Noticing more frequent use of grab starts in Beijing...
Former Member
Notably by the Chinese female swimmer, and it's combined with tremendous water entries and SDK's ... I'd say almost Coughlin caliber underwaters and theyr'e coming up on the fielkd, but no one is talking about it.
Look at their entries in the 200 free. In the 100, Pang jumped so take her slight reaction time out of it and she still is well up after the SDK's.
Notice also that Lenton of Australia used the conventional grab start, as do several other of her country women.
In one particular Chinese sprinter (Le?), she squats with her but down quite low for her stance, which would seem very slow off the block. At 15 meters though she is ahead.
Any thoughts?
I think the reason the track start got popular here is that,since you can use your arms for propulsion,it was good for guys with great upper body strength,with maybe not so good leg strength(many male 50 free sprinters.) If it was faster for the fastest swimmers I think the coaches thought it must be faster for everyone.Then they noticed that it was stable and the kids didn't false start,especially if they lean back to"slingshot"(even though that is probably the worst technique for most.)People with better leg power will be faster with the grab start.
I think the reason the track start got popular here is that,since you can use your arms for propulsion,it was good for guys with great upper body strength,with maybe not so good leg strength(many male 50 free sprinters.) If it was faster for the fastest swimmers I think the coaches thought it must be faster for everyone.Then they noticed that it was stable and the kids didn't false start,especially if they lean back to"slingshot"(even though that is probably the worst technique for most.)People with better leg power will be faster with the grab start.
