The swim smooth guys have a new site at www.swimtypes.com that attempts to classify swimmers into six types. I found it interesting to try, and to see how the classification changed when I played around with the input values.
One of the things I found interesting was that they said their data show that people are somewhat polarized between sub 1:25/100m continuous pace for "smooth"/ideal swimmers and plus 1:25/100m "overgliders" and that fitness doesn't seem to be a big factor in dividing people across that time. Most people with good technique will be under 1:25 pace and very few swimmers with overglider technique problems will be able to get under 1:25. They use your 400m time as the input so if your time is under 5:40 you will be classified as smooth, much over that and you'll be classified as an overglider or swinger.
In any case I would be interested in seeing how other people classify and whether you agree with the classification.
Guess I'm the party pooper. The whole site seemed a bit silly and simplistic to me.
Isn't that sort of the point, though? The simplistic part, not the silly part. :)
Obviously a web site can't diagnose stroke problems for every swimmer so they've attempted to lump swimmers into several categories. Once you've determine what type of a swimmer you are the site at least helps you focus on what stroke faults you may have and ways to correct those faults.
Guess I'm the party pooper. The whole site seemed a bit silly and simplistic to me.
Isn't that sort of the point, though? The simplistic part, not the silly part. :)
Obviously a web site can't diagnose stroke problems for every swimmer so they've attempted to lump swimmers into several categories. Once you've determine what type of a swimmer you are the site at least helps you focus on what stroke faults you may have and ways to correct those faults.
