Check
www.youtube.com/watch
Whoa... I'm speechless... well, momentarily anyways...
That is incredible, I've never seen anything quite like
this before!! What a perfect example of a totally unique
stroke, a bizarre phenomena that might not ever become
mainstream swimming philosophy.
I mean, it would be near to impossible to try and mimic
this stroke pattern, not to mention, how could someone
actually describe this appropriately in words...???!!
Attempting the impossible, just for the sheer need of
understanding, how could I let this opportunity "swim"
away?
His mix of technical variables are somewhat shocking,
and trying to describe his kick pattern combined with
his torso and pulling action is a slightly daunting task.
I mean, this appears to be a hybrid swimming stroke,
combining elements of butterfly and freestyle, with very
little semblance of previously accepted principals. This
may be the new "stroke" or just something that works
solely for this man.
Personally, I'm not willing to risk everything by endorsing
this stroke, but I will not disappoint by trying my best to
explain it.
His windmill action above water has been seen before, not
a complete shock, but it is when we look under-water that
I'm completely flabbergasted...
All the concepts I've known about sprint freestyle are almost
completely contrary with Stefan Nystrand.
Where should I start?
1. He bounces through his stroke, a tighter version of
the body dolphin action, during freestyle??!!
2. He swims "uphill", totally bizzare, but this is what I'm seeing.
You can even pause his stroke in the 25 meter under water angle,
and the result is uncanny. It appears that he rotates from side to side,
so fast, that the resistance from his body position is mitigated.
3. His "catch" stays near the surface, and he begins pulling
immediately, he doesn't wait for his forearm to be perpendicular to
the bottom of the pool. ***GASP*** Instead, he almost drops his
elbow, and pulls at 45 degrees, in exchange for faster tempo, and
the body dolphin.
4. His kick, ummmmm, his kick... What is that? A four-beat freestyle/dolphin blend? It's like his legs are assisting with the upper body set-up and over-all body-dolphin action.... ???!!!????!!!!
Okay folks, not sure what else to say, except.... WOW!
I read a few years ago that Inky's coach(Bergan?) thought that the straight arm recovery aided a sprinter keeping their rhythm while tiring and therefore finish strong.Nystrand seems more unorthodox on the surface than underwater to me.Also a fast turnover can compensate for a multitude of inefficiencies.In my opinion a fast time on the scoreboard is the prettiest sight.
how about this underwater footage of Stefan:
www.youtube.com/watch
some 5 years ago, but almost the same technique today
or this:
www.youtube.com/watch
some 4 years ago
or this from front:
www.youtube.com/watch
Thanks for the links!
The front video really shows how soon his catch is. The instant his hand enters the water, he's pulling his body forward and it's due to the straight arm recovery. That is where he's getting his speed. He is dropping his elbow on the last 1/4 of the pull but he gets his hand back to the catch so quickly where it can do the most good. I wonder how much speed he's getting from his pseudo-dolphin motion in his kick?
It's amazing he has not had any major shoulder problems with that flat body position and windmill stroke.
Hmm. Non-traditional vs ugly... I'm sorry to say, ugly is ugly. Albeit non-traditional.
I'd like to see some high quality underwater footage with head on shots.
Hmmmm...ugly or not...it is fast...and that is what counts. I remember the same discussions around the V-style in ski jumpin a couple of years ago...."ugly" as h-ll, but now everyone is using this style.
In The Swim Coaching Bible, Rick DeMont tells the story of how his grandfather would say to him before a race, "Make it look pretty." This is definitely not pretty, no matter how fast it is.
"I'm sure people used to think wave action breaststroke was ugly." What? Don't you still think it is ugly? Watching masters races, you sometimes get some old timers seeded with younger ones and you can see the two styles side by side. Last week I saw a guy my age (56) who was a fairly fast young *** stroke guy in the 60s, swim with the old style along side a younger guy doing the wave. He won, and looked good, but only on sheer experience. When I was about 7 or 8 I use to watch the Tarzan movies and try to swim like the guy there, mostly Weissmuller. That was my crawl school, in lakes, no swimming pools till I was about 14. It was more like this guy or Evans than the Early Vertical stuff I do nowadays. However, keep in mind, much more experienced and faster Leslie, that when sprinting, we start losing all that style and the stretching fully and we go towards what this guy does and Evans did. billy fanstone
Also an amazingly fast reaction to the start gun. Can you say, "rolling start"? I can say, "DQ".
Good catch. Funny you should mention that.
After watching it on the URL mentioned above, I actually watched it on Youtube.com proper.
www.youtube.com/watch
The tilte said, Nystrand 50m free - 20.92 DSQ
The article confirmed the DQ
All other comments in this thread apart, of course.
...and for the ones who bother to scroll upwards and also look at the linked YouTube videos you also see that Stefan Nystrand broke both the 50 SCM and 100 SCM world records 2 weeks after that DSQ in Moscow...fair and square. And he noted the second fastest time in history (next to Popov) in LCM a couple of months ago. No doubt about the fact that this guy is smoking fast. Will be interesting to see if ha can display the same times at Beijing next year....and also to see how far the ortodox part of the free swimming world can take it.
You know the Masters world record for 25-29 50 free short course is held by Stefan Nystrand with a time of 22.11
The 35-39 Masters world record for 50 free short course is held by Mark Foster with a time of 21.53
That's 10 years later...
That makes for an interesting graph...
Hmmmmm....
Thanks for the links!
I wonder how much speed he's getting from his pseudo-dolphin motion in his kick?
A video analysis guru, that I've known over the years has suggested that the kick in terms of propulsive forces during the swim is actually quite minimal compared to the energy output required to produce effective forward motion.
He went on to say that the kick is actually more important in terms of maintaining body position and assisting with the stroke cycle.
With Nystrand's kick it can be argued that his feet act as stabilizers to maintain his fast arm cycles without any pausing or reduction in tempo. Also, the energy saved in his legs can be used in the main propulsive engine, his arms.
