I guess its not always about swimming "pretty" when you can throw down a 41.8 100 free...Nathan Adrian's in lane 5, check out the slow start, horrible/short break-outs where he hits the wave on the 2nd & 3rd turns (granted, when you're that far ahead you would have to stay under for at least 12yds to miss it)...and explain to me the change to staright-arm/windmill the last 5 strokes?
www.floswimming.org/.../89677
Former Member
For some reason I saw the title of this thread and immediately thought Paul Smith's gotta be involved in some kind of self-inspection commentary.
:anim_coffee:
Then it would be titled "Short and Stumpy"
Can't be ugly if the clock is beautiful.
Now here's a statement with no bias attached! My own thought is that ALL sprinters look ugly in the water, kind of like a firehose with no one holding it. Or, maybe, a riot at the opening sale of the newest electricaltronical gadget.
I guess its not always about swimming "pretty" when you can throw down a 41.8 100 free...Nathan Adrian's in lane 5, check out the slow start, horrible/short break-outs where he hits the wave on the 2nd & 3rd turns (granted, when you're that far ahead you would have to stay under for at least 12yds to miss it)...and explain to me the change to staright-arm/windmill the last 5 strokes?
www.floswimming.org/.../89677
I listened to Mike Bottom speak about the "threestyle freestyle". It talks about three different types of freestyle that he teaches all his swimmers. I believe he said Nathan Adrian is one of the swimmers that can switch freely and effectively during a race. He purposely changes over to a straight arm freestyle at the end of his race. I can't remember why...I guess its faster for him. you can purchase the talk from the ASCA site for 99 cents.
Don't be dissin' the Bear(s)! And don't they have the same complaints about Nystrand? Although I cannot provide evidence, I would assume that Nathan is very efficient under water, and what goes on above the water is less relevant to generating propulsion.
Jim...don't forget...UCSB and Cal have some long-standing ties (including almost getting tossed in jail back at NCAA's in Cleveland when you guys won) and we love to wave dollar bills at the Stanford folks just as much as you!
But go back and look at that swim again...his last 5 strokes do look very much like Nystrand, but I've never seen anyone switch withn a race like this before?
Hadn't noticed the switch to a windmill stroke at the end, but it sure is obvious now that you mention it! Maybe he's found that stroke works better when he really starts to tighten up at the end of his races?
Interesting thing about Adrian: he's about 6'6" despite being ethnically half Chinese! His mom is Chinese and grew up in Hong Kong. His brother is big, too. Maybe mom has some of that Yao Ming DNA :)
John, I didn't say his "stroke" was ugly...I think he has a very fluid, powerful stroke with an insane kick. What I was refering to were the things I listed; slow start, breakouts on the last 2 turns and switching to the windmill arms the last 5 strokes (which is a bit ugly)...
Clemmons...I never did like you much. :)
Paul...that wasn't directed at you. Didn't say you did. Hoffman said it was ugly. I was asking him what was ugly about it...not you
I guess its not always about swimming "pretty" when you can throw down a 41.8 100 free...Nathan Adrian's in lane 5, check out the slow start, horrible/short break-outs where he hits the wave on the 2nd & 3rd turns (granted, when you're that far ahead you would have to stay under for at least 12yds to miss it)...and explain to me the change to staright-arm/windmill the last 5 strokes?
www.floswimming.org/.../89677
Don't be dissin' the Bear(s)! And don't they have the same complaints about Nystrand? Although I cannot provide evidence, I would assume that Nathan is very efficient under water, and what goes on above the water is less relevant to generating propulsion.
Today in practice, I tried switching to straight-arm free on the last 25's of a 200 free and a 200 IM. It didn't feel weird or anything; there's definite potential here. This was during warmup so the next step will be to try this in a main set.
What is ugly about his stroke? David Marsh is converting Jones to a more "open recovery" in attempts to get him faster(or at least not blown out of the water by Bousquet again)
It is Janet Reno ugly. There is just no beauty to it.
Notice please (for Fort too) that I did not say WRONG.
Dara Torres is very fast, and her stroke is beautiful.
