So earlier at practice I experimented with flat feet coming off every wall. There was a very noticeable difference. I could surface with ease past the flags, without any DKs. In my first two years of swimming, I have used just the balls (and toes) of my feet in coming off the walls.
Flat feet (that is, both ball and heel) feels a little awkward right now, like any technique change, but I think I'm going to start adjusting to it for permanent use.
Thanks to Jim Thornton who suggested I make this a poll!
I do not think tomtopo is advocating that the whole sole of the foot should contact the wall at once, or that one should wait to push off until the whole sole is against the wall. If he is, I disagree with him.
What I think tomtopo is advocating, and what the videos he presented show, is that the swimmer should articulate through the foot during the push. The first contact between feet and wall is at the balls of the feet, but as the swimmer pushes the foot collapses toward the wall so that the heels touch or nearly touch. There's a nice image toward the end of the Ian Thorpe video, taken as he flipped against a glass wall, in which you can see this foot articulation.
Especially for shorter races, I think this way is the best way to do it and it is the way I try to do it. When I race a good 50 back, which these days is my best race after the 1500/1650 (?!?), my heels contact the wall so that I can get a solid, powerful pushoff for the second 25. In distance races, especially short course, I tend not to push off quite as hard, not because the turns are less important (they are if anything more important) but because I can't repeat a jump at maximum power 59+ times within 20 minutes.
I do not think tomtopo is advocating that the whole sole of the foot should contact the wall at once, or that one should wait to push off until the whole sole is against the wall. If he is, I disagree with him.
What I think tomtopo is advocating, and what the videos he presented show, is that the swimmer should articulate through the foot during the push. The first contact between feet and wall is at the balls of the feet, but as the swimmer pushes the foot collapses toward the wall so that the heels touch or nearly touch. There's a nice image toward the end of the Ian Thorpe video, taken as he flipped against a glass wall, in which you can see this foot articulation.
Especially for shorter races, I think this way is the best way to do it and it is the way I try to do it. When I race a good 50 back, which these days is my best race after the 1500/1650 (?!?), my heels contact the wall so that I can get a solid, powerful pushoff for the second 25. In distance races, especially short course, I tend not to push off quite as hard, not because the turns are less important (they are if anything more important) but because I can't repeat a jump at maximum power 59+ times within 20 minutes.
