I started thinking about how much time is spent on hips and legs w.r.t. to the golf swing. Although you swing the club with your arms you build a swing from the ground up.
So looking at swimming in that context, we know that the hips also undergo a critically important rotation, but little is discussed on exactly how to build a strong twisting action that is perfectly timed with the effort of the pull…
Bit of a quiz here, what key events mark the beginning and end of a hip rotation with a 6KB?
This is one of the things that I spent a lot of time working on over the last year in order to transition my swimming from being shoulder-driven to hip-driven. The golf analogy is interesting as they did a piece during the broadcast of St Jude golf tournament yesterday focusing on how Jack Nicklaus generated so much of his power from his legs and hips.
In very simple terms, I’ve learned to use my hips to trigger my pull. As soon as my leading arm reaches full forward extension, my hips rotate and drive the forward recovery of the opposite arm
I had to start slowly to imprint the muscle memory, but now it has become second-nature. I control my tempo by changing the speed of my hip rotation and the arms follow. That part took some repetition in the pool, practicing making small increases in tempo while keeping the arms in synch with the hips. The big temptation at first is to let the arms lead the increase in tempo rather than letting it come from the hips. (Quite frankly, I still fall into the arms/shoulder leading pattern occasionally when sprinting - I did a masters swim meet this past weekend and found myself thrashing away with my arms over the last few meters of the 50 meter freestyle).
In my case the hip-driven stroke has eliminated some nagging shoulder problems. I feel it in my abs/core if I’m doing it correctly.
I also find that a hip-driven stroke lets me maintain a more balanced and symmetrical stroke, helping to reduce the “dead spots” in my stroke cycle where I was losing momentum.
I have to acknowledge help from Coach/Dr. Suzanne Atkinson and Dr.Gendadijus Sokolovas (aka Dr. “G”) for helping me with the changes.
In my last tri at St Anthony’s I was second out of the water in my age group (M60-64) in the sprint race, going 13:59 for the 750M, which was a huge improvement for me.
Mark
We call this a coupling motion. Understanding the biomechanics of why we do things in the pool will help you learn how to move in the water. Everyone is different. and water is unforgiving as it’s 800 times more dense than air. http://www.theraceclub.com/aqua-notes/how-to-rotate-in-freestyle/
Btw, one of my clients is a golfer and as he’s been learning the basics of swimming, his golf game has improved!
There’s a misconception that the “hips” generate power in the golf swing. For a right handed player, the quads, hamstring, and glutes in the left leg fire simultaneously to rotate the pelvic girdle. If you want to demonstrate this to yourself (improperly), address a golf ball and straighten your left leg (lock it out) while maintaining a relaxed and bent right knee. That will rotate your pelvic girdle about 45 degrees. The remaining rotation comes from fully engaging both glutes. The hip flexors are involved but they contribute a minor amount of energy.
Basically the kinetic chain we see is that the left quads, hamstring, and glutes fire just before the club reaches the top of the swing. This eccentrically loads the lats and a few associated muscles in the upper back. The aforementioned muscles in the legs continue to fire rotating the pelvic girdle as the lats contract to bring the arms down in front of the body (in some players the right tricep fires as well).
Source: I was one of the original test subjects at the Titleist Performance Institute and later I was one of a handful of subjects tested by Nike for an internal project.
Btw, one of my clients is a golfer and as he’s been learning the basics of swimming, his golf game has improved!
I played golf competitively when I was younger and even took a shot at playing professionally. When I was a teenager Tiger had kind of just revolutionized the sport with the idea of fitness playing an important role. Nobody really knew what a fitness program for golf should look like but, for reasons unknown, there was a universal perception that swimming was the worst thing you could do! LOL! I now tell all of my friends (professionals included) that swimming is probably the best thing they can do in terms of fitness for their games.
Hips could be a generic term for lower body. The hips themselves don’t generate power on themselves that is true!
In fact it starts at the feet, just like swimming will start with the feet. The placement, timing of the feet, via the chain to form the foundation of the stroke “swing”. There really is imo no other way it could be, because you need to something to base your pull on.
So as redcorvette as posted, switch priority to lower body first, to drive the arms, just like in golf.
I haven’t played golf in years, gave away my clubs. But dusted off a ball, grabbed a driver and gave it one shot. Got a hold of it too. Yes swimming helps golf and we could learn a lot from the other too.
Green you describe the golf swing in detail, and on youtube I can get detailed analysis of a swing. However in swimming this timing is hard to define or realize & experience. Easy to observe - all top swimmers do it. It’s taken me a while, better part of a month, but I have it now. First was discovery of, then I had to establish trigger points. Then symmetry (L-R). Rhythm or timing (downstroke and now down/up strokes) to work perfectly with the body rotation.
Now it’s time to introduce the pull! Actually I have new respect for and purpose around the no arms drill. (NAD)
We call this a coupling motion. Understanding the biomechanics of why we do things in the pool will help you learn how to move in the water. Everyone is different. and water is unforgiving as it’s 800 times more dense than air. http://www.theraceclub.com/...rotate-in-freestyle/
Btw, one of my clients is a golfer and as he’s been learning the basics of swimming, his golf game has improved!
That link is a pretty good explanation.^^^^
The swing of the golf club or baseball bat is an entirely different movement than a swim pull. In swimming the hips rotate to engage the large back muscles to help pull (mostly) straight down, or vertical. The other is a twisting motion across the body and mostly horizontal, and largely dependent on that twisting motion. Both have a chain reaction in movements, but they are different movements. Affix a club or bat to your chest (perpendicular) and you can hit the ball without arms. In swimming, the pull is entirely dependent on the arms, with the core rotation facilitating proper position for optimal pull.
The swing of the golf club or baseball bat is an entirely different movement than a swim pull. In swimming the hips rotate to engage the large back muscles to help pull (mostly) straight down, or vertical. The other is a twisting motion across the body and mostly horizontal, and largely dependent on that twisting motion. Both have a chain reaction in movements, but they are different movements. Affix a club or bat to your chest (perpendicular) and you can hit the ball without arms. In swimming, the pull is entirely dependent on the arms, with the core rotation facilitating proper position for optimal pull.
I know what you are saying but it sure doesn’t feel that way. I swam 1000+Meters this am, straight-up off the dock, six beat driven stroke and it felt like I hardly used my arms. I mean I used them to stroke sure but they took a holiday break.
Also my bilateral was working lights out, due to the timed lift I was getting on a better left leg drive. The 6BK felt like 0 resistance I could have swam forever.
“Tiger revolutionized the sport with the idea of fitness playing an important role”, I am sorry to tell you, but this is not true. Certainly, in the last 25 years we have seen a much more intensive focus on fitness and biomechanical awareness in terms of the golf swing, and tiger was/is certainly on the leading edge of this. But we were working out, and doing many things to enhance our physical and mental abilities long before Tiger was born.
Anyone want to take a stab at describing the original question??
what key events mark the beginning and end of a hip rotation with a 6KB?