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
Former Member
I really think one has to find what works for them. I have a very long push off the wall and I can keep up with most everyone on my team or beat them off the wall. I have been told that I should do that, but it works well for me.
I don't put one had over the other, though I do put one thumb over the other and have a couple of fingers overlap. I also tuck my head so my chin is on my chest. I have found that this works for me a lot better the hand over hand and the head in the "normal" possition. I even had my coach ask me about it a couple of weeks ago. I have found that I can come off the wall at least two body lengths without kicking doing this, I usually come up the same place but faster when I do kick.
I'm guessing Pankratov found something that works for him and he went with it.
But how much are your arms contributing to propulsion during the streamline? Typically not at all. In Pankratov's case maybe they did contribute a little bit. But I think the main reason to keep your arms slightly apart is to assist in the full-body dolphin motion. At least for me it seems very difficult to get the entire body involved with the arms tightly locked. It's easier if they're apart. It's gotta be a trade-off, though, because you are certainly not as aerodynamic with your hands apart.
Like you said, the arms apart aid the dolphin motion; sorry, I didn't clarify. And it does aid the underwater dolphin forward propulsion. I would be a person who would choose speed over aerodynamics if they are ever at odds with one another; i.e, the arms apart/more dolphin motion. And sometimes they can be such as starts and turns, but I only see a few people capable of doing this. But it is a big Wow to many when they view it also.
One more point I would like to make is many people stay on their sides a little bit longer off the turns, and others do not. I think this is where one might view aerodynamics vs speed if these two things can even be measured at all because two different people are doing two different things. It probably should be measured by testing the same person doing both. Hope I didn't get off topic, my brain is actually trying to work today.
