I was cruising the Internet last night and somehow got on the subject of straight-arm recovery (SAR). You know, like Janet Evans and a few other prominent swimmers. The most recent being YouTube - Swimming - Go Swim Straight Arm Freestyle with Scott Tucker.
From what I read, SAR may help to reduce shoulder strain in older swimmers (i.e., me) and those with less flexible shoulders, so I gave it a try this morning just for fun.
I have to say, I like it better than high-elbow. I did several 25 sprints using both techniques and found I wasn't any slower using SAR, and I might actually be slightly faster.
The thing I was really struck with is how effortless it felt to swim SAR as compared to high-elbow (for me anyway), and I also found my pull to be more complete. With high-elbow, I have a tendency to shorten my stroke a little bit and not follow-through completely. With SAR, this isn't the case for me.
I was just curious as to how many others in Masters-land regularly swim using straight-arm recovery.
Parents
Former Member
Did your daughter take any time off before swimming with SAR, or did she simply switch from one style to the other while maintaining the same training schedule?
My daughter is a "social" club swimmer, so any changes she made weren't completely intentional. It was more fear of the (perceived) wrath of her coach. :) Basically, the kids have three weeks off between the end of LCM season in July and the beginning of SCY season in August. She was moved up to a higher practice group, and the coach of her new group noticed that she wasn't extending her left arm fully on her freestyle. He pointed it out to her on the first day of practice, and she says that he also told her to straighten her arm some on her recovery. Her shoulder pain is gone, and it took only three weeks to disappear completely. It was bothering her some at the beginning of the season. She is practicing noticeably faster, and we're interested to see how that will translate to meet times.
Did your daughter take any time off before swimming with SAR, or did she simply switch from one style to the other while maintaining the same training schedule?
My daughter is a "social" club swimmer, so any changes she made weren't completely intentional. It was more fear of the (perceived) wrath of her coach. :) Basically, the kids have three weeks off between the end of LCM season in July and the beginning of SCY season in August. She was moved up to a higher practice group, and the coach of her new group noticed that she wasn't extending her left arm fully on her freestyle. He pointed it out to her on the first day of practice, and she says that he also told her to straighten her arm some on her recovery. Her shoulder pain is gone, and it took only three weeks to disappear completely. It was bothering her some at the beginning of the season. She is practicing noticeably faster, and we're interested to see how that will translate to meet times.
