Last night I went to a coached practice for the first time in a long time, and the coach had me and one other person do backstroke pinkie out/pinkie in instead of thumb out/pinkie in. That was the first time I had ever had a coach tell me to do something like that, and I didn't get a chance to ask the purpose. Do any of you coaches or more experienced swimmers know why a coach might tell a swimmer to do that?
George is spot on. While taking just the suppination (palm facing away from the body) aspect into consideration, it would not seem to be a good thing but when you consider mechanical advantage along with the rotation of the shoulder, engaging the triceps at the start on the water exit actually speeds up the over water recovery and also adds a little stored elastic energy to the start of the arm pull. By having the hand slightly suppinated with palm angled away from the body, you only have to engage the rotational muscles in the shoulder to move the arm instead of having to perform a combination rotation and suppination while recovering.
Paul
Former Member
You are right Quickguy but that is not what we are doing.
I don't think any of you understand. When the stroke is at the finsh when swimming backstroke it does not finish thumbs up. If it does you are a mechanical swimmer and you are not flowing. It should finish with the palm facing the bottom. With the rotation of the body the hands are in a horizontal position. As the hand exits the little pinkie rises slightly a head of the thumb. It is not pinkie strait up and thumb strait to the bottom.
Quick Hold your right arm straight out in front of you.
Put your left hand on the tricep of your right arm.
Have your hand horizontal to the floor...tilt the pinkie up ever so little raise your arm over your head and rotate guess what the hand is ready to enter.
Then do it with the thumb strait up and the pinkie down and rise your hand now shoulder hurts and the hand is not in the postion to enter the water.
Former Member
I have been doing thumb out pinkie in for probably 10 years. My backstroke is still slow though.
Former Member
I don't think the coach was trying to teach pinkie out as a general rule for all backstrokers, it was just for two of the twelve or so of us. My only guess is that a pinkie-first recovery forces the body to rotate more, and maybe I was swimming very flat. But any other ideas are welcome.
Former Member
George is right-if you look at Peirsol or Lochte swimming they swim w/ their pinkies out from what I can tell. It's hard to tell how their hands are oriented when they exit but Swimming Fastest advocates entering w/ the pinkie down , pinky out on the 2nd peak, and thumb barely ahead of the pinky on the exit if I am reading the diagrams well. In my opinion the three-peak method is fastest, I used to use it in club swimming to go 54. Now I can't seem to get my arms to remember the motion, and I go thumb out during the pull. I wonder if it's a coincidence that I am stuck at 1:13
Former Member
Years ago I attended a swim clinic that was hosted by the coach at the University of Kansas. He taught the "pinkie out, pinkie in" theory. A couple of years later, I attended their swim clinic again. He had changed his philosophy and was now teaching "thumb out, pinkie in". I asked him why he changed and he said that he had found that a lot of his backstrokers were having shoulder problems. Switching to the "thumb out" method seemed to solve the problem.
Anna Lea
In all honesty, some of the Go Swim drills seem like pointless drudgery. However, their .mov DVD trailer with Aaron Peirsol is a treat. There are some finer points to be learned for example the fluid motion with which he ends each stroke:
www.goswim.tv/.../AaronTrailer.mov
Former Member
As we can see the stroke is finished with the palm facing the bottom. He has great technique. It is hard to tell but the hand does exit palm down. it could be neutral thumb and pinkie out at same time. But the natural thing for the hand, the thumb would be lower then the rest of the fingers including the pinkie.
Maybe his middle finger exits first.
Former Member
I just tried this this morning and have to change my position (no pun intended). The pinkie out/pinkie in made swimming from my shoulder easier. When the thumb comes out first you can bend your elbow and cheat the recovery. With the pinkie out the elbow is straight and the recovery starts with the shoulder.
