End of Controversy - No catch-up or straight arm catch
Former Member
I know everyone has been watching the Olympics and if anyone sees someone (in any stroke and at any distance) not showing an Early Vertical Forearm (EVF) stroke please point it out to me. In the men’s 400 Fr Relay, Lezak’s better EVF stroke helped him touch the wall before Bernard who dropped his elbows in the last few strokes. These Olympic Games should put to rest the controversy of the catch-up stroke (never once performed by any freestyler in these Olympics). So what you see someone do in a drill (catch-up) is not done in competitive swims when it counts!! The high elbow at the front quadrant of every stroke is so pronounced that every lay-on-a-straight-arm proponent has to become a convert (I know it’s not ever going to happen). I’m anxious to hear the rationalizations and support from the opposition. If you’re watching with your eyes open, there’s no catch-up and no straight-arm catch - PERIOD!!!
If you want to make significant gains in your swimming focus on improving your Early Vertical Forearm technique. Improving your EVF should take about 6 to 8 weeks and when that becomes better you should focus on improving a good streamlined position by spending as much time as possible on your side while making sure that your catch begins early. Of course athleticism goes hand in hand with improvement. But you get my drift. Nuff-said.
Parents
Former Member
Why don't the women gallop?
It is just an untested fledgling hypothesis but in a couple cases I looked at it seemed that the gallop was the result of swimming very low in the water and rising to the surface to breath. Phelps for example swims very low in the water with an almost fly-like breathing pattern. If it were the case that women don't tend to swim as low in the water, possibly due to higher buoyancy, that might account for some of the difference?
On the original topic, I think Kirk is correct that it isn't helpful to mix up effective forearm positioning, i.e. not dropping the elbow, and stroke timing, i.e. kayaking versus larger front quadrant overlap, they are two independent phenomena.
Why don't the women gallop?
It is just an untested fledgling hypothesis but in a couple cases I looked at it seemed that the gallop was the result of swimming very low in the water and rising to the surface to breath. Phelps for example swims very low in the water with an almost fly-like breathing pattern. If it were the case that women don't tend to swim as low in the water, possibly due to higher buoyancy, that might account for some of the difference?
On the original topic, I think Kirk is correct that it isn't helpful to mix up effective forearm positioning, i.e. not dropping the elbow, and stroke timing, i.e. kayaking versus larger front quadrant overlap, they are two independent phenomena.
