Today one of my teammates, probably the fastest swimmer on our team, was telling me that I should think of aiming my hands toward the bottom of the opposite end of the pool rather than of reaching forward before catching. When I watched him swim, it still looked like he was extending forward, so I'm not sure if the move is just subtle or "a feeling" or if it is really a change of arm angle. When I tried to reach down, I felt like I wasn't getting full extension, but he said it looked better. I don't want to go through what feels like a fundamental stroke change unless I'm sure I understand what I'm supposed to be doing. Can someone enlighten me? Thanks!
It all really depends on what kind of Freestyle stroke you want to swim. The long - close to catch-up Thorpe like stroke is great for 200+ distance. But it will not work for most swimmers in a 50 or 100 (Lezak would be the exception). I read a comment by Matt Grevers that he actually had to re-learn his Freestyle by pointing his fingers down when entering the water instead of pointing them at the wall.
For the new straight- arm recovery (or close to it), sprinters enter the water ready to pull - they don't need to reach any more.
Here is a link to the very best underwater video I have seen - the 4x100 Free from Beijing:
www.nbcolympics.com/.../share.html
You can see almost an entire 50 from Sullivan right underneath him. 50 from Phelps sprinting. You can see somebody like Bousquet doing the straight arm recovery Free, Weber-Gale seems to almost shorten his stroke on purpose, and you get Lezak swimming almost catch-up on one side.
This sort of thing is what would be maddening to me if I were a coach. You have these world-class sprinters who have a lot of differences in their strokes...why? Erik says that "almost catch-up" is not good for the 50/100 but that Lezak is an exception -- why is that?
I am certainly not disputing anything Erik is saying...it just makes blanket statements that "one MUST do so-and-so" a little difficult to take sometimes, because there is almost always a high-profile exception. And sometimes what was once seen as an aberration (eg Janet Evans' straight-arm recovery) eventually becomes more accepted.
Throw in all the factors that Heather mentions...this is far from being an exact science yet.:frustrated: (That doesn't mean we shouldn't try, of course.)
It all really depends on what kind of Freestyle stroke you want to swim. The long - close to catch-up Thorpe like stroke is great for 200+ distance. But it will not work for most swimmers in a 50 or 100 (Lezak would be the exception). I read a comment by Matt Grevers that he actually had to re-learn his Freestyle by pointing his fingers down when entering the water instead of pointing them at the wall.
For the new straight- arm recovery (or close to it), sprinters enter the water ready to pull - they don't need to reach any more.
Here is a link to the very best underwater video I have seen - the 4x100 Free from Beijing:
www.nbcolympics.com/.../share.html
You can see almost an entire 50 from Sullivan right underneath him. 50 from Phelps sprinting. You can see somebody like Bousquet doing the straight arm recovery Free, Weber-Gale seems to almost shorten his stroke on purpose, and you get Lezak swimming almost catch-up on one side.
You don't necessarily want to spear the water at an angle exactly. It's more a matter of letting the hands naturally drop down deeper in a kind of natural way with the body roll--don't push down exactly, just let them drift with a little bit of pressure at most--before initialting the catch. You really don't want to use effort to push water down, hence the need for patience. Ideally, your other hand is still finishing its pull while the forward one is effortlessly dropping.
For what it's worth, in my own (hardly perfect) freestyle, my leading hand is probably at least 12 inches beneathe the surface, and my wrist angled slightly so that my fingertips are pointed towards the pool bottom and my palms are perpendicular to the surface, before I initiate the hard pulling phase. As your hand moves parallel to your body, try to keep the fingertips pointed down towards the bottom, adjusting your wrist from an initial bent-down angle, to flat with your forearm midway through the stroke, to a bent-up angle towards the end of the stroke. This will keep the surface area of your hand pushing water horizontally throughout.
In sprints, I think all bets are off with the catch--you almost have to power your hand into optimum pulling position quickly, and maybe this does involve spearing the water a little more sharply than with distance swimming. It would be good to watch some sprinters underwater in slow motion to see if there strokes are significantly different in this regard than distance swimmers.
To sum up:
1. a bit of patience to allow the speared hand to drop
2. adjust your wrist continuously through the pull phase so as to keep fingertips angled towards the bottom of the pool as much as possible throughout the pull so hand surface maximizes horizontal water movement
All I've ever read about the front part of catch is totally in agreement with your great post. All the greats swimmers/coaches/authors talks about patience at the start in EVF form, the better you set your arm the better result at the end you'll get, don't rush it, unfortunately most of coach at the local pool completely ignore this crucial part of the stroke, well they ignore EVF at all :(.
The great thorpe is the master of patience at the start, just looking on youtube for tons of examples, a little different is in the 50s, today is more pure brute force, strength that perfect technique, the forearms have not even the time to go full extension before to start going down, a lot of trashing but from 100s and up the patience is there, a little bit in 100, at full in 200s and up.
You don't necessarily want to spear the water at an angle exactly. It does seem that at the full extension your hands are still only 4-6" or so deep. It's more a matter of letting the hands naturally drop down deeper in a kind of natural way with the body roll--don't push down exactly, just let them drift with a little bit of pressure at most--before initialting the catch. You really don't want to use effort to push water down, hence the need for patience. Ideally, your other hand is still finishing its pull while the forward one is effortlessly dropping.
We've all seen swimmers thrashing in an attempt to go faster, and using an enormous amount of energy trying to move water, albeit in the wrong direction (i.e., pushing straight down the second their extended hands hit the water). It's easier to see what NOT to do than to see what you should do. For what it's worth, in my own (hardly perfect) freestyle, my leading hand is probably at least 12 inches beneathe the surface, and my wrist angled slightly so that my fingertips are pointed towards the pool bottom and my palms are perpendicular to the surface, before I initiate the hard pulling phase. As your hand moves parallel to your body, try to keep the fingertips pointed down towards the bottom, adjusting your wrist from an initial bent-down angle, to flat with your forearm midway through the stroke, to a bent-up angle towards the end of the stroke. This will keep the surface area of your hand pushing water horizontally throughout.
In sprints, I think all bets are off with the catch--you almost have to power your hand into optimum pulling position quickly, and maybe this does involve spearing the water a little more sharply than with distance swimming. It would be good to watch some sprinters underwater in slow motion to see if there strokes are significantly different in this regard than distance swimmers.
To sum up:
1. a bit of patience to allow the speared hand to drop
2. adjust your wrist continuously through the pull phase so as to keep fingertips angled towards the bottom of the pool as much as possible throughout the pull so hand surface maximizes horizontal water movement
Watch this underwater of Sullivan:
www.youtube.com/watch
Today one of my teammates, probably the fastest swimmer on our team, was telling me that I should think of aiming my hands toward the bottom of the opposite end of the pool rather than of reaching forward before catching. When I watched him swim, it still looked like he was extending forward, so I'm not sure if the move is just subtle or "a feeling" or if it is really a change of arm angle. When I tried to reach down, I felt like I wasn't getting full extension, but he said it looked better. I don't want to go through what feels like a fundamental stroke change unless I'm sure I understand what I'm supposed to be doing. Can someone enlighten me? Thanks!
That is probably the worst video to watch of Sullivan I would like to see a really good one of his swimming. That is a slowed down sped up one that Lindsay worked on to produce it. We have trouble of getting a good video of his swimming. What we see in that video is fiction repeated and repeated.
I'm not sure if this is exactly with in what we are talking about here but my high school coach used to say your hand should always surprise the water. I always thought this meant that your hand should sort of sneak into the water and never slap it. It requires very relaxed hands. I've heard that really good swimmers will relax their hands so much that their fingers will separate and then come together as they enter the water.
then instead of pushing your hand down, gravity and momentum will move your hand down. this requires your shoulders to be relaxed still. then when you are ready to begin the "push" back your should firms up.
My high school coach's name was A. Fish.
I'd say most people aren't able to just go on feel. I think that is reserved for the few rather than the masses. I also agree that the technique debate is almost pointless. There are definitely things you can do wrong but the spectrum of what's right is much greater.
There will also always be exceptions to any rule - Phelps, Evans, Lezak all have parts of their stroke I would not promote amongst my swimmers. Heck Chris Stevenson has an insanely fast backstroke but I like my shoulders intact too much to ever try and model my backstroke off of his. :notworthy:
I think with years of experience, practice, luck, and talent you can begin to feel what is wrong with your stroke, where errors and slips are, etc.
One great way to work on feel is to swim with your eyes closed - eliminate the visual cues. Note: this can be a bit dangerous. I try to do this frequently and usually not for more than a few strokes before I sneak a peak to make sure I'm not about to kill someone else or ram into a wall or lane line. Another great way is to swim as slowly as possible ... you will inevitably feel your body position, rotation, etc. You can mask it with speed.
Chris Stevenson ... I like my shoulders intact too much to ever try and model my backstroke off of his.
I have a LOT of rotation in backstroke -- more than most -- and I think that puts less of a strain on the shoulders than the "normal" backstroke. I rotate a lot in free, too. Maybe this is one reason (the other being genetics) I haven't had shoulder problems even after many years of competitive swimming.
