Efficiency versus Speed

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

So back to my original question. Has anybody experienced a similar
thing with different freestyle techniques? Some are efficient and good
for distance, but lack top end speed. Others are good for getting to
the other end of the pool as fast as you can, but pretty tough for a
distance set.

There are multiple optima avaiable to each swimmer, depending on many
factors; some invariant (or only slowly so), some more capable of
manipulation. For each swimmer in any given situation there may well be a
different area of concentration which provides the best (or perhaps a
noticably good) solution - and this solution may well differ from that found
for a different situation.

It seems that you have found two such different solutions. With practice,
experiemnt, measurement, and thought, you can probably expand each to cover
rather more situations that they currently do.

You should remember that swimming is a contemplative art, and the more mind
you bring to bear the better your body is likely to perform. It would serve
you well to read some of the great swimming theorists, such as Counsilman,
Maglischo, Carlile, Gallagher, Schliehauf, Colwin, Laughlin, and so on - but
also to bear in mind that they will not all agree, and that it may not be
possible to tell which of any different views you should adopt. Great
coaches, and great swimmers, are good guessers.

Quoted message said:

Does this make sense to anybody else?

I can swim smoothly and efficiently using side lying balance positions,
little flick of a kick at the beginning of the pull to help the pull
and get me off the lower hip. Fair amount of catch-up stroke. And it
works great for distance sets. In particular after breathing, you can
lay out on the breathing side arm while the other arm pushes you
through the water. You are balanced, you are resting briefly, but
still moving through the water, and life is good.

Problem is there's not a whole lot of speed in that style. (At least
for me.) On a sprint day, or when I'm trying to get going faster, got
no other gear to switch to. But I can probably swim at 90% of maximum
speed using that style for long distances.

Okay, so I need more speed. So I start using a different style: two
beat crossover, quick to catch so there's no glide, arms pulling right
away. And yes, more speed than then side lying glide style by probably
10%. But a lot tougher way to swim - your body is contorting as your
legs hit during the crossover phase, and you can really feel how much
you are muscling your way through the water. So pretty good for sprint
day, but when you're staring down 500 meters of twisting and pulling
with your arms like crazy, it's a bit daunting.

So back to my original question. Has anybody experienced a similar
thing with different freestyle techniques? Some are efficient and good
for distance, but lack top end speed. Others are good for getting to
the other end of the pool as fast as you can, but pretty tough for a
distance set.

Eric

The distance stroke you describe is what I use in open water races. It
helps to maintain balance in choppy water and allows for spearing the
arms forward through the wind chop. But I wouldn't say it doesn't have
speed. It doesn't have sprint speed, but it has distance speed.

"Otis B. Driftwood" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

The distance stroke you describe is what I use in open water races. It
helps to maintain balance in choppy water and allows for spearing the
arms forward through the wind chop. But I wouldn't say it doesn't have
speed. It doesn't have sprint speed, but it has distance speed.

It may not have "distance speed" for _you_ in that particular situation, but
it would be an error to decide that that was a universal and permanent
characteristic of that particular variation of front crawl swimming.

Yes, I argree. I actually believe that kind of stroke is what TI is
adovcating. There used to be a short video of Don Walsh swimming that
way on the goswim website. It's exactly as I've described it, and also
what Scott Lemley has dicussed. I think it works quite well in males,
particularly those a bit older and maybe a little overweight. It also
is practiced by some elites, I would argue Grant Hackett is one of
them. But of course they usally have big kicks, which is maybe how
they overcome the lack of high speed that it seems to have.

But it is quite useful. Jtaylor makes the point that swimming is a
contemplative sport, and there's no need to arrive at the best method
for someone today. Along those lines, I did take some notes when
swimming at the gym pool. Swimming TI costs me 10% in max speed
compared with other techniques over 50 yards. But I can swim close to
that speed for long distances. Trying different things in the pool is
often counter-productive. Swimming is a great deal about muscle memory
development and timing. So best to decide which way to move forward
and then go that direction.

Eric