Myth #5. The reason we pull freestyle underwater with a high elbow is to increase the surface area of our arm.
Forgive me. In case you hadn't noticed that I am preaching high elbows a lot, there is a reason. At the end of each camp at the Race Club I always end by prioritizing the 10 or so points that I make to improve speed and efficiency. The top three are 1) High elbow 2) High elbow and 3) High elbow. Dropping the elbow is like taking a drag suit into competition...only worse, because you don't feel or see what is happening to you...until your tongue is hanging out.
So when I ask campers and coaches, why the high elbow, I usually get increased power or increased surface area. I don't think either one is right.
We all know from throwing on a pair of hand paddles (which, by the way, my coach Flip Darr, reinvented in 1967...Ben Franklin was the first to use, I believe) we get a surge of power from the added surface area. So by creating EVF, do we also increase the surface area of our pulling arm?
First, the only area that matters is the part of the arm that ends up creating propulsive drag, which is the hand and forearm, so we can forget about the upper arm for this argument. Now the question is do we have more surface area of the hand/forearm in the EVF position than we do in the deep arm/elbow position?
We are really talking about the surface area projected onto a plane perpendicular to our long axis, which is the area creating the propulsive force in the backward direction. In theory, one could argue that a poor swimmer leads so much more with the elbow in the dropped position (the hand/forearm creates a forward angle at the elbow joint) that the surface area is reduced.
But with reasonable swimmers that is not what you see. From head on or from the rear, you don't see much difference in the surface area of the forearm/hand regardless of whether it is in the dropped position or the EVF position. The surface area of the arm remains the same.
Therefore, I rest my case. The reason we like the EVF position is to reduce drag....and drag remains the #1 enemy of the swimmer.
Gary Sr.
Parents
Former Member
You're almost nailing it Lindsay, for we are always wasting energy, and doubling the force means we're wasting even more energy. So why bother increasing the surface area, if all we're doing is cancelling out most of the propulsive forces? Surface area only determines how much fulcrum we use period. Better to use less surface area with an efficient stroke and not waste so much energy.
I'm a little confused by your terminology. A fulcrum is the pivot point in a lever, it doesn't have a property that can be increased or decreased so I don't understand that sentence.
The surface area doesn't cancel out the propulsive forces, quite the opposite, the more effective surface area you have the greater forward propelling force the water exerts on you and the less your pull slips. Picture paddling a canoe. The larger your paddle is and the more it is aligned at right angles to the direction of travel the less it will slip as you try and pull the canoe past it. Orienting the paddle or your forearm to be perpendicular to the water maximizes your efficiency.
Perhaps we have different ideas on what a dropped elbow is, on another read of Gary's post I see that he refers to deep arm/elbow position:
Now the question is do we have more surface area of the hand/forearm in the EVF position than we do in the deep arm/elbow position?
So perhaps he is referring to a relatively straight arm pull where the elbow and forearm are relatively deep in the water. When I talk about a dropped elbow I mean that the elbow is not rotated outward, so it is pointing at the bottom and the forearm is pointed nearly in the direction of travel, as opposed to a high elbow where the elbow is rotated to point at the side and the forearm is at nearly right angles to the direction of travel.
A straight arm pull is generally inefficient because for most of the arc the arm is not perpendicular to the direction of travel and so a lot of the effort is being wasted in vertical forces that don't move you forward. On top of that you have to apply larger forces in the shoulder to produce the same force in the hand and forearm that you would with a bent elbow, due to the longer lever. You can concentrate the force you exert during the period when the arm is vertical, but then you have a briefer propulsive period.
You're almost nailing it Lindsay, for we are always wasting energy, and doubling the force means we're wasting even more energy. So why bother increasing the surface area, if all we're doing is cancelling out most of the propulsive forces? Surface area only determines how much fulcrum we use period. Better to use less surface area with an efficient stroke and not waste so much energy.
I'm a little confused by your terminology. A fulcrum is the pivot point in a lever, it doesn't have a property that can be increased or decreased so I don't understand that sentence.
The surface area doesn't cancel out the propulsive forces, quite the opposite, the more effective surface area you have the greater forward propelling force the water exerts on you and the less your pull slips. Picture paddling a canoe. The larger your paddle is and the more it is aligned at right angles to the direction of travel the less it will slip as you try and pull the canoe past it. Orienting the paddle or your forearm to be perpendicular to the water maximizes your efficiency.
Perhaps we have different ideas on what a dropped elbow is, on another read of Gary's post I see that he refers to deep arm/elbow position:
Now the question is do we have more surface area of the hand/forearm in the EVF position than we do in the deep arm/elbow position?
So perhaps he is referring to a relatively straight arm pull where the elbow and forearm are relatively deep in the water. When I talk about a dropped elbow I mean that the elbow is not rotated outward, so it is pointing at the bottom and the forearm is pointed nearly in the direction of travel, as opposed to a high elbow where the elbow is rotated to point at the side and the forearm is at nearly right angles to the direction of travel.
A straight arm pull is generally inefficient because for most of the arc the arm is not perpendicular to the direction of travel and so a lot of the effort is being wasted in vertical forces that don't move you forward. On top of that you have to apply larger forces in the shoulder to produce the same force in the hand and forearm that you would with a bent elbow, due to the longer lever. You can concentrate the force you exert during the period when the arm is vertical, but then you have a briefer propulsive period.
