How about posting up some videos, of Karlyn of course....

She was one of the greatest masters women swimmers of all time, probably top 3 I would say. She has played this game for a very long time, and I think she lives in Hawaii now? Use to see her at masters meets a lot, but I dropped out for awhile, think she may have too..I believe she was making Olympic trial cuts as a master, pretty tough as an American...

Not was - still is. Multiple golds last year at Nats. And still in Kailua-Kona, when she is not traveling and doing her clinics (which I found very helpful when I did it).

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Purely for the discussion, of course:



and

(older video)

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

From that video, what I see is classic catch up timing with a long glide and complete finish which suits her very well as she has quite mobile shoulders which allows her to streamline extremely well.
Nothing of what you wrote about is visible anywhere to me.

I’m no swim coach, which is part of the reason for posting. But my words are basically her words in the first video (also informed by the IM Talk interview).

It differs from what some swim coaches have told me as far as entering narrow with bicep almost bushing the head and finishing the stroke with the cue of sclicing your thigh with the thumb.

So is the stuff on finishing (around 1:40) not that different? Or the earlier part about arms slightly wider than shoulder width?

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

I’m not sure the first video supports any difference between ows and pool swimming.

Good point - the stuff she mentions in the second video specific to OWS is more skills like sighting, warming up in an OWS setting, etc.

Poor headline writing on my part.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

I watched the first video, didn't do sound, so have no idea what was said.
Wide arm entry is normal, most make a mistake of entering too narrow and crossing the body centreline during the glide catch, usually due to poor shoulder flexibility.
All I saw was a flexible swimmer with good classic technique.

What she is saying about the rear of the stroke is that there is no benefit from attempting to apply power once your hand no longer points to the bottom, don't get stuck applying power in any other direction than that which will propel you forward.
As soon as you feel your hand about to go past vertical, raise your elbow to let the hand slip out of the water.
This will cause the thumb to brush past close to your thigh.
Basically, your body will float all of it's own, anything you do should be to streamline or propel yourself forward, no other direction.
Always ask yourself, is this particular motion propelling me forward or keeping me streamlined?
If the answer is no, then why the fuck are you doing it?
Pushing sideways achieves nothing, lifting body parts out of the water can only submerge the rest of you, breaking streamline other than to apply power or recover the arm is just a waste of energy.

but really had a revelation listening to the IM Talk guys interview Karlyn Pipes


Usually I skip through most of the IM talk podcasts, but that one was excellent even without watching the videos. Especially good advice for anyone with swinging legs.

negative much? Dude, people found this helpful/interesting and helped their stroke. Cool. Let it be.