索普和哈克特的自由泳技术（英文版）

小臭贝

Many thanks to Emmett Hines for his technical assistance with this article. The following page reflects a goodly portion of his views of modern freestyle swimming. Emmett is author of "Fitness Swimming"  headcoach of H2Ouston Swims, and a senior coach with Total Immersion. In addition, Emmett was 1993 United States Masters Swimming Coach of the Year and received the Masters Aquatic Coaches Assn Lifetime Acheivement Award in 2002
This page would not have been possible without technical help from Agnès Godfrey, and support from other Aquatic Masters Team members in my home town Zurich, Switzerland.

Introduction
A full cycle of Grant Hackett's and Ian Thorpe's freestyle swimming is analysed by means of underwater video. The comments are based on modern views of freestyle swimming technique which was developed in Russia (Popov), Australia, and the US since the early 1990ies. The sequence shown is taken from the 800 m freestyle final in Fukuoka 2001, which means world record pace.

In essence, both swimmers apply the same swimming technique. There is no secret about Thorpe's and Hackett's swimming as mentioned in a previous article [The secret of Thorpe's blistering speed]. In fact, both swimmers apply the principles of efficient freestyle swimming presented earlier on this website [Introduction into efficient freestyle swimming]

Differences between Thorpe and Hackett can be noticed but are not essential enough to be discussed here. Thus, the focus is on Grant Hacketts who swims closer to us. From the underwater perspective he is the swimmer at the top of each image.

1 Let's start with Hackett's swim cycle when he finished hip and body rotation to a side-lying gliding position to the right. From this camera perspective you will hardly notice that Hackett is lying on his right side tilted 80-90°. The combination of hip and body rotation to the right and thrusting the right shoulder and arm to the front into a fully extended body position in one line results in a) forward momentum and b) minimal frontal resistance. Stroking with his left arm has almost finished. As you will see below, both swimmers actually do not completely finish arm strokes but round off at the hips. Hackett's right leg is midway moving up, his left leg moving down. Hackett allows the foot of kicking leg overextended (note excellent plantar flexion). Hackett could further reduce frontal surface resistance by keeping his head in line with the body (nose down position). Instead, he lifts his head into a face up position which leads to increased frontal resistance. In addition, as a result of changing between a face up and a nose down position during a swimming cycle, Hackett's body pops up and down accordingly, which is not favourable.

2 Hackett and Thorpe keep their side-lying gliding position. Hackett's left leg moves down, the right leg up. He just picked up his left arm for recovery. He keeps his right arm extended in line in front. You will notice that he is about to thrust his right shoulder more in front, and his elbow forward and up. Unfortunately, in this and the next frame Hackett lifts his head and chest even more which increases frontal resistance. Body position must be balanced as close to horizontal, long, and narrow as possible.

3 Side-lying gliding position. His left leg almost reached the lower, his right leg the upper endpoint, respectively (note plantar flexion getting loose). His left arm and hand pass his shoulder (above surface). Hackett is about to pop up his right elbow to the surface by thrusting up and forward his shoulder, wrist in line. As mentioned before, head and upper body are in an unfavourable, high frontal resistance position. As a consequence, Hackett's hips drop a bit to further increase resistance. Exhaling has finished.

4 Hackett is about to start the rapid transition of the hips and body from the right to the left side. Body rotation is initiated by a) down kick with the right leg, b) hip rotation, which is supported by c) the forward momentum of the left shoulder and left arm. Later we come back to the role of the kick in relation to hip rotation (frame 24). Catching water with the right forearm and hand only starts when the snappy roll started. Actually, the hips are the engine for the body snap, not the shoulders. Front and back crawl swimmers really experience the body roll as a "snap" with their hips, as described most perfectly by Lenny Krayzelburg.
5 Hackett transfers his body with a snappy roll from the right to the left (80-90°) in just 3 frames. Two thirds of one freestyle cycle both swimmers keep a side-lying gliding position with their arm extended in line with the body. One third of the cycle, which corresponds to two kicks when keeping a six beat kicking pattern, they snap from side to side. The reason is that the side-lying gliding position is the freestyle body position with least frontal resistance.

6 Thorpe's and Hackett's high elbow position are most remarkable. Stroking involves both forearm and hand. Hackett's elbow pops up to the surface. Observed from the deck, actually it is not a pulling motion, because Hackett's hand slips very little between the catch and rounding of the stroke (about 50 cm/20 inches). Thorpes shows even less slippage (about 40 cm/ 16 inches). The reasons for minimal slippage are that excellent swimmers such as Thorpe and Hackett exploit a) forward momentum of recovering arm and shoulder. Compare stroking with paddling in a kaiak. b) both swimmers have a good kick. It is important to note that to adopt this swimming technique, arm recovery is an important element. Recovery starts rather slowly and accelerates when the shoulders have been passed. Do not attempt to put too much emphasis on pulling.

7 Rotation to the left has almost finished. The right leg is about to reach the lower end point of the whip-like motion which can be noticed by the reduced plantar flexion. The left arm is about to enter and to extend towards the far wall as a result of the body roll. On entry, there are no splashes and bubbles formed. Hackett and, even more pronounced Thorpe, are front quadrant swimmers as most modern freestyle swimmers are. Hackett starts to exhale (s. following frames).
8 Hackett reached side-lying gliding position on his left, body almost in one line. It would be even better to keep his body in a more horizontal balanced position. He should keep his head in line with the spine, nose down (or sideways or up, but not forward), and lightly press his chest to raise the hips to the surface. His left leg kicks between body snaps. His feet are extended, and flexed to the plantar side, to reduce resistance and increase propulsion, respectively. The head is turned at the same time as the body, but only when taking a breath.