Swimming on the Freeway

The third physical property that affects the fundamental way of swimming fast and efficiently is called inertia. Inertia simply means that it is more efficient to keep an object moving at a steady speed than it is to slow it down, or worse, come to a complete stop, and then speed it up again. That is why we get much better gas mileage on the freeway driving 70 mph than around town in stop-and-go traffic averaging 30 mph. You will understand the significance of inertia if you have ever had the misfortune of completely missing a wall on a flip turn. Push off and .....nothing, dead in the water. Trying to get back up to race speed from that outstretched zero velocity position is a killer. So if the objective is to maintain and sustain our swimming speed as constant as possible, how do we do that? Can we do that? It depends on the stroke. Freestyle and backstroke are the only two 'freeway' strokes, while butterfly and breaststroke are definitely stop-and-go strokes. Even in free and back, there is an unavoidable cycle of speed due primarily to the huge drag created by the upper arm during the mid-underwater pull. Backstroke actually comes closest to maintaining the same speed, partly because we don't generate as much speed (power) at the peak, and perhaps less drag (or slowing) at the trough. We have only two real sources of power, our arms and legs. Even though we use our bodies to generate more power, the arms and legs are what propel us. With legs, it is pretty easy. You either have a fast kick or you don't. and if you do have a fast kick, your legs are either in shape or not. If you have a kick, then you have the option of using a longer distance per stroke, hold-out-in front, hip/leg driven freestyle. The legs will help sustain your speed. If you don't have the legs, you have only one other way to try to maintain speed and that is with a faster arm stroke rate. Whether you agree with me that the power is in the front quadrant or not, it doesn't matter, the power clearly comes from the hand being under water. Therefore, the faster we can get the hand back into that power position, the better. Slow your stroke rate without legs and you are going back to stop-and-go traffic. The other way we can help maintain our speed more constant is to reduce drag. By elevating the elbow in the underwater pull and keeping your head down, you may reduce your speed by 30% instead of 40%, for example. The peak velocity may be the same, but the average velocity will increase by not slowing as much. When you don't slow as much, it takes a little less energy to reach the peak speed again. Having trouble learning how to turn those big guns over fast? Try using the dolphin kick with your freestyle pull (or backstroke). Only one arm stroke for each kick...not two kicks per stroke. Do this correctly and it will get you right up the on-ramp and on to the freeway. Now, keep that stroke rate when you are swimming with the flutter kick and you will be surprised how much faster you go. Even though every fast 50 sprinter in the world uses a shoulder-driven high stroke rate freestyle, some of the world's best distance swimmers (the ones without strong legs) do the same. You just have to be in shape for it. Yours in swimming, Gary Sr.