Gennadi Turetski, whose two most successful swimmers are Popov and Klim, made recently a presentation for Russian swimming coaches with a video demonstration. Below are a few points from the freestyle part of this presentation that I found insightful but practical in the same time.
Swimming movements originates from the mass center – the lower back.
Having entered the water from a dive you must transfer the motion into a horizontal vector as soon as possible. Popov’s first movement underwater is his legs’ moving up to throw away the water that is trailing his body
A javelin thrown from the deck enters the water through a hole and glides in a horizontal direction without any unnecessary force it is rigid. In the pool Gennadi showed a start drill that I found very good for the development body as a rigid part and learning to forward your energy to the other end of the pool. You put one foot on the edge of the pool and the other leg kneels on the deck and push off. You should be able to do a long horizontal glide.
During your swim you focus on forward movement, not on forward force.
During pull you position your thumb outward for a more efficient catch.
One hand’s catch and the other’s exit occur simultaneously
In freestyle you don’t pull. Instead you move yourself forward over the pulling hand.
While finishing you don’t shorten you stroke to increase the rate. Instead you lengthen the stroke and turn on an intense kick
In a 50m sprint the most important indicator is the swimmer’s speed at the 15m mark
Rhythm is very important during a turn because the right rhythm helps you to push off the wall with the rebound wave thus gaining a 0.5m advantage. You count like: One (first hand entry), Two (second hand entry) and Three (rebound. Not push off, but rebound). Popov seems to do that amazingly well at both low and high speed.
Gennadi believes that fast kick has low amplitude and high rate.
And I like this statement of his:
“In the race you don’t go to the wall, you go through the wall” Probably like in life.
Dmitri
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Former Member
Ian it has been my thought for years to have the thumb away from the index finger.
So many swimmers think by holding every thing tight and close together they are grabbing more water. Not only do you not get more water it causes muscle tension in the forearms. Thanks again Dmitri for bringing this forward.
Some one some where talks about the thumb as being the only part of the human arm/hand appendage that works like a bird's wing. If you keep your thumb spread from your other fingers, you will creat lift. My thumbs are set so low on my hand they barely get up to my fingers. I naturally swim wiht my thumbs seperated from my hand. I have a lot of webbing between my thumbs & hands also. When I have on gloves, I can really feel the difference.
Ian it has been my thought for years to have the thumb away from the index finger.
So many swimmers think by holding every thing tight and close together they are grabbing more water. Not only do you not get more water it causes muscle tension in the forearms. Thanks again Dmitri for bringing this forward.
Some one some where talks about the thumb as being the only part of the human arm/hand appendage that works like a bird's wing. If you keep your thumb spread from your other fingers, you will creat lift. My thumbs are set so low on my hand they barely get up to my fingers. I naturally swim wiht my thumbs seperated from my hand. I have a lot of webbing between my thumbs & hands also. When I have on gloves, I can really feel the difference.
