Freestyle Video

If you are choosing to model your stroke after this guy's, then I am guessing you are doing longer swims, open water swims, where you are wanting to conserve energy. Yes, definitely an endurance stroke where minimizing drag--possibly at the expense of propulsion--is the goal. Open water and triathlons come to mind. For those purposes I think this stroke would work well. It seems a little exaggerated, almost like he's doing a drill the entire time, but there's no question he's moving along at a decent clip without expending much energy.

Knelson I do not know what the pool length is. Those white markers on the lane ropes appear to indicate 15 feet to the turn. That pool appears to be 8 lanes wide and 8 foot lanes make it 64 feet long but if the lanes are 7 feet wide it would be 54 feet long. 7.5 lanes would make it 60 ft long. I call for a measurement not a guess. Where is this pool? Has anyone measured it. Please somebody tell us no more guessing. The pool looks like a L shaped pool and they swim accross the L.

rtodd Re: Freestyle Video I would argue the power output in a 100 is closer to 400-500 watts minimum, perhaps even approaching 1 hp. Please see the following link. When the PDF file opens, go to page 6. You will see a graph of force vs. velocity for a male freestyle Olympic medalist. At the peak velocity the average propulsive force numbers from this study are in agreement with the propulsive force numbers reported in the previous post. The propulsive force numbers you reported are quite a bit higher. www.swimmingcoach.org/.../mag1.pdf Budd

As stated previously the stroke may be strange because of the endless pool and because of how slow he is swimming. I do not agree with everyone who says his stroke is too wide, if you are a sprint distance freestyle swimmer, your stroke should be wider. With that in mind he does not appear to be a sprint distance swimmer because of his speed and because his kick is a distance swimmers kick. His stroke is VERY unusual in that his hands are flexed when they hit the water, he leaves his arm in the forward position while completing each stroke, and his head is WAY to deep. He also seems to be taking his breath too late which is probably caused by his head being too deep in the water. Just my two cents worth.

Phelps could swim like that but he certainly won't break any records. To set the story straight, the power curve of every competitive stroke shows the first quadrant (the beginning) as a lack luster at best, power producer. The beginning "sets-up" the stroke - Period - No discussion. The catch up stroke in serious competition is not a serious swimming strategy. As times continue to drop, keeping one arm in the most effective power producing phase is critical. The ability to catch effectively and maintain constant pressure (producing the most drag) throughout the stroke separates every level of swimmer. The endless pool is too cool and when my rich uncle sends me the money, I'm getting one. The music is cool in the video but the stroke isn't a contemporary example of technically good swimming. Good luck and happy holidays.