I have been studying videos of swimmers and find what was once called the "S" stroke has almost disappeard.
I have noticed that flyers use it. But crawl swimmers have modified it so much that it is almost gone.
Has it been replaced completely or was it an optical illusion? Did underwater film show us it did not exist.
Parents
Former Member
I'm not sure I buy this. After all, we know that swimming in turbulent water (i.e., another swimmer's wake) actually makes you swim faster, so why should you want your hand to always be in still water? My gut feeling is the s stroke is more the result of biomechanics in that it allows the hand to be at its optimal angle of attack with respect to the water for as long as possible as the rest of the body rotates throughout the stroke.
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Eddie currents or the water that moves around a boat as it moves through the water is moving water, and the vortex behind the hand or paddle-wheel as it pushes water is another current of moving water; in both instances, a hand or paddle loses drag or it's ability to hold water or leverage it if it moves through that moving water or creates a vortex by moving water directly backward.
The pitch of the hand is ineffective unless it's moving toward or away from the mid-line (sculling). The hand and forearm are in it's most propulsive position when it is directly pulling backward until a vortex is created. Like a paddle-wheel, a constant movement backwards creates currents of moving water (behind the paddle) and unless the boat keeps touching the still water ahead of the paddle, it slips.
A hand that moves back and forth with a 45 degree pitch produces lift forces (critical in water ballet) but offers much less propulsive force in the free, back, fly and has more impact in the breaststroke. The pitch does however allow the hand to move back into still water which allows the hand to maintain effective drag or leverage.
Now as to why you swim faster when you swim behind someone, it's because air and water are both fluids; And just like bikers, and race car drivers who both shield and suck the person behind them, so are swimmers helped when they swim closely behind another swimmer (try touching my feet a few times and see what happens) - anyway the currents important to swimming are eddy currents and vortex currents (and others I'm sure).
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I'm not sure I buy this. After all, we know that swimming in turbulent water (i.e., another swimmer's wake) actually makes you swim faster, so why should you want your hand to always be in still water? My gut feeling is the s stroke is more the result of biomechanics in that it allows the hand to be at its optimal angle of attack with respect to the water for as long as possible as the rest of the body rotates throughout the stroke.
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Eddie currents or the water that moves around a boat as it moves through the water is moving water, and the vortex behind the hand or paddle-wheel as it pushes water is another current of moving water; in both instances, a hand or paddle loses drag or it's ability to hold water or leverage it if it moves through that moving water or creates a vortex by moving water directly backward.
The pitch of the hand is ineffective unless it's moving toward or away from the mid-line (sculling). The hand and forearm are in it's most propulsive position when it is directly pulling backward until a vortex is created. Like a paddle-wheel, a constant movement backwards creates currents of moving water (behind the paddle) and unless the boat keeps touching the still water ahead of the paddle, it slips.
A hand that moves back and forth with a 45 degree pitch produces lift forces (critical in water ballet) but offers much less propulsive force in the free, back, fly and has more impact in the breaststroke. The pitch does however allow the hand to move back into still water which allows the hand to maintain effective drag or leverage.
Now as to why you swim faster when you swim behind someone, it's because air and water are both fluids; And just like bikers, and race car drivers who both shield and suck the person behind them, so are swimmers helped when they swim closely behind another swimmer (try touching my feet a few times and see what happens) - anyway the currents important to swimming are eddy currents and vortex currents (and others I'm sure).
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