The first loss of a master is memory, the second...I forgot. I probably have already asked this question, but here goes:
Does anyone bring their arm straight down and out after the grab? I am talking no sculling, no lateral movement, just bringing the arm straight parallel with the line maintaining the elbow high position. This would be to avoid crossing the midline with your forearm. Even though I breathe on the left, I still rotate fully to the right (a learned and trained and voluntary movement), but even so my right forearm tends to the middle, while my left arm has less pull and is erractic. When I learned the crawl it was from watching Tarzan movies, later when I was 16 and in a USA high school they taught the S shaped movement or the straight down and back. In those days the breathing was to one side. Last question: aside from timing both methods, what are your preferences on the long dolphin versus "less dolphin" emerging sooner method of starts and turns on a 50 meter short course freestyle race? Thanks, billy fanstone
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the reason why I said earlier that I like to see a the swimmer before recommending any *alternative* way of swimming, is that straight arm recovery doesn't solve all issues. In fact, personally I didn't use it that much with adults.
Let's dig down a bit more...
At the end of the push phase, beginning of the recovery phase, the shoulder must be in a certain angle to avoid that some articular tissues be squeezed.
What do I mean by squeezed?
Picture yourself trying to recover with the palm of the hand facing up, little finger first. That's an exageration of course. A closed angle of the shoulder articulation while recoverying cause a serious risk for injuries. I've used straight arm recov as an extreme measure to solve this. It may work as it eases the process of breaking the wrong kinetic pattern.
Before trying this, I prefer to use the "Carry your briefcase" drill. Recover as if you were carrying a briefcase. Thumb first. The mere fact of recoverying thumb first *unlocks* the shoulder articulation.
One other cause of injuries as for the recovery portion of the stroke is limited body roll. We often see it for unilateral breathers.
The recovery should really be a lateral raise. Picture yourself in a gym, doing some dumbell lateral raises. Sitting on the tip of a bench of standing up, you raise the arm laterally, bringing this very small dumbell up to the shoulder level. The mechanics of recovery should be the same. The arm doesn't really rotates (thus stretching the shoulder articulation at each passage), it simply raises laterally. The body roll allow for this simple and safe action to be enough for the arm to exit the water.
These are the two causes of injury I see in freestyle recovery. Straight arm can more or less address these (but it has to be supervised). But there are other causes of injuries as well involving underwater action. And straight arm recovery won't address these at all.
I think y'all'll agree that Doc Counsilman described it best in saying that the freestyle recovery begins with pulling the hand out from deep in one's pocket, pitching it forward ballistically as with a baseball, and entering the water thumb first, (thus avoiding the dreaded dropped elbow with the commencing of the stroke). He was, of course, describing the recovery of the best swimmers as observed by underwater filming.
the reason why I said earlier that I like to see a the swimmer before recommending any *alternative* way of swimming, is that straight arm recovery doesn't solve all issues. In fact, personally I didn't use it that much with adults.
Let's dig down a bit more...
At the end of the push phase, beginning of the recovery phase, the shoulder must be in a certain angle to avoid that some articular tissues be squeezed.
What do I mean by squeezed?
Picture yourself trying to recover with the palm of the hand facing up, little finger first. That's an exageration of course. A closed angle of the shoulder articulation while recoverying cause a serious risk for injuries. I've used straight arm recov as an extreme measure to solve this. It may work as it eases the process of breaking the wrong kinetic pattern.
Before trying this, I prefer to use the "Carry your briefcase" drill. Recover as if you were carrying a briefcase. Thumb first. The mere fact of recoverying thumb first *unlocks* the shoulder articulation.
One other cause of injuries as for the recovery portion of the stroke is limited body roll. We often see it for unilateral breathers.
The recovery should really be a lateral raise. Picture yourself in a gym, doing some dumbell lateral raises. Sitting on the tip of a bench of standing up, you raise the arm laterally, bringing this very small dumbell up to the shoulder level. The mechanics of recovery should be the same. The arm doesn't really rotates (thus stretching the shoulder articulation at each passage), it simply raises laterally. The body roll allow for this simple and safe action to be enough for the arm to exit the water.
These are the two causes of injury I see in freestyle recovery. Straight arm can more or less address these (but it has to be supervised). But there are other causes of injuries as well involving underwater action. And straight arm recovery won't address these at all.
I think y'all'll agree that Doc Counsilman described it best in saying that the freestyle recovery begins with pulling the hand out from deep in one's pocket, pitching it forward ballistically as with a baseball, and entering the water thumb first, (thus avoiding the dreaded dropped elbow with the commencing of the stroke). He was, of course, describing the recovery of the best swimmers as observed by underwater filming.
