i’ve gotta say it has to be alexandre popov. his freestyle at speed looks effortless.
Where do you see all these different swimmers freestyling? Are there videos, DVDs, etc? I’ve only seen what’s on the Olympics, etc.
http://swimfastest.net/videos.html (sometimes offline because of bandwidth limits)
http://www.wa.swimming.org.au/coaching/videos/ (free registration required)
http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=170&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en (for that elusive Janet Evans and Jim Montgomery footage)
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Anita Nall, Michael Phelps, Brian Benda. I’ve stared at their forms, jaw dropped, as they go up and down the pool at Meadowbrook. They’re all totally mesmerizing. I stand there in awe, as they look like they’re hardly working at all, as they glide through the water like seals.
Agree with you on Popov, also Pieter van de Hoogenband (sp?)
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all of the above are sprint specialist…if you want to see a perfect stroke check the video of Larsen Jensen (1500m silver). I’d kill for that stroke and speed.
Jan Sibberson – great stroke.
It’s the perfect stroke for him. His swimming is almost like a catch-up drill. I’m not sure how many people could swim with that stroke for a long time (and at that speed).
Anyhow it’s a new stroke to watch. I’m glad I downloaded it before the bandwidth expired.
Hey FL Jill, do you know who 1984 Silver medalist in 400IM was. There was this fast guy at my pool the other day and one of the other swimmers told me he was a olympic medalist in 1984 in 400IM.
By the way, he probably had 20 extra pounds and was easily under 1:05/100m repeats.
I got two Thorpe videos about a month ago, showing his freestyle stroke from the front & from the side. I’ve been trying to emulate his amazing catch but geeze, it’s going to take me a few years to get my shoulders flexible enough to keep my elbow that high…
Anyone know good stretches for that? His elbow practically stays at the surface of the water as his forearm just “hinges” down into the catch. unreal…
Men’s 400m IM in '84 Olympics…Ricardo Prado from Brazil won silver (I thik he held the world record going into the Olympics)…Alex Baumann (Canada) won gold…Australia’s Rob Woodhouse was third…
Popov certainly has a very smooth stroke. I saw Thorpe swim the 400m Free in Long Beach and it doesn’t look like he uses much energy at all. I think it’s a tie between those two.
all of the above are sprint specialist…if you want to see a perfect stroke check the video of Larsen Jensen (1500m silver). I’d kill for that stroke and speed.
perfect? i think you’ve been ti brainwashed. to be honest, i think larsen could be significantly faster if he lost the catch up. he gets away with it because of his kick, but overall, it’s not that efficient.
Tom Williams. I am biased, as I roomed with him when I was at the University of Iowa. But back in the late 80s and early 90s he was arguably the third fastest man in the 50 free and held the pan american record in the 50 free for several years. Awesome stroke, he made swimming look effortless.
I was watching Laura Nichols (two time Olympian, Canadian record holder) this weekend and am constantly amazed at how she pops out of the water on her starts. She has so much torque, she just lifts her whole body out of the water after her streamline. Not that common for female swimmers, even sprinters.
J
Windmill (straight arm) freestyle.
If anyone’s got tape of the first four finishers in thee men’s 1500M free in Athens this year, it really is interesting to see how differently all four men swim. Jensen is TI poster boy, David Davies is pretty high cadence for an elite man his size, Grant Hackett has a little bit of a lope to his stroke, and Yuri Prilukov is enough of a loper he darn near looks like he’s going butterfly at times. But all four were well under 15:00 minutes for the event. Good case study there.
My pick for pretty freestyle- Lindsay Benko or Natalie Coughlin. Stroke is neither too long or too short, scarily efficient, no weird quirks to it. Benko has held the short course WR in the 400 free, Coughlin turned in some scarily fast unrested 500s in her college days.
For sports trivia, http://www.hickoksports.com/history.shtml is reasonably accurate and can settle a lot of bar bets.
There is a video out entitled “Popov - What the limit?” . It is a rare video shot of him and narrated by his coach. It is a very good techique video that descibes his “kayak paddle” stroke. One interesting aspect is that they have a narrative of scientists that show data proving that future record holders must be taller and thus proving Popov’s efficiency.
I highly recommend this video.
As for best freestyles - Popov’s is the best for efficiency, but I would have to go with Michael Klim or Ryk Neethling - sheer power!
Why would losing the catch-up make him faster? Wouldn’t that shorten up his stroke and slow him down? Or am I TI-washed as well? Could be… since I’m just learning this stuff from scratch.
One TI thing I’ve been unable to figure out is why we’re supposedly faster on our sides. Your frontal area is still the same unless (more of) your shoulder is out of the water in that position.
I’ve pondered the swim on your side thing as well.
For other perspectives, I’ll point out that Ernie Maglischo says you should roll on your side enough to get maximum reach.
But for my own opinion or rather an explanation of how swimming on one’s side gives less drag; you have the fact that wave drag increases with the cube of your speed and form drag increases with the square. End result being that it is a good trade to be able to swap form drag for wave drag.
The assumption is that swimming flat like a barge will create more wave drag due to the shape. Being on one’s side will create more form drag but less wave drag.