I took my daughter to a collegiate conference meet yesterday. I saw some things that I didn't quite understand, and my 6 year old asked me some questions I couldn't answer. I can guess at some of this, but would appreciate it if you would weigh in. Would you please help us out?
(1) I saw an incredible swimmer in the men's 100 free. His stroke count was so much lower than the other swimmers that he almost looked like he was swimming in slow motion and his kicking wasn't as frenetic as the others, yet he easily won by a body length. Was there something special to his technique? Does it have a name? He was poetry in motion.
(2) About shaving: I stayed off the recent shaving thread as it seemed to be a guys' discussion, but I am curious - does shaving off body hair (and in the case of some of these college swimmers, head hair) appreciatively cut down drag and increase speed or is it more of a psychological "feel for the water" type feeling? Or something in between or something else altogether?
(3) About suit choice: All suit types were represented: for women, tanks and fastskins: for men, tiny speedos, jammers and bottom half fastskins. If not at the elite (and I mean really elite) level, does suit choice really make a difference or is it again psychological? At this meet anyway, the majority of fastest times were swam by women in tanks and men in the tiny speedos.
(4) At the end of the morning prelims, we saw a time trial for two female swimmers in the 100 free. Was this because they had a dead tie in the prelims?
(5) In one of the races, it might have been a men's 200 ***, there were 3 heats. The first had 8 swimmers, the third had 8 swimmers, but the middle heat only had 3...any ideas?
Thanks much. It was great to be able to tell my daughter that I didn't know, but I knew who I could ask.
Barb
Barb, Donna gave some great answers but I thought I'd weigh in, too.
#1 - What Donna said ... :joker: seriously though, Phelps doesn't have the same rotation as some sprinters in the 100. Partially because he isn't a sprinter, I believe Popov had a slower turn over as well. His stroke is probably phenomenal and EXTREMELY efficient.
#2 - The thing with shaving is you take off not only hair but also dead skin. I think the results are minimal, but mentally the help. You also will notice that you slide through the water a bit more.
#3- The more area the suit covers with out restricting motion the more muscle compression is going on. I think the suits give a definite advantage - I've heard 3% which truly isn't tons, and in a 50 will be minimal. But we measure swims in hundreths of seconds. Also, anything that makes you feel more confident when you stand up on the blocks is great by me.
#4 - Might have been a swim-off OR they might have been going for a NCAA cut (or nationals, etc)
#5 - There might have been scratches ... even just a couple could result in such uneven heats. Usually you fill-up the last/fastest heat first, then distribute the remaining swimmers. If there were 3 heats and 17 swimmers the last heat would have 8, and the rest of the swimmers would be split between the two remaining heats. All I can figure is that there were people that were supposed to be in heat 2 and scratched.
Barb, Donna gave some great answers but I thought I'd weigh in, too.
#1 - What Donna said ... :joker: seriously though, Phelps doesn't have the same rotation as some sprinters in the 100. Partially because he isn't a sprinter, I believe Popov had a slower turn over as well. His stroke is probably phenomenal and EXTREMELY efficient.
#2 - The thing with shaving is you take off not only hair but also dead skin. I think the results are minimal, but mentally the help. You also will notice that you slide through the water a bit more.
#3- The more area the suit covers with out restricting motion the more muscle compression is going on. I think the suits give a definite advantage - I've heard 3% which truly isn't tons, and in a 50 will be minimal. But we measure swims in hundreths of seconds. Also, anything that makes you feel more confident when you stand up on the blocks is great by me.
#4 - Might have been a swim-off OR they might have been going for a NCAA cut (or nationals, etc)
#5 - There might have been scratches ... even just a couple could result in such uneven heats. Usually you fill-up the last/fastest heat first, then distribute the remaining swimmers. If there were 3 heats and 17 swimmers the last heat would have 8, and the rest of the swimmers would be split between the two remaining heats. All I can figure is that there were people that were supposed to be in heat 2 and scratched.
