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.
I've been sick the last few days and am probably not thinking straight, but, it seems to me that this experiment says something about mass versus viscosity. The article says the viscosity was doubled, if we presume that the mass of the guar gum was a small fraction of the mass of the water in the pool (or at least that the mass of the mix was much less than double the mass of water) then we should be able to predict differences in the effect if swimming is viscosity based or mass based. If mass was the dominant factor then the swimmers should have slowed down considerably as the drag of moving through the thicker, more viscous fluid is doubled while the mass that is being accelerated backward is increased by a much smaller amount. If viscosity was the dominant factor then the increased resistance to forward movement would be balanced by an equal resistance to the backward movement of the propelling limbs. The experimental results were the latter.
In reality when a body moves through a more viscous fluid a larger volume, and hence larger mass, is dragged along, so it is really two sides of the same coin, but even so, this extra step in providing an explanation seems to me to unnecessarily complicate the explanation versus just directly talking about drag, and it doesn't correspond to the intuitive model of pushing mass backward. Yes, yes, very pedantic. Sorry. :o
It surelly is a messy subject. Lindsay are you being too practical? I think if we were to exagerrate the "S" it would change the results???
Actually, I'm not sure I'm being practical at all!
It would have been interesting to have observed the effect on a high-glide breaststroke (200m style) or a catchup freestyle versus a more continuous propulsion style.
Very cool George, the day when this stuff becomes useful for swimming analysis may not be that far away! The ability to put markers in the water to make the flow more visible is especially interesting and could produce interesting visualizations even just using rigid models of swimmers or their body parts.
Check this one out:
www.youtube.com/watch
So non-rigid objects are also possible.
I wonder if how expensive and hard to learn the software is.
This video is also kind of cool:
www.youtube.com/watch
The future is going to be so cool...
Don’t over-exaggerate the “S” pattern, avoid stopping the propulsive mechanisms by gliding, clear the hand of air as you enter it into the water, set-up your forearm and get it vertical early, find a pulling pattern that is the most effective for you (improve your DPS), improve ankle flexibility and core strength, and train smarter not just harder.
Thank you very much.
I am self taught and have been following Councilman's and Maglischo's theories and details of stoke mechanics for several decades. I know that swimmers need to swim by feel, but it would be useful to have the most current book on freestyle stroke mechanics to build from.
Reviews of Maglischo imply that even his Swim Fastest is dated.
Is there any book or combinatins of books that you might recommend to bring my stroke into the 21st century?
I'm an open water swimmer, and my most prized goal is maximum efficiency for an hour and a half of sustained freestyle. I can do the hour and a half, but I'm using out of date mechanics. And my joints are getting old.
Thanks very much.
I have used the S-Stroke for years and feel it gives me a lot of thrust per stroke. My right hand enters the water, with my arm fully extended, to the left of my head, and with the handed cupped, I make a more or less S, or maybe a sweeping motion below my left sholder down to left hip and then crosses over and exit water above my right knee. No-one showed me this, it is just what developed from trying different styles.
