I am well aware of the water >>> air density. Yes, that means drag hurts you more in the water.
Despite this reality, Sheila Taormina in her excellent book about EVF and propulsion, makes a strong case that once your legs are reasonably flat in the water, your swim speed is 80% PROPULSION and 20% streamlining.
Total Immersion's philosophy of all-streamlining isn't wrong, but it's most correct for beginner swimmers, who have lots of really terrible technique errors that are really obvious, especially a big leg drop. But once those legs are pretty high, and you're not fishtailing like crazy, you need POWER to go fast. If you never swim hard/fast, you plateau pretty quickly at a slow BOP pace - unless you are talented.
There is a reason why the majority of sub 1:30 swimmers have done lots of HARD sets, for awhile, even if they weren't putting up a ton of yards, and it makes perfect sense for Taormina's estimates.
Furthermore, I guarantee we could put a freaking DRAG SUIT or even a DRAG PARACHUTE on you, and you would still easily outswim all the 2:00/100m swimmers in the pool, despite that massive drag. Because of your power. I guarantee your drag from the parachute will be significantly more than the drag those 2:00/100m swmimers are generating.
Again, I'm not discounting swim water sense - it's a crucial skill, and for elite athletes, that may make all the difference between 1st and last in a 100m swim race. But for a MOP triathlete vs a FOP triathlete swim pace, there's a big power component involved - and I'm inclined to believe Taormina's 80/20 estimate.
Despite this reality, Sheila Taormina in her excellent book about EVF and propulsion, makes a strong case that once your legs are reasonably flat in the water, your swim speed is 80% PROPULSION and 20% streamlining.
Total Immersion's philosophy of all-streamlining isn't wrong, but it's most correct for beginner swimmers, who have lots of really terrible technique errors that are really obvious, especially a big leg drop. But once those legs are pretty high, and you're not fishtailing like crazy, you need POWER to go fast. If you never swim hard/fast, you plateau pretty quickly at a slow BOP pace - unless you are talented.
There is a reason why the majority of sub 1:30 swimmers have done lots of HARD sets, for awhile, even if they weren't putting up a ton of yards, and it makes perfect sense for Taormina's estimates.
Furthermore, I guarantee we could put a freaking DRAG SUIT or even a DRAG PARACHUTE on you, and you would still easily outswim all the 2:00/100m swimmers in the pool, despite that massive drag. Because of your power. I guarantee your drag from the parachute will be significantly more than the drag those 2:00/100m swmimers are generating.
Again, I'm not discounting swim water sense - it's a crucial skill, and for elite athletes, that may make all the difference between 1st and last in a 100m swim race. But for a MOP triathlete vs a FOP triathlete swim pace, there's a big power component involved - and I'm inclined to believe Taormina's 80/20 estimate.