I recently posted these 10 myths on some triathlon websites and stirred up some good conversation. So here I go again.....
Myth #1 To go faster in swimming one must push out the back of the arm pull.
I believe this myth may have originated with an article that appeared some time in the 90's. The article showed a swimming figure mimicking Alex Popov's freestyle pull. It showed the figure with the left arm in front and the the right arm in back ready to exit the water for the recovery. A graph showed the velocity of Popov's body in the water as a function of the position of the hand. The velocity ranged from nearly 3 meters per second down to about 1.4 meters per second during a single pull cycle. The slowest speed occurred when the hand appeared to be at around the shoulder and the fastest speed occurred in the position shown in the figure. The author erroneously concluded that since the speed was so high as the right hand was about to exit, that this is where the most power must be....hence push out the back.
My study with the velocity meter doing freestyle concurs that it is these two positions that consistently show the highest and lowest velocities of the stroke cycle in freestyle (though I was seeing more like a 30 to 40% drop, not 50%). But it is not because of the power out the back that we see the speed highest in this position. It is because it is by far the position of least drag (most streamlined). The propulsive power in this position actually is derived mostly from the left arm out in front and the kick, with little or no power coming from the end of the arm pull. The propulsive power may be even greater when we see the hand at the shoulder (slowest body speed), but because the arm is jetting straight out, perpendicular to the body, the drag coefficient skyrockets and our speed drops instantly.
The harm that is done by pushing out the back is that it delays the recovery and slows the stroke rate. Most of the arm propulsive power is derived from the entry to the shoulder (called the front quadrant....about 1/2 of the total arm cycle time is spent there). So the sooner one can get the hand back to the front quadrant after leaving the shoulder, the better.
If you happened to be blessed with Mercury motors for legs, like Michael Phelps, Ian Thorpe, Gary Jr, Natalie Coughlin etc, then you can afford to use a slower stroke rate...but hold in front, not in back.
For the rest of us mortals, keep your arms moving faster and in the front quadrant. Think you can't do that for a 1500? Think again. Lot's of distance swimmers use high arm stroke rates. You just have to train that way and get fit.
Regards,
Gary Sr.
The Race Club
Former Member
I'm really confused. The thread title indicated that ten myths would be debunked, but there's only been one.
That's all well and good, but what I am not so sure I accept is the explanation Gary proposes for those velocity changes in terms of propulsion vs drag.
I don't accept the "no brainer" analogy of pushing off a wall with a perpendicular arm, vs the drag that same arm exerts during swimming. During the arm cycle, is the arm truly moving forward (creating reverse drag) relative to the surrounding water? Put pressure sensors (or some such) on the forearms and check.
Let me be clear that I agree that the front quadrant is where much of the propulsion comes from, and that a higher turnover creates more velocity. That is clear from watching sprinters. What is less clear -- to me at least -- is if a higher turnover is the most energy-efficient way to swim a distance event. This is why the question of drag is important.
The upper arm is truly moving forward during nearly the entire underwater pull and is responsible for most of the frontal drag of the arm/hand combination. You can test this yourself by taping a streamer (like on a bicycle handle) to your upper arm and one to your wrist, then film yourself underwater from the side. You will see the streamer on the upper arm floating to the back while the one on the wrist changes from floating backward to forward once the hand reverses direction. The increase in frontal drag caused by the protruding upper arm moving forward is extremely high.
If you want to test the difference in drag that simply changing the arm position makes, kick 25 meters hard with fins on, one arm in front and the other pointing straight down. Now do the same with the arm bent 90 degrees and to the side. Same arm, same surface area... a lot less drag with the bend. Changing the shape of your arm changes the drag coefficient.
Gary Sr.
Again, Gary, thanks for the very helpful discussion. I got back in the water just over two years ago and basically had to relearn freestyle. I found just what you said, that pulling straight back from the initial entry with a high elbow, trying to "anchor" the forearm into the water, then keeping the elbow away from the side in the back half of the stroke is more efficient for me. However the upper arm needs to move during the stroke, mechanically there is no other way. To minimize drag, I could see keeping your upper arm pointed ahead might help, but to accelerate your "anchor" you need to move your upper arm in a way that will maximize the force you can exert. Ian Thorpe does this beautifully, as does Grant Hackett -- both are very efficient and delay moving their upper arms to the side during their pull.
Your statement about the release is what I suspected, that you should sweep your hand out (have it act like a wing again) and slide it out of the water.
From a fluid mechanics standpoint, it is the difference in velocity that causes drag forces that both allow and inhibit your movement through the water. In a solid, the force is proportional to displacement, in a fluid the force is proportional to velocity. So generating hand speed (and, mechanically, arm speed) while minimizing form drag by good body position should provide the highest peak speed. Great! Now I need to figure out how to swim more than 50 yards ...
I'll look forward to further myth-busting!
Just remember that the hand moves very little in the water during the underwater pull....in a circle of about 2 ft diameter. The propulsive power (drag) created by the hand/forearm is related to the surface area moving backward, the power exerted over that surface area and the counter force we can generate to pull against. More on this to come!
Gary
The upper arm is truly moving forward during nearly the entire underwater pull and is responsible for most of the frontal drag of the arm/hand combination. You can test this yourself by taping a streamer (like on a bicycle handle) to your upper arm and one to your wrist, then film yourself underwater from the side. You will see the streamer on the upper arm floating to the back while the one on the wrist changes from floating backward to forward once the hand reverses direction. The increase in frontal drag caused by the protruding upper arm moving forward is extremely high.
If you want to test the difference in drag that simply changing the arm position makes, kick 25 meters hard with fins on, one arm in front and the other pointing straight down. Now do the same with the arm bent 90 degrees and to the side. Same arm, same surface area... a lot less drag with the bend. Changing the shape of your arm changes the drag coefficient.
Gary Sr.
I'm having a tad hard time picturing this just verbally described, are you talking about these two arm positions - in the drag example?
(They're just roughly and quickly put in that position on my end, not meant to indicate in detail what body is really doing when swimming)
Second thought, I made the pic with the elbow dropped oops, better example would probably be with the arm out to the side, no?
Swimming science journal always has interesting info about swimming biometrics and other things. I haven't read it as much last couple of years as I used to:
http://coachsci.sdsu.edu/
With my hubby being a head coach and a director of one of the larger clubs around (Mission Viejo Nadadores) and me being his right, and sometimes left hand, we try to keep up and incorporate stuff.
Are you saying that from start of the catch/pull to the release point, the arm only moves about 2ft?? So, it would feel like the catch would start way out front and that one should release the water as the pulling arm travels past the shoulder area?
I think he is referring to how the hand travels relative to a stationary observer,not relative to the body.
No, I beleive Gary is referring to keeping the upper part of the arm nearly parrallel to the water's surface, just below the surface and the lower arm pointing at the bottom of the pool.
The upper arm is truly moving forward during nearly the entire underwater pull and is responsible for most of the frontal drag of the arm/hand combination. ... The increase in frontal drag caused by the protruding upper arm moving forward is extremely high.
Yes, I can see that. Actually I think that just breaking the streamline position and "exposing" the shoulder would probably cause a huge increase in drag due to a change in fluid flow pattern around the swimmer.
My big (potential) problem with serious training to increase EVF at my age is the possibility of injury due to more strain on shoulder and possibly elbow joints. While my stroke is very far from perfect, I've been using it for almost 40 years without injury, and I worry about the effect of a drastic change on that track record.
Drastic alteration of a stroke pattern at 45 has a whole new set of considerations compared to changing at age 20. So I tend to try to focus on small changes instead, for better or worse.
Drastic alteration of a stroke pattern at 45 has a whole new set of considerations compared to changing at age 20. So I tend to try to focus on small changes instead, for better or worse.
+1
I'm struggling with shoulder issues right now. Fortunately, the MRI I had last week showed no rotator cuff tear as my orthopedic surgeon thought it would. Still, I wonder how much of what I've gone through in the past few months is due to my attempts to improve my stroke, but tried to do things my aging body (I'm 56) simply won't allow anymore.
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