Nose Clip

Hello Muppet: I am very well aware of Michael Ross or "Lets Race" as he is called on these forums and you couldn't pick a better example in USMS of someone perfecting undulation speed through breakout and SDK for maximum breakout. I saw both his 50 Back and 100 meter back at the World Meet. I have not seen him in a 200 meter back and would be interested to see if he could hit the 15 meter mark with all of the turns. I also remember when he was the fastest 50 yard backstroker in the world in 1990. He swam for Princeton and there 200 Medley relay repeated as NCAA Champions in 1989 and 1990. What I remember is that he swam the whole race underwater and came up for a breath at the 25 turn and at the finish. Back then you could do this because there was no 15 meter regulation. I remember that relay well because he was 4th in the 100 Back and beat the 3 guys (Rouse,Thibault, and Zubero) in the 50 in the relay by almost a half a second by going :21.81 and getting Princeton a nice lead to break the US Open record going 1:27.31. I believe for the 50 back he was easily the equal of David Berkoff because I believe his best time was :21.6 and I don't think Berkoff was much faster than that for a 50. Berkoff, also know as "Blastoff" on the college swimming forums and righly so, revolutionalized backstroke technique by racing the first 35 to 40 meters of the 100 meter backstroke underwater, becoming the first swimmer ever under 55 seconds. These two are about as good as it gets and there are others out there that have mastered this style with the new regulations. The point is that not all masters swimmers can be like Mike or David for that matter, but can try to incorporate techniques for improvements. One point that swimmers must accept is that lung capacity diminishes with age so that is one inhibitor that we must accept while trying to perfect this. I think one has to know what there limits are with there VO2 Max and be able to keep there stroke smooth and stable in the face of anxiety and physiological adversity. Maybe a lot of hypoxic training along with doing a lot of SDK in practice can help with extended dolphin kicks of the wall to 15 meters. I have also heard that fin kicking is great for this and forces flexibility with the body staying horizontal through the breakout making it easier for streamlining while increasing core body strength. I guess the best way to test this is to experiement in practice and re-create the stress that the body experiences during a race. I am still not sure about the nose clip because even though it provides relief when having difficulty in balancing the pressure of air inside your nose with that of water outside the nose, when swimming on the surface you cut off that oxygen that you could generate thru the nose making it kind of an unnatural breathing technique that your not used to doing when swimming at high speeds.

Hello Muppet: I am very well aware of Michael Ross or "Lets Race" as he is called on these forums and you couldn't pick a better example in USMS of someone perfecting undulation speed through breakout and SDK for maximum breakout. I saw both his 50 Back and 100 meter back at the World Meet. I have not seen him in a 200 meter back and would be interested to see if he could hit the 15 meter mark with all of the turns. I also remember when he was the fastest 50 yard backstroker in the world in 1990. He swam for Princeton and there 200 Medley relay repeated as NCAA Champions in 1989 and 1990. What I remember is that he swam the whole race underwater and came up for a breath at the 25 turn and at the finish. Back then you could do this because there was no 15 meter regulation. I remember that relay well because he was 4th in the 100 Back and beat the 3 guys (Rouse,Thibault, and Zubero) in the 50 in the relay by almost a half a second by going :21.81 and getting Princeton a nice lead to break the US Open record going 1:27.31. I believe for the 50 back he was easily the equal of David Berkoff because I believe his best time was :21.6 and I don't think Berkoff was much faster than that for a 50. Berkoff, also know as "Blastoff" on the college swimming forums and righly so, revolutionalized backstroke technique by racing the first 35 to 40 meters of the 100 meter backstroke underwater, becoming the first swimmer ever under 55 seconds. These two are about as good as it gets and there are others out there that have mastered this style with the new regulations. The point is that not all masters swimmers can be like Mike or David for that matter, but can try to incorporate techniques for improvements. One point that swimmers must accept is that lung capacity diminishes with age so that is one inhibitor that we must accept while trying to perfect this. I think one has to know what there limits are with there VO2 Max and be able to keep there stroke smooth and stable in the face of anxiety and physiological adversity. Maybe a lot of hypoxic training along with doing a lot of SDK in practice can help with extended dolphin kicks of the wall to 15 meters. I have also heard that fin kicking is great for this and forces flexibility with the body staying horizontal through the breakout making it easier for streamlining while increasing core body strength. I guess the best way to test this is to experiement in practice and re-create the stress that the body experiences during a race. I am still not sure about the nose clip because even though it provides relief when having difficulty in balancing the pressure of air inside your nose with that of water outside the nose, when swimming on the surface you cut off that oxygen that you could generate thru the nose making it kind of an unnatural breathing technique that your not used to doing when swimming at high speeds.