H2Owings wrote:
It’s more a function of having solid catch and engaging the biceps, triceps, lats, pecs, etc. it isn’t evident that there is much of that solid pull from the quick video.
Technique may look fine but you can tell the difference between a 1:00 swimmer and a 1:40 swimmer pretty easily even when in different pools.
Don't disagree there, but if I intentionally slow my swim pace to 2:00, it looks like I'm joe average BOP swimmer, whereas once I take it up to race pace 1:30, I obviously look a lot more competent, and moreso, a lot more powerful a swimmer catchwise and turnoverwise compared to 2:00/100
That's not at all a function of techical breakdown in my case - that's a matter of having enough oomph in your muscles to execute that powerful catch over and over again at pace. That 1:00 swimmer would still be a powerful swimmer even if you made him swim one-armed, pop his head out of the water on every breath, and forced him to do a big dropped-elbow catch literally that looks like a one-armed doggie paddle. He'd certainly swim faster than 1:40/100, and that's remotely because of his awesome one-armed techinque. (I have tested this very dropped-arm one-arm head poop thing, and I go from 1:30 to 1:50 which is still triathlon MOP. I don't all of a sudden go to 2:10 BOP pace even with that hellaciously bad form.)
OP is even better off in that his stroke looks really clean and smooth, so it's almost entirely a power issue, not some catch form deficit - although I'm sure it's equally valid to argue that the power really just allows him to hold correct form at much faster paces so it's related (I will still call that predominantly a power issue, as opposed to a BOP swimmer who has a big x-over and huge overroll which are predominantly technical errors that power improvement will not fix)