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.
I couldn't resist this thread...anything to do with Janet Evans just fires me up! She is, to this day, the most inspirational swimmer to me. And not just because of her results...it was her training regime that was so AWESOME. Anyone else swimming 20 X 400 descends would be puking and praying for death not smiling and looking all hot. Doing even one --just one --of her daily workouts would be an achievement.
Janet Evans was a gritty swimmer and ferocious competitor...who just happened to swim with SAR. People seem to think that she became great because of her technique. I don;t buy that.
One other thing, and this is not meant to take anything away from Janet Evans.
I often hear comments to the effect that so-and-so great champion became great because of their "ferocious competitiveness," the fact that they just "won't let themselves lose." The list of such athletes is long: Evans, Jordan, Armstrong, Phelps, etc etc. I do not doubt that such people are indeed driven to a degree that most of us can barely fathom.
But the implication (usually as told by the sports media) is often that these people are pretty ordinary, talent-wise, but have some inner quality that elevates them above the hoi-polloi. This story is especially appealing to the American psyche.
Desire alone isn't enough. I have known quite a few hard workers and many lazy talents. A great champion is almost always an extremely unlikely combination of crazy-competitiveness and crazy-talent, and Evans was no exception to this rule. It added up to an amazing swimmer.
I couldn't resist this thread...anything to do with Janet Evans just fires me up! She is, to this day, the most inspirational swimmer to me. And not just because of her results...it was her training regime that was so AWESOME. Anyone else swimming 20 X 400 descends would be puking and praying for death not smiling and looking all hot. Doing even one --just one --of her daily workouts would be an achievement.
Janet Evans was a gritty swimmer and ferocious competitor...who just happened to swim with SAR. People seem to think that she became great because of her technique. I don;t buy that.
One other thing, and this is not meant to take anything away from Janet Evans.
I often hear comments to the effect that so-and-so great champion became great because of their "ferocious competitiveness," the fact that they just "won't let themselves lose." The list of such athletes is long: Evans, Jordan, Armstrong, Phelps, etc etc. I do not doubt that such people are indeed driven to a degree that most of us can barely fathom.
But the implication (usually as told by the sports media) is often that these people are pretty ordinary, talent-wise, but have some inner quality that elevates them above the hoi-polloi. This story is especially appealing to the American psyche.
Desire alone isn't enough. I have known quite a few hard workers and many lazy talents. A great champion is almost always an extremely unlikely combination of crazy-competitiveness and crazy-talent, and Evans was no exception to this rule. It added up to an amazing swimmer.
