Recently I watched Denis Pankratov’s finals’ swims (two golds – 100 & 200m fly) at the Atlanta Olympics. His 25m long underwater kick helped him win these events. His underwater speed was obvious as he gained a significant advantage at the breakout point over the 2nd and 3rd place finishers whose times were 52.5 sec - still good ten years later (not wearing full body suit!).
What is interesting – his underwater kick was not streamlined. His hands were 10+ inches apart and they were making a wave-like motion. This technique breaks two main rules of the efficient underwater dolphin kick demonstrated by Ian Crocker in the March issue of The Swimming World magazine:
1. Keep the hands in a streamlined position, and
2. Keep the head hidden within the streamline.
Can anyone comment on why Pankratov’s (arguably wrong?) underwater kick was still fast:dunno:
Dmitri
Parents
Former Member
I remember one swimmer (not a top flyer) told me that he didn’t lose to Pankratov in a 25m underwater dolphin race from a push-off. And their sprint time was not very fast. Another witness was impressed by the fast 50m underwater swim Denis had as a teenager.
Probably Pankratov developed this underwater dolphin technique that efficiently blended into his world record times in the 100m and 200m fly. If you swim 4 x 20 - 25m underwater in a 200m fly, as he did, you have to be careful not to run out of fuel at the 175m mark or even earlier. You might have seen those poor flyers who “hit a wall” just 15 meters before an actual wall. Spectators got a mixed feeling of sadness and entertainment. :applaud:
I think his underwater swim is a good example of a well balanced racing strategy for the whole race at the best possible time.
I remember one swimmer (not a top flyer) told me that he didn’t lose to Pankratov in a 25m underwater dolphin race from a push-off. And their sprint time was not very fast. Another witness was impressed by the fast 50m underwater swim Denis had as a teenager.
Probably Pankratov developed this underwater dolphin technique that efficiently blended into his world record times in the 100m and 200m fly. If you swim 4 x 20 - 25m underwater in a 200m fly, as he did, you have to be careful not to run out of fuel at the 175m mark or even earlier. You might have seen those poor flyers who “hit a wall” just 15 meters before an actual wall. Spectators got a mixed feeling of sadness and entertainment. :applaud:
I think his underwater swim is a good example of a well balanced racing strategy for the whole race at the best possible time.
