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.
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I don't have a lot of videos of myself swimming. My only common free events are the 200 and the 400/500, and I don't know that those are all that different speeds. Here is my 500 at Clovis:
www.floswimming.org/.../178358
Your turnover isn't as fast as I thought it would be for the 500, with you using a straight arm recovery
I don't have a lot of videos of myself swimming. My only common free events are the 200 and the 400/500, and I don't know that those are all that different speeds. Here is my 500 at Clovis:
www.floswimming.org/.../178358
Your turnover isn't as fast as I thought it would be for the 500, with you using a straight arm recovery
