Gaines has mentioned at least once that Phelps has “perfect” swimming body - long torso, short legs, for a guy who’s 6’4".
This week’s SI lists him as having a 32 inch pant inseam, which obviously seems small for that height. Obviously I understand why big feet help.
Why are shorter legs better in the water? Intuitively I would’ve thought that longer legs would allow a little more leverage and thrust.
Faster kick?
Probably less drag and less useless weight as your legs don’t do much to propel you when you swim relative to your arms and better leverage for your pull, but I am just kind of guessing here. Long arms are obviously an advantage because you have a longer pull and can touch out others at the wall (once I beat a guy by .03 even though his shoulder was ahead of mine at the finish).
I agree less drag. Do you see fighter jets with an extended fuselage behind the wings like a bomber (conventional one like a B-52 vice a B-2) or passenger plane? No. That’s one of the reasons they are faster.
Think of a pendulum … shorter string (length), shorter cycle (i.e. faster kick).
Shorter legs, higher frequency.
Perhaps, but I don’t think the issue is overall length - swimmers seem to me to be relatively tall people, but the question is why are they both tall with short legs? What is it about the legs that makes one desire shorter ones in water?
I could see why you would think that shorter ones would create less drag - the torso is tubular and creates less drag than two limbs. But those two limbs provide propulsion, and in general longer legs will create more propulsion, in cycling, running, and I presume, swimming.
So I’m still stumped.
Has it occured to you that maybe Rowdy Gaines doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about?
Michael Phelps (and Ian Thorpe, Aaron Piersol, Ian Crocker, Inge de Bruin, Natalie Coughlin, etc.) all have the perfect body for THEIR swimming technique, training program, etc…
If Phelps had won EVERY single event in swimming, then perhaps Rowdy’s statement might have some meaning.
Dave
My thought is that it isn’t the short legs that help, it is the long torso. Having a longer more consistent planing surface for water to flow over before the ‘break’ of the legs is more streamlined. Plus, since legs tend to sink, less leg means less sinking, which also reduces drag.
I am 6’4", but I am all legs so I have to work very hard to keep them from sinking.
But those two limbs provide propulsion, and in general longer legs will create more propulsion, in cycling, running, and I presume, swimming.
**In swimming freestyle, arms provide about 90% of the propulsion while legs provide about 10%. You may get some propulsion from your arms while running, but probably none at all from cycling, so there it’s the legs doing the work. So, I don’t think the comparison works here. **
I think people may be missing your point. It is true that the longer the overall body, the faster it will glide through the water. That is a matter of hydrodynamics. A cigarette boat is a good example. I’m not sure if people on this thread know that or not. However, I have heard for the first time the reference to the short inseam. I think, like someone else mentioned, that that is a little hype. I think it may help a little since long legs don’t exactly equal more propulsion and it saves weight but that is just a guess.
I would guess it is more likely that it is the relative weight of the legs. Legs are just meat and bone. They sink. Sinking hips lead to more drag. Lungs and intestines float. Long total body and shorter legs will likely give you a long waterline (less drag) but without the sinking legs, which add drag. Just a guess, though.
If you take Phelps’s ( ( (height / inseam) - ((height/inseam)/6 (gold medals) ) - ( ( (wingspan/inseam) - (height/inseam) ) * 2 (non-gold medals) ) ) ) - ( ( (Phelps age * .01 (chance you’ll ever swim as fast) ) + Olympic chicks he’s now “familiar with” * .01 (chance you’ll ever meet any of them) ) ) …
you arrive at 1.61803, better known as the Divine number, which is proof that Michael Phelps is actually God.
That is the longer body in relation to its width. Length for the sake of length doesn’t do it.
Agree that longer legs do weigh you down more without providing much more propulsion than short legs. Given your kick is only covering a moment of a few degrees anyway, longer legs (34" inseam vice a 32" inseam) wouldn’t give you muh deeper of a kick. I’d take long arms over long legs anyday.
It’s not he has shorter legs, but rather that, for his height, his torso and arms are unusually long. Basically, what Rowdy is inartfully saying is that Phelps has the upper body and arms of someone who is 6"9" but he’s walking on a pair of legs which belong on someone who is 5"10". Since swimming is an upper body sport, his relatively short legs mean he’s bigger than he seems.
Aaah. Now it makes some sense. Being tall helps, but being tall with long arms is much better.
popovs legs are bloody long…
Difficult to make broad generalizations here, but 2 critical facts about this topic:
Taller/longer swimmers, all other things being equal, tend to have less drag than shorter swimmers–just a physical principal of bodies moving through a fluid.
But more critical, taller swimmers have a big advantage in POOL (not open water) racing because with each 50 meter (or 25 yard/meter) pool length they swim, they (or more accurately their center of mass) actually has to cover slightly less distance than the center of mass of a shorter swimmer. In elite-level events, this shorter distance translates into faster times. Obviously this factor is not relevant in open water events.