbs the energy you put into the system.
I believe that undulation in the fly works the same way, energy you put into the chest or hips is not transmitted down to the feet, it is absorbed by the water, you have to power each segment of the body/pendulum to produce the desired undulation and movement below the knees, which is the only part that is producing significant forward propulsion.
If you do a simple geometric analysis of the movement of your upper leg during butterfly the downward movement of the upper leg doesn't produce forward propulsion because there is no backward component to the movement, but the downward movement can help lift your hips and it positions your knees below your ankles so that the downward movement of your lower legs does have a propulsive backward component to it. Even with no transmission of energy the movement plays an important role in making the whole stroke work through positioning.
Butterfly seems to me to be a wonderous dance of many body parts, each playing a role, not all the roles are propulsive, some just position other body parts, and the lovely thing is that a complicated and intricate series of coordinated movements can be described simply as a wave moving down the body.
One way to think of this is to consider a simple pendulum. In the absense of friction or drag a pendulum, once started will continue to swing back and forth indefinately. If you immerse the pendulum in a very viscous fluid it will settle to the bottom and stop. In a less viscous fluid it will swing past a ways but will swing less each stroke until it stops.
With a free swinging pendulum if you move the hinge at the top back and forth with the correct timing you can cause the weight at the bottom to swing back and forth. But if the pendulum is in a very viscous fluid you can't build momentum this way, the fluid just absorbs the energy you put into the system.
I believe that undulation in the fly works the same way, energy you put into the chest or hips is not transmitted down to the feet, it is absorbed by the water, you have to power each segment of the body/pendulum to produce the desired undulation and movement below the knees, which is the only part that is producing significant forward propulsion.
If you do a simple geometric analysis of the movement of your upper leg during butterfly the downward movement of the upper leg doesn't produce forward propulsion because there is no backward component to the movement, but the downward movement can help lift your hips and it positions your knees below your ankles so that the downward movement of your lower legs does have a propulsive backward component to it. Even with no transmission of energy the movement plays an important role in making the whole stroke work through positioning.
Butterfly seems to me to be a wonderous dance of many body parts, each playing a role, not all the roles are propulsive, some just position other body parts, and the lovely thing is that a complicated and intricate series of coordinated movements can be described simply as a wave moving down the body.
