by Coach Emmett Hines
Have you ever taken a few minutes to watch the very best swimmers create their art? I know you've watched them race and marveled at their speed and power, but have you ever taken the time to sit for awhile and absorb more information about exactly how they do what they do? An ideal way to do this is to watch the very best swimmers work out - particularly, watch them swimming EZ and watch them doing drills (yes, elite swimmers swim EZ and do lots of drills - almost assuredly, more than you do - with the single focus in both activities being the development and application of absolutely perfect technique). Better yet, watch two or three elite swimmers working out together.
Recently, some of us (Masters Coaches) were privileged to watch several world class freestylers (including Olympic Gold Medalist Jenny Thompson) working out together. We had the opportunity to watch (and review on video tape) and compare several different world-class swimming styles.
While each swimmer had his or her own distinct method of swimming freestyle there were several points of comparison where there was complete agreement across the field - swimming mainly on the sides, rapid but fluid transitions from side to side, high elbow / low hand recovery, long distance per stroke, long body positions and Front Quadrant Swimming.
"What was that last one, Coach? Front what?"
Allow me to explain. Actually the last two are closely related - long body positions and FQS (yeah, another acronym). Let me start with long body positions. Back in the 1840's there was a guy named W. Froude who showed that the shape of a vessel in the water, and the ratios of length, width and depth, determined the amount of wave drag (80%+ of total drag) that vessel would have at any given speed. I won't go into the details and math but, suffice it to say that this concept is responsible for racing boats of all kinds being generally long and sleek looking.
The implication for swimming is that drag and the power required to overcome it are significantly reduced when the body is made as long as possible and kept that way for as long as possible during each stroke cycle. Or, said another way, drag tends to increase as body length decreases.
Try this experiment. Push off the wall as hard as possible with your hands at your sides and see how far you can glide. Now push off the wall with the same force but use a fully streamlined hand-over-hand, wrist-over-wrist, head squeezed firmly between your arms position and glide as far as possible. If you do not glide a lot (25-50%) farther have your coach check your streamline position. |