And if you are a competetive swimmer, you always have to pay attention to where you are swimming within your lane. There may not be a huge draft but there is definitely at least .08 seconds worth over 100m. The french guy really screwed his race up between his positioning and by taking it out way too fast.
This is a cool pic. Its an overhead shot of the last leg of the 4x100 relay.
you can draft off the guy next to you, or ride his wake.
Same thing 
Lane placement is probably the single biggest tactical error that is made by swimmers at all levels, even elites. They spend 4 hours a day hugging a lane line in practice and sometimes the habit takes over in competition. Sometimes its really hard to think when the pressure is on . . . .
how do you take it out too fast in the 100?
how do you take it out too fast in the 100?
Same way as any other race. He went out in a world record pace for the 50. (Even granting the anticipated start, he was 21.27 for the first 50). His second 50 was 3 seconds slower.
One of the biggest points was the start. Bernards reaction time was .19, Lezaks was .04. That’s more than the winning margin right there.
John
how do you take it out too fast in the 100?
Nobody in the world can or will ever do a 100m free completely anaerobically. Max is somewhere around :40 of anaerobic effort.
while what you say makes total sense, i’d love to know how they calculated the “.08 seconds per 100m advantage.” that seems like a lot of precision for something that would be very, very hard to measure exactly.
any sources to that number?
I think its because thats what the US team won by.
Just a wild A** Guess. Actually, I did swim competetively and I definitely could feel a draft off somone’s hip if they were close to the lane line but I didn’t profess to have an actual caluclation. There was some speculation in another thread that there is no wake or draft because of the lane lines. This picture shows otherwise. I just postulated that it all it had to be was .08 per 100 difference and it would have affected the outcome.
Lezak did say in interviews that he had intentionally moved over and was trying to draft. Actually, his quote was something to the effect that he had had it done to him throughout his carreer so it was time for some pay back. Bernard should have been swimming on the other side of his lane.
yep…Lezak was definitely catching a draft, this was a tactical error by Bernard.
swimming on the lane line is a hard habit to break. Natalie Coughlin did the same thing in the 100m back semi.
& this is why you have “regular/one time wonder” athletes and great athelte.
Fred.
One of the biggest points was the start. Bernards reaction time was .19, Lezaks was .04. That’s more than the winning margin right there.
That may have been a bit slow but tactically they both made the right move on the start so I can’t fault Bernard. (He didn’t start screwing up until he got in the pool.) At the start of the last leg, there were about 2 people in the world who thought the US could catch up (Lezak and his mom; and even Lezak said he had doubts). The right move for Bernard was to have a fast but safe start. He most definitely did not want to get DQ’ed in that position (ie being the world record holder and having a half second lead). The gold was his to lose.
On the other hand, Lezak was going for broke. I’m sure the guys had talked behind the block as the race progressed (or it was unspoken) and it was gold or nothing so he was putting it all on the line. .04 is the sign of someone who is willing to risk getting DQ’ed. (on that note, go back and look at the starts in the prelims and I’ll bet the US guys were glued to the blocks)
It doesn’t happen all the time but sometimes swimming can be a real thinking man’s sport. This race was a classic example of why you need brains, not just braun to win.
Few things: (1) can’t go all out for a entire 100, close, but not the entire way. Physiology says only :40-:45 sec of all out sprint is possible. And, yes, Lezak was close! (2) relay exchange was a huge factor, Lezak was .15 faster than the French guy off the block. (3) Lezak’s splits: 21.50/24.56=46.06 ------ Bernard’s: 21.27/25.46=46.73 – Lezak’s differential was 3.06 — Bernard’s differential between 50’s was 4.19. A four second differential is unacceptable in a 100 free, and frankly it’s terrible.
So add it all up, exchange time, and race tactics, plus the line they took (enabled drafting), and it means that Lezak made up the .59 the USA was down at the end of the 3rd leg of the relay. He made up .59 + .08 = .67 - phenomenal!
Lezak did say in interviews that he had intentionally moved over and was trying to draft.
The quote I remember is that he said he WAS drafting. To me, that ends the debate right there – I’ll take the word of the guy in the water.
One other amazing thing is just how much water these 100m guys are splashing around – this race was absolute, pure power the whole time. Just freakish. Phelps, on the other hand, seems to be swimming 6" below the surface. The announcers even commented on how little he was perturbing the water.
Lezak did say in interviews that he had intentionally moved over and was trying to draft.
The quote I remember is that he said he WAS drafting. To me, that ends the debate right there – I’ll take the word of the guy in the water.
One other amazing thing is just how much water these 100m guys are splashing around – this race was absolute, pure power the whole time. Just freakish. Phelps, on the other hand, seems to be swimming 6" below the surface. The announcers even commented on how little he was perturbing the water.
Yeah, the first 50 was like “Ok, who the f’k is where, all I see are a couple arms and tons of splash…”
John
Could someone explain what to look for in the picture to see the wake or draft that he is catching. I am not doubting it is there because in my own (painfully slow) swimming I can see about 1 or 2 second difference in 50 meters depending on if the guy across the lane line is going with me or against me. The bigger he/she is and the more they kick the bigger the difference. I just don’t know how to spot it in the picture.
yep…Lezak was definitely catching a draft, this was a tactical error by Bernard.
swimming on the lane line is a hard habit to break. Natalie Coughlin did the same thing in the 100m back semi.
I don’t think it was habit, unless the French happen to swim on the left side of the lane…
Someone else alluded it to it earlier. The habit of swimming on the lane line comes from sharing lanes for endless hours during training.
not everyone circles up the right. My university team you circled up the right in the odd numbered lanes and up the left in the even lanes - that way no one hits arms.
My god, that is brilliant! I’ve never actually seen that done, but it makes so much sense. One of my least favorite things about swimming is taking a paddle to the back of my hand, ouch.