Newbie question - and sorry for my lack of technical terms :-)
When I watch a lot of lap swimmers they seem to be swimming "flat" i.e. chest pointing at bottom of pool and with the only "rotation" being the head turn to breathe.
However, I picked up Janet Evans' Total Swimming book and she says that for freestyle, the body is constantly rotating 90 deg facing left of pool and 90 deg facing right of the pool. And after pushoff, the only time the chest is parallel to the bottom of the pool is at the precise moment between rotating from one side to side.
I'm confused - are there just different schools of thought? Or is one used more for racing and the other for laps?
Newbie question - and sorry for my lack of technical terms :-)
When I watch a lot of lap swimmers they seem to be swimming "flat" i.e. chest pointing at bottom of pool and with the only "rotation" being the head turn to breathe.
However, I picked up Janet Evans' Total Swimming book and she says that for freestyle, the body is constantly rotating 90 deg facing left of pool and 90 deg facing right of the pool. And after pushoff, the only time the chest is parallel to the bottom of the pool is at the precise moment between rotating from one side to side.
I'm confused - are there just different schools of thought? Or is one used more for racing and the other for laps?
I think you may have misunderstood the 90 degree thing (or I am misunderstanding what you are saying). There is a 90 degree axis, however it is from 45 degrees left to 45 degrees right. I don't think anyone really rotates all the way to the sides. As far as the folks in the lap pool, it may be that they are swimming incorrectly (or still living in the 1960's), but it may also be that you are not noticing the rotation from above the water.
Newbie question - and sorry for my lack of technical terms :-)
When I watch a lot of lap swimmers they seem to be swimming "flat" i.e. chest pointing at bottom of pool and with the only "rotation" being the head turn to breathe.
However, I picked up Janet Evans' Total Swimming book and she says that for freestyle, the body is constantly rotating 90 deg facing left of pool and 90 deg facing right of the pool. And after pushoff, the only time the chest is parallel to the bottom of the pool is at the precise moment between rotating from one side to side.
I'm confused - are there just different schools of thought? Or is one used more for racing and the other for laps?
I think you may have misunderstood the 90 degree thing (or I am misunderstanding what you are saying). There is a 90 degree axis, however it is from 45 degrees left to 45 degrees right. I don't think anyone really rotates all the way to the sides. As far as the folks in the lap pool, it may be that they are swimming incorrectly (or still living in the 1960's), but it may also be that you are not noticing the rotation from above the water.
