I am assuming S is still the dominant pull pattern, but if you are using I, are you using it 100% of the time and for all distances?
I am not collecting this information for any purpose, just curious how the I pattern adoption is going along and what people think of it.
S Pattern: Entering close to the median line of the body, then sculling out before beginning the catch. At the catch the hand begins an inward sweep before turning outward somewhere mid torso with the hand underneath the body. The stroke finishes and exits the water on the final outward sweep. See picture.
I Pattern: The hand enters wide of the mid line of the body with no scull before the catch. From the catch to the finish is approximately a straight line.
The difference between S and I is S has phases in different directions while I tries to maintain a single direction the entire time.
lh5.ggpht.com/.../SANY0001.JPG
I think Eddie Reese said it best in one of his videos, he called the"S" a wiggle. It's not straight back, but it's not the pattern we learned from Doc Counsilman either.
I attempt to use an "I" pull, but my hand moves around some. I don't deliberately move my hand in any pattern, other than to try to keep it straight under me and not "wiggle" during a pull set. So I would have to say "I don't know" for the answer...
I changed my freestyle stroke around some, after taking 15 years off, and found that having someone look at my stroke helped a lot. I was trying to reach too far and breaking out of streamline at the front, and I was letting my elbow too near my body at the back half of the stroke. I changed those things and my shoulders feel much, much better.
I thought S pattern was with the Dodo now...
Hey, I resemble that remark. :afraid:
I learned the "S" style in the 60's, so I don't even want to think of trying to change at this point. Besides, I love seeing the little vortices my hands make in the water as I pull. :agree: I wouldn't want to mess that up by changing my pull.
Your poll got me to thinking and upon doing a little Internet searching, found a really interesting study conducted by two Kentucky universities titled "MOTOR CONTROL PATTERNS IN ELITE SWIMMERS’ FREESTYLE STROKE DURING DRYLAND SWIMMING". It touches on patterns used in the water and the purpose of the study was to see whether elite swimmers used differing patterns in a dryland situation. Here's a link to the PDF.
For those of you who asked for definitions, I added them to the first post, plus a picture. Hopefully that helps.
Allan, if you are going to be picky, S pattern is a misnomer too. It is called I pattern because you are trying to draw a straight line, not because because it really ends up looking like an I.
In my opinion, if you out sweep, in sweep, out sweep, you are doing S. No sweeping, then you are doing I. That would leave it wide open for doing neither as well, which the poll didn't account for, sorry others.
The I pull...
It's not exactly straight back, but very close.
As Glen said, variations in the hand pitch make it follow a wiggle compared to the pronounced S pattern.
YouTube- Grant Hackett Swimming Technique
YouTube- Ian Thorpe-front
Working on the I, but I've been using the S for so long, I still revert to it. The S returns mainly when I am tired and sometimes when I breathe, but I would like to be rid of it.
Just watched a vid of myself to find my right does an I (but too deep) and left does a S (crosses in the front as well as middle). :afraid:
Might be fixed some now though.
Isin't that an "hour glass" pattern I read about? The stroke travels a greater distance in that pattern, and is therefore more efficient, than if it went perfectly straight from A to B? :argue:
