This may be opening a can of worms here, but I'm having an argument with someone in my group. If someone is drafting off of you in a pool set (like 4x200 SCY), does it hurt your effort? Does the lead swimmer have to work harder or experience some other negative benefit?
I've read a bit about aerodynamics and it would seem that in car racing, the lead car actually gets a positive benefit, but I'm not sure if that's true in swimming.
The lead swimmer works relatively harder. The person who is most hurt would be the drafter, since they are doing less work, and this has both mental and physical repercussions. Someone who drafts off 100% of the time has a very poor concept of how fast they are and never experiences how much energy it really takes to go that fast in a lead situation.
This has been my experience. I was a big-time drafter in high school until my senior year when I got fast enough to lead a lane. The first 2 weeks were miserable for me in practice, I was sucking wind while my lane mates were chatting. After I became conditioned I noticed when others led, if I didn't wait 5-7 seconds, every swim felt like a warm-up. Incidentally, I had my fastest swims as a senior (much of it due to becoming a year older I'm sure, but I think leading helped prepare me more for what it would be like during a race). Now I have no one to draft off of but that's fine with me. More like racing!!!
:banana:
The lead swimmer works relatively harder. The person who is most hurt would be the drafter, since they are doing less work, and this has both mental and physical repercussions. Someone who drafts off 100% of the time has a very poor concept of how fast they are and never experiences how much energy it really takes to go that fast in a lead situation.
This has been my experience. I was a big-time drafter in high school until my senior year when I got fast enough to lead a lane. The first 2 weeks were miserable for me in practice, I was sucking wind while my lane mates were chatting. After I became conditioned I noticed when others led, if I didn't wait 5-7 seconds, every swim felt like a warm-up. Incidentally, I had my fastest swims as a senior (much of it due to becoming a year older I'm sure, but I think leading helped prepare me more for what it would be like during a race). Now I have no one to draft off of but that's fine with me. More like racing!!!
:banana:
