I have been reading and watching posts and replies, on the General forum, as well as Coaching forum, that seem to dismiss the importance of having developed triceps. I may be wrong, but what I surmised is that even though having a longer stroke is of great importance (and I am an advocate of a longer sroke depending upon the distance and actual stroke being swum), that many people including Kaizen making statements that a long stroke is better, there is much conclusion that "finishing" the stroke lower on the leg has several problems: 1) it takes tricep strength so avoid it and 2) finishing shorter and closer to the waist area is the way to go.
Now granted, a 50 free sprint probably needs a lesser SPL than a 200 or 400, but my concern in this topic is that there may be a message to other swimmers that finishing later on the body requires more strength in the back of the arm (triceps) so avoid it. My Word: Wrong!!
Every great, great swimmer I have ever seen has the arms of Hercules, both in biceps, shoulders and triceps. And even at my older age and a fatter body, the one remaining muscle group that is ripped is the triceps on my arms because they have been trained over years and carry me through even now. Having these great muscles developed continues to aid in my powerfully finishing my stroke and setting up for the next one. Triceps DO provide propulsion in the stroke finish/recovery portion of the stroke, so making sure they are developed, as well as other components of your body, is extremely important. Just one swimmer's point of view....and open for discussion.....
donna
Parents
Former Member
I'd love to see your source for this. And what would you expect these sources to state exactly?
That by performing push ups, one can increase performances in butterfly without even learning how to correctly execute the stroke at the first place?
I can do pushups forever it seems (doing enough for a few years builds up endurance), yet I have a very tough time with butterfly at all. A 25 fly is a struggle for me, distances beyond that impossible without fins and/or switching to 1-arm drills. Just ask yourself. What happens exactly so that you end up having difficulty performing a 25m BF.
My assumption would be that you have technical flaws preventing you to do so.
Really, the key to my statement lies in the fact that these training means are brainless.
Training in general, with improvement in mind, general involves identifying bottlenecks. Your ability to perform a lot of push ups probably means that the bottleneck that prevents you from being able to race a full 100m butterfly is elsewhere.
I'd love to see your source for this. And what would you expect these sources to state exactly?
That by performing push ups, one can increase performances in butterfly without even learning how to correctly execute the stroke at the first place?
I can do pushups forever it seems (doing enough for a few years builds up endurance), yet I have a very tough time with butterfly at all. A 25 fly is a struggle for me, distances beyond that impossible without fins and/or switching to 1-arm drills. Just ask yourself. What happens exactly so that you end up having difficulty performing a 25m BF.
My assumption would be that you have technical flaws preventing you to do so.
Really, the key to my statement lies in the fact that these training means are brainless.
Training in general, with improvement in mind, general involves identifying bottlenecks. Your ability to perform a lot of push ups probably means that the bottleneck that prevents you from being able to race a full 100m butterfly is elsewhere.
