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
Answer to 1....in addition to what Donna and Heather said, I also refer to it as the Paul Evil Smith stroke....b/c when I saw Paul swim the 50 free at SCYNats in 2005 I was thinking the exact same thing....He looked almost like he was warming down...very effortless looking at least (although I doubt it was truelly effortless)
I went to the men's Pac-10 championship Saturday night and had the same feeling watching Larsen Jensen in the 1650. Especially at the beginning of the race it looked like he was out there just crusing. He went a 14:41 with a 50. split at 100, 1:43 at the 200 and 4:23 at the 500! :eek:
He did keep a strong six beat kick going the entire race and uses a very "front quadrant," almost catchup type stroke. I could tell he was tiring out in the back half, but still a very good swim. It will be interesting to see what he can do at NCAAs. He has his work cut out for him to beat Rouault of Georgia.
I'll also add that Stanford won the meet in convincing fashion for their 26th consecutive Pac-10 title. That is truly a staggering accomplishment in what is consistently one of, if not the best conference in Division I college swimming.
Answer to 1....in addition to what Donna and Heather said, I also refer to it as the Paul Evil Smith stroke....b/c when I saw Paul swim the 50 free at SCYNats in 2005 I was thinking the exact same thing....He looked almost like he was warming down...very effortless looking at least (although I doubt it was truelly effortless)
I went to the men's Pac-10 championship Saturday night and had the same feeling watching Larsen Jensen in the 1650. Especially at the beginning of the race it looked like he was out there just crusing. He went a 14:41 with a 50. split at 100, 1:43 at the 200 and 4:23 at the 500! :eek:
He did keep a strong six beat kick going the entire race and uses a very "front quadrant," almost catchup type stroke. I could tell he was tiring out in the back half, but still a very good swim. It will be interesting to see what he can do at NCAAs. He has his work cut out for him to beat Rouault of Georgia.
I'll also add that Stanford won the meet in convincing fashion for their 26th consecutive Pac-10 title. That is truly a staggering accomplishment in what is consistently one of, if not the best conference in Division I college swimming.
