An ex collegiate swimmer pal sent this to me this morning and knew the ST crowd would be all over trying to sign up for lessons from this guy. Enjoy!
http://rebuiltrunner.blogspot.com/2012/01/swimming-basics-s-curve.html
My cothat’s says the “s-curve” is old school technique and it isn’t recommend anymore.
My cothat’s says the “s-curve” is old school technique and it isn’t recommend anymore.
I didn’t think I needed to put my post in pink font…YES S-CURVE IS DEAD…at least to most!
For those of us who were never in the old school and are flunking out of the new one, what do they teach now?
For those of us who were never in the old school and are flunking out of the new one, what do they teach now?
You want your hand to travel in as straight a line as possible: any deviation from that line is wasted energy. You rotate your body to use the best muscles for pulling at every point in the pull (not to mention streamlining, breathing, etc.).
Enter the water with your hand in front of your shoulder. Extend in a straight line forward. Early vertical forearm (keep your elbow at the surface and drop your hand/forearm straight back). When forearm is vertical, engage lats to pull arm straight back.
Hypothetically, of course.
Pretty much the exact opposite of everything you see here. Don’t mean to be a Paulo with the response, but it’s pretty accurate:/ The hand should be moving in a direction of a straight path as much as is possible rather than drawing side to side like this guy above. Note…I don’t mean a straight arm pull, but the path of the hand should more or less trace in a line from head to toe without weaving all over the place. Some people have their hand a little inside their shoulder line, directly in line or maybe even inside a bit, but from head to toe as straight back as we can is the modern day thinking.
Well it’s good to know I’ve at least been doing *something *right. I’ve actually tried that S-thing once or twice before and it always felt wrong to me. I’ve always fallen back to pretty much a straight line as you and Ken describe
I guess I’m old skool
.
I guess I’m old skool
You’ve seen the video of Sun Yang’s 1500m WR?
Swim Smooth is a great resource IMO. The Ian Thorpe type EVF is such a tough thing for most of us simply due to the nature of what it does to the humerus. SS teaches a great stroke that certainly isn’t a copy of these world class swimmers like the new Chinese sensation, but it’s more than good enough to help guys like you and me go plenty fast. This guy here is a former Olympian for Oz and kind of a test subject of the type of stroke they preach. I try and watch this b/f I go swim when convenient, just awesome stuff to copy IMO:
http://www.swimsmooth.com/...s/smooth_jono_nt.swf
Here is another good one of him. You can see he is cruising anywhere from 1:04 to 1:15 100m pace, something 99% of us would be in love with! There is a brief underwater shot and you can see how less severe his positions are compared to some elite swimmers. Much deeper arm than the shallow EVF. Also his hand slightly trails his elbow all the way down the propulsive phase until the end of his stroke, contrasted to a near vertical position of say a Thorpe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3HhNlysFDs
It’s tough to see in these angles, but in the Swim Smooth Catch Masterclass you get to see all the angles and oddly enough Jono doesn’t have nearly as severe an EVF position that some of these amazing world class distance guys have. In point of fact it looks quite tame in the underwater views when next to an image of say Yang. My arm would explode in 500 attempting to hit his arm positions!
If you have never looked at SwimSmooth give them a look, tons of awesome nuggets on body position, breathing and the like.
Sorry. It was too early for my sarcasm-filter.
It must’ve been too early for my proof reading filter too based on the “cothats.”
I find this interesting. I was taught the S curve in the 80s when I swam in high school. Once I started tri swimming in 2006 it was my stroke pattern. I have tried to remove the S from my stroke. This off season I did not take a break from swimming and I can hold a linear stroke pattern longer (with a high elbow). Now as I get tired I go to more of an S curve. I almost see the S as a switch back up a hill, it makes the hill a little less steep, the S makes the stroke less powerful as you avoid some resistance in the water. I now try to hold a straight line pull as long as possible but on long threshold swims I fade to the S pattern.
I actually own the SwimSmooth DVD. Great resource.
Actually, relative to your body, that description and illustration isn’t that far off.
You can think of the stroke as being a big S relative to your body or on the other hand the pull is straight, or possibly a skinny S, relative to the water.
The key thing missing is that when we swim your trunk rotates from side to side as your arm moves. So for clarity you need to understand whether the author is suing the torso as frame of reference or using the water as frame of reference.
Also, be careful with swim descriptions that don’t have actual data. A coach or author “saying” that fast swimmers pull straight back is one thing, actually showing data on more than one swimmer SHOWING that the faster the swimmer the straighter the pull is something else all together.
In the first video he looks more heads-up than I swim. I wonder if I’m dropping my head too much. Where should the water line be? Forehead or crown?
I would ask Kevin MD as he has the swimming pedigree. And pay no attention to what I wrote throughout the poast as it’s apparently inaccurate…sorry for the confusion. I know what works for me, S pull does not. BUT that isn’t to say it can’t and I shouldn’t have made that assumption. I defer to the swim gurus!
I can tell you my head position is where it is simply out of a body position ‘trim’ experiment. I find my legs/hips ride nice and high if I look down a bit more than forward…maybe 4 feet in front of me is where I look? My 2 cents is there isn’t a magic head position that fits everyone, but it’s fun to play with b/c it makes a huge difference!
Sorry, I did not read all the posts, but I woud suggest looking at what the best swimmers in the world are doing. Here are some names you should look at. They are some of the best distance swimmers that ever swam (i.e. 400 meter free and up).
Grant Hackett (former world record holder in 200 free- before Thorpe, and 800 and 1500 free)
Ian Thorpe- Former world Record holder- 200 and 400 free
Chris Thompson (still holds the NCAA record for teh 1650 free- only record I know of that survived the super suit era).
Kieren Perkins (sorry, not sure of spelling of first name)- One of the greats- Former world record holder in the 1500 free.
Erik Vendt- Fastest 5’7" man I know.
Yep. he has a very streamlined profile which helps. I’m not about to tweak my stroke without a coach.