Freestyle technique

For those who don't have the chance to own a copy of Swimming Fastest (E.Maglischo), here's some of the Author's thoughts about this concept. Now, for the record, I still believe that some swimmers may have benefits in *thinking* hip driven like I said earlier. Is Body Roll the Source of Propulsion? In the last decade, there has been widespread acceptance of the belief that rolling the hips from side to side is the major catalyst for propulsion in the front crawl and backstroke (Prichard 1993). Several analogies have been cited from other sports to supports this contention. Proponents of this technique point to the fact that land athletes initiate the striking, swinging and throwing arm motions by first rotating the hips in direction of the motion, procucing a summation of forces, which begins in the legs, that gains force as it travels upward through the hips. ... These experts describe the application of force in swimming as one where rotation of the hips is transferred to the shoulders and arms, providing more force for the armstroke. ... This is a misinterpretation of the concept of force summation, however. What has been overlooked is that the relationship between arm movements and hip rotation in swimming is very different from that in land activities. For one thing, analogies that support the propulsive role of hip rotation take place on land, where the feet are planted against the ground so that the hips can rotate around this center of implantation without causing the body to fly off into space. Swimmers on the other hand are freely suspended in the water, so there is not center of implantation from which they can generate force. ... Because the concept is recent, research on the relationship of hip rotation to propulsive force is sparse. Nevertheless, that research does not support the concept that hip rotation increases propulsive force. In the first study (Payton, HJay, and Mullineaux 1997), to simulate front-crawl swimming, researchers constructed a model of the trucnk and arm. They concluded that body roll did increase the inward and outward velocitites of the hand but not the backward velocities. This means that body roll might increase the production of lift forces during swimming but would have no effect on the production of drag forces. If you believe, as I do, that drag is the dominant propulsive force, then an increase in the amount or speed of hip rotation would do little to improve propulsive force. ... The point I am trying to make is an academinc one. I believe that the arms and shoulders are the pistons that actually provide the force, and the body rotates both to improve the propulsive efforts of the limbs and to maintain good lateral alignment. In other words, the arms lead the swimmers' stroking efforts and the hips follow - not the other way around. Now for the record, Maglischo's approach to swim analysis is one that relies mostly on observation. He doesn't care much about feelings etc. That means that if there's any benefit in feeling that the rotation comes from the hips, well he missed it (and will probably continue to do so). On the other hand, his observations basically confirm that those swimmers (like me) who don't care one second about hip driven freestyle and can still manage to stabilize distance per stroke and achieve desired stroke rate certainly don't suffer from not considering hip driven freestyle. He also has a huge record of changing his mind on some key aspects of swimming from one edition to the other (Swimming Faster (1980), Swimming Even Faster ('93), Swimming Fastest (2003).

For those who don't have the chance to own a copy of Swimming Fastest (E.Maglischo), here's some of the Author's thoughts about this concept. Now, for the record, I still believe that some swimmers may have benefits in *thinking* hip driven like I said earlier. Is Body Roll the Source of Propulsion? In the last decade, there has been widespread acceptance of the belief that rolling the hips from side to side is the major catalyst for propulsion in the front crawl and backstroke (Prichard 1993). Several analogies have been cited from other sports to supports this contention. Proponents of this technique point to the fact that land athletes initiate the striking, swinging and throwing arm motions by first rotating the hips in direction of the motion, procucing a summation of forces, which begins in the legs, that gains force as it travels upward through the hips. ... These experts describe the application of force in swimming as one where rotation of the hips is transferred to the shoulders and arms, providing more force for the armstroke. ... This is a misinterpretation of the concept of force summation, however. What has been overlooked is that the relationship between arm movements and hip rotation in swimming is very different from that in land activities. For one thing, analogies that support the propulsive role of hip rotation take place on land, where the feet are planted against the ground so that the hips can rotate around this center of implantation without causing the body to fly off into space. Swimmers on the other hand are freely suspended in the water, so there is not center of implantation from which they can generate force. ... Because the concept is recent, research on the relationship of hip rotation to propulsive force is sparse. Nevertheless, that research does not support the concept that hip rotation increases propulsive force. In the first study (Payton, HJay, and Mullineaux 1997), to simulate front-crawl swimming, researchers constructed a model of the trucnk and arm. They concluded that body roll did increase the inward and outward velocitites of the hand but not the backward velocities. This means that body roll might increase the production of lift forces during swimming but would have no effect on the production of drag forces. If you believe, as I do, that drag is the dominant propulsive force, then an increase in the amount or speed of hip rotation would do little to improve propulsive force. ... The point I am trying to make is an academinc one. I believe that the arms and shoulders are the pistons that actually provide the force, and the body rotates both to improve the propulsive efforts of the limbs and to maintain good lateral alignment. In other words, the arms lead the swimmers' stroking efforts and the hips follow - not the other way around. Now for the record, Maglischo's approach to swim analysis is one that relies mostly on observation. He doesn't care much about feelings etc. That means that if there's any benefit in feeling that the rotation comes from the hips, well he missed it (and will probably continue to do so). On the other hand, his observations basically confirm that those swimmers (like me) who don't care one second about hip driven freestyle and can still manage to stabilize distance per stroke and achieve desired stroke rate certainly don't suffer from not considering hip driven freestyle. He also has a huge record of changing his mind on some key aspects of swimming from one edition to the other (Swimming Faster (1980), Swimming Even Faster ('93), Swimming Fastest (2003).