General fitness, health and nutrition · Public discussion

weird popov training video

Started by Claudio · · Last activity · 8 posts · 1,670 views

This thread is locked and is currently read-only.

Thread navigation

Jump through the discussion

Go to the original post, the replies on this page, or the latest preserved contribution.

Thread details

What we know about this thread

Original section
General fitness, health and nutrition
Published
14 September 2003
Last activity
14 September 2003
Original author
Claudio
Posts
8
Discussion status
Public discussion
Total views
1,670
Views / 30 days
0

The navigation and discussion metadata provide context. Posts remain in their original chronological order.

Showing posts 1–8 of 8
Posts remain in their original chronological order.

Text size
  1. I have a question to you I've seen a video of a popov training session on the web. in this scene he
    is swimming freestyle with the head (up to the chin) completely out of the water. do you have any
    idea of the purpose of this training? -Claudio

  2. Perhaps for Waterpolo???

    Or but there are better ways to increase the drag of the water.

    "claudio" <[email hidden]> schreef in bericht
    "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:

    I have a question to you I've seen a video of a popov training session on the web. in this scene
    he is swimming freestyle with the head (up to the chin) completely out of the water. do you have
    any idea of the purpose of this training? -Claudio

  3. Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    I've seen a video of a popov training session on the web.


    in this scene he is swimming freestyle with the head (up to the chin) completely out of the water.
    do you have any idea of the purpose of this training?<<

    I have the video of which you speak. It is a drill to train the "kayak" stroke style of swimming.
    Indeed he keeps his head raised up over the water, looking forward, while "jumping" forward with
    alternating hand strokes ("jumping" over his bow wave, alternately with each hand). It has been
    claimed on this newsgroup that Popov does all his training with a FQS swimming style. This video
    certainly dispells this fallacy and perhaps also partially explains why he races with so much
    vertical head motion.

    Larry Weisenthal

    Certitude is poison; curiosity is life

  4. Larry, do you know for certain that Popov's objective for this drill was to train the kayak stroke?
    Often, the same drill can be used to achieve different objectives........for example:

    In the early '70's my college swim coach had us often do the exact same drill (we called is the
    'Tarzan Drill"😉. The only purpose of this drill was for conditioning....it had absolutely nothing to
    do with training the kayak stroke or anyother stroke for that matter. Our coach knew that if you
    raised your head your legs would drop (sounds a little TI'ish, doesn't it?) requiring considerably
    more effort......he also has us kick the same way (head above surface; hands behind back).

    If you've got specific knowledge of Popov's training intent for this drill, please share it;
    otherwise, I'd caution you about jumping to conclusions.

    [email hidden] (Larry Weisenthal) wrote in message
    news:<[email hidden]>...

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    I've seen a video of a popov training session on the web.


    in this scene he is swimming freestyle with the head (up to the chin) completely out of the water.
    do you have any idea of the purpose of this training?<<

    I have the video of which you speak. It is a drill to train the "kayak" stroke style of swimming.
    Indeed he keeps his head raised up over the water, looking forward, while "jumping" forward with
    alternating hand strokes ("jumping" over his bow wave, alternately with each hand). It has been
    claimed on this newsgroup that Popov does all his training with a FQS swimming style. This video
    certainly dispells this fallacy and perhaps also partially explains why he races with so much
    vertical head motion.

    Larry Weisenthal

    Certitude is poison; curiosity is life

  5. From my experience, Touretski (Popov's coach) uses that drill to teach a fast and deep catch i.e.
    not letting the hand stay out long, with the hand going deep out front

    "Bill Geiser" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
    "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:

    Larry, do you know for certain that Popov's objective for this drill was to train the kayak
    stroke? Often, the same drill can be used to achieve different objectives........for example:

    In the early '70's my college swim coach had us often do the exact same drill (we called is the
    'Tarzan Drill"😉. The only purpose of this drill was for conditioning....it had absolutely
    nothing to do with training the kayak stroke or anyother stroke for that matter. Our coach knew
    that if you raised your head your legs would drop (sounds a little TI'ish, doesn't it?)
    requiring considerably more effort......he also has us kick the same way (head above surface;
    hands behind back).

    If you've got specific knowledge of Popov's training intent for this drill, please share it;
    otherwise, I'd caution you about jumping to conclusions.

    [email hidden] (Larry Weisenthal) wrote in message


    news:<[email hidden]>...

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    >I've seen a video of a popov training session on the web.


    in this scene he is swimming freestyle with the head (up to the chin) completely out of the
    water. do you have any idea of the purpose of this training?<<

    I have the video of which you speak. It is a drill to train the "kayak"


    stroke

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    style of swimming. Indeed he keeps his head raised up over the water,


    looking

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    forward, while "jumping" forward with alternating hand strokes


    ("jumping" over

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    his bow wave, alternately with each hand). It has been claimed on this newsgroup that Popov does
    all his training with a FQS swimming style.


    This

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    video certainly dispells this fallacy and perhaps also partially


    explains why

    Quoted message said:
    Quoted message said:

    he races with so much vertical head motion.

    Larry Weisenthal

    Certitude is poison; curiosity is life

  6. Hi Bill, Larry, Colin, et al.

    On occasion I'll have my swimmers practice "heads up" freestyle. Not very often since I don't want
    to foster the notion that holding the head high is a good idea. When we do it, I ask them to focus
    on keeping a high bent elbow recovery. That's the main reason we do the drill and it could be one of
    the reasons Touretski had Popov do it. This is a carryover of a water polo drill where swimmers
    practice "dribbling" the ball by chopping the hands into the water slightly in front of and beside
    the ball so that a small wave pushes the ball forward and to the side. Repeated fast strokes keep
    the ball in front of the face of the water polo player as he or she sprints the length of the pool
    with their head held high so they can see the defense and grab the ball and pass it if warranted.
    Another purpose of the drill is to build leg strength since as Bill said, holding the head up that
    high requires a very strong kick to keep the body anywhere close to horizontal. And I think it
    certainly compels the swimmer to drive the hand right into a catch; it's very difficult to glide in
    the heads up position. Something else I tell my swimmers is to hold their head steady as they swim
    this way, not wag the head side to side with the rolling motion of the shoulders.

    To comment specifically on that video I've heard speculation that Touretski produced it long after
    he stopped using the drills he was purported to be training Popov with. In other words, he'd already
    gone onto other more useful drills and training strategies but wasn't about to advertise what they
    were doing prefering to throw out a little disinformation to the unsuspecting swimming/coaching
    world. I wouldn't be surprised to find out some day that this was true. Remember, Touretski is a
    product of the Soviet Union, a notoriously secretive society. He then moved to Australia, a land
    where "cutthroat" coaching styles are famous and you'd rather slit your own throat than share a
    secret with one of your competitors. Do you think he would willingly tell the world how he and Popov
    became so successful when Popov had yet to retire? I don't think so.

    Now that he's moved to Switzerland and Popov is probably a year away from retiring, I think we
    may well see another video from the two - "Touretski's Secret Coaching Tips" or some such thing.
    Stay tuned.

    Scott

  7. Touretski stills uses that drill. He used it on me last year.

    "Scott Lemley" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
    "]news:[email hidden]...

    Quoted message said:

    Hi Bill, Larry, Colin, et al.

    On occasion I'll have my swimmers practice "heads up" freestyle. Not very often since I don't want
    to foster the notion that holding the head high is a good idea. When we do it, I ask them to focus
    on keeping a high bent elbow recovery. That's the main reason we do the drill and it could be one
    of the reasons Touretski had Popov do it. This is a carryover of a water polo drill where swimmers
    practice "dribbling" the ball by chopping the hands into the water slightly in front of and beside
    the ball so that a small wave pushes the ball forward and to the side. Repeated fast strokes keep
    the ball in front of the face of the water polo player as he or she sprints the length of the pool
    with their head held high so they can see the defense and grab the ball and pass it if warranted.
    Another purpose of the drill is to build leg strength since as Bill said, holding the head up that
    high requires a very strong kick to keep the body anywhere close to horizontal. And I think it
    certainly compels the swimmer to drive the hand right into a catch; it's very difficult to glide
    in the heads up position. Something else I tell my swimmers is to hold their head steady as they
    swim this way, not wag the head side to side with the rolling motion of the shoulders.

    To comment specifically on that video I've heard speculation that Touretski produced it long after
    he stopped using the drills he was purported to be training Popov with. In other words, he'd
    already gone onto other more useful drills and training strategies but wasn't about to advertise
    what they were doing prefering to throw out a little disinformation to the unsuspecting
    swimming/coaching world. I wouldn't be surprised to find out some day that this was true.
    Remember, Touretski is a product of the Soviet Union, a notoriously secretive society. He then
    moved to Australia, a land where "cutthroat" coaching styles are famous and you'd rather slit your
    own throat than share a secret with one of your competitors. Do you think he would willingly tell
    the world how he and Popov became so successful when Popov had yet to retire? I don't think so.

    Now that he's moved to Switzerland and Popov is probably a year away from retiring, I think we
    may well see another video from the two - "Touretski's Secret Coaching Tips" or some such thing.
    Stay tuned.

    Scott

  8. When our masters coach gave us that drill, I think his explanation was that it strengthened our
    kick, since you have to really kick to keep your body level. Whatever the purpose is, it's really
    exhausting.

Active in the last 60 minutes

Active in this thread

0 users · 0 guests ·0 bots ·0 total

No signed-in users are active right now.

No known search crawlers active right now.