Freestyle technique

I think you're right about coordination. It has to do with rigidity. Being hip-focused, mentally, means being stiff enough to rotate as a unit. Let me add my $0.02: I am a very "hip-centric" swimmer. I don't try to roll as a unit, rather the mental imagery I use is that of a dropped cat landing on its feet. Cats initiate their body roll by starting to rotate the lower body at the hips first and the upper body is just slightly behind the lower. At least that is how it feels when I am feeling very good about my stroke. I saw a video somewhere of Natalie Coughlin explaining that she thinks in a similar way, but she explained it as raising the one hip as the lead motion. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I saw it. I've also found that by concentrating on my hips as the thing that initiates my stroke, I can swim forever, but if I think about my arms in this way I tire much quicker. I think this has to do with the relative muscle masses of the shoulders vs. the core muscles. That, plus it puts less stress on my shoulders and makes EVF much easier and less painful. (EVF is a trick I added this year - zowie!) However, I would be willing to bet that swimming is one the verge of a better understanding of technique as it applies to the various distances. What will shake out of this is that the longer the distance, the more the hips are focused on and the shorter the distance, the more the arms are focused on. Furthermore, I'd bet that very short distances will have NO front quadrant swimming and that as the distance gets longer, the more you will see some front quadrant technique. (NOT CATCH-UP.) The "one-size-fits-all" approach that we've seen - be it copying a certain swimmer's technique regardless of the distance or subscribing to a rigid school of thought - is over. I saw a video of an Australian who is coaching at Texas describe his belief that for drop-dead sprinting you should use a rotary motion with an almost downward scooping motion as the arm enters the water. This sounds just about perfect to me. If I were a drop-dead sprinter (no frickin' way), that's the technique I'd be aiming for, although I'd also have the name of a good shoulder surgeon handy. Again, I can't remember the coach's name or where I saw it, but I'm sure someone knows. -LBJ

I think you're right about coordination. It has to do with rigidity. Being hip-focused, mentally, means being stiff enough to rotate as a unit. Let me add my $0.02: I am a very "hip-centric" swimmer. I don't try to roll as a unit, rather the mental imagery I use is that of a dropped cat landing on its feet. Cats initiate their body roll by starting to rotate the lower body at the hips first and the upper body is just slightly behind the lower. At least that is how it feels when I am feeling very good about my stroke. I saw a video somewhere of Natalie Coughlin explaining that she thinks in a similar way, but she explained it as raising the one hip as the lead motion. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I saw it. I've also found that by concentrating on my hips as the thing that initiates my stroke, I can swim forever, but if I think about my arms in this way I tire much quicker. I think this has to do with the relative muscle masses of the shoulders vs. the core muscles. That, plus it puts less stress on my shoulders and makes EVF much easier and less painful. (EVF is a trick I added this year - zowie!) However, I would be willing to bet that swimming is one the verge of a better understanding of technique as it applies to the various distances. What will shake out of this is that the longer the distance, the more the hips are focused on and the shorter the distance, the more the arms are focused on. Furthermore, I'd bet that very short distances will have NO front quadrant swimming and that as the distance gets longer, the more you will see some front quadrant technique. (NOT CATCH-UP.) The "one-size-fits-all" approach that we've seen - be it copying a certain swimmer's technique regardless of the distance or subscribing to a rigid school of thought - is over. I saw a video of an Australian who is coaching at Texas describe his belief that for drop-dead sprinting you should use a rotary motion with an almost downward scooping motion as the arm enters the water. This sounds just about perfect to me. If I were a drop-dead sprinter (no frickin' way), that's the technique I'd be aiming for, although I'd also have the name of a good shoulder surgeon handy. Again, I can't remember the coach's name or where I saw it, but I'm sure someone knows. -LBJ