I was wondering about people's opinions of this website. In many ways I find it helpful, but there are a couple things they say that is a little different from what I've heard from other sources. Couple examples;
1. The Mr. Smooth demonstrator bends his wrist to initiate the catch, and ultimately the elbow drops along the arc. Are they perhaps just being realists for most of us? I had sent a video of myself to Glen Mills (from GoSwim), and he suggested that I not "scoop" with my hands to initiate the catch.
2. This is really interesting. They say that on the catch, it is a myth that you should feel a huge amount of resistance with each pull. Here is the link; www.swimsmooth.com/catch.html
I like a lot of what they say, including being careful not to overreach. It kind of woke me up to the fact that I often try to hard to get distance per stroke.
I wonder what you guys think about the site, as well as the Mr. Smooth demonstrator's stroke.
Parents
Former Member
I've seen some very fast distance swimmers who use the keyhole stroke. In this case there is an outward sweep during the catch that can provide some sculling propulsion.
It is virtually impossible to obtain propulsion from sculling while swimming reasonably fast freestyle. With water flowing past your hand at 2m/s you would have to scull at unreasonable speed and/or the angle of attack would have to be adjusted so that the vast majority of effort would be wasted in sideways forces. These swimmers are almost assuredly positioning their hand rather than sculling with it.
Breaststroke is a different issue as the speed can drop quite low, still for the most part what is called sculling is actually just a positioning of the hands for the catch. The angle of attack is mostly to reduce drag during this positioning rather than being propulsive.
I've seen some very fast distance swimmers who use the keyhole stroke. In this case there is an outward sweep during the catch that can provide some sculling propulsion.
It is virtually impossible to obtain propulsion from sculling while swimming reasonably fast freestyle. With water flowing past your hand at 2m/s you would have to scull at unreasonable speed and/or the angle of attack would have to be adjusted so that the vast majority of effort would be wasted in sideways forces. These swimmers are almost assuredly positioning their hand rather than sculling with it.
Breaststroke is a different issue as the speed can drop quite low, still for the most part what is called sculling is actually just a positioning of the hands for the catch. The angle of attack is mostly to reduce drag during this positioning rather than being propulsive.
