The first thing I was taught about swimming

Quoted message said:

In a related note, I regularly see people attempting to
swim the crawl with straight arms. They move their arms
forward from the shoulder joint only, keeping their elbows
stiff and straight. Is this a natural movement and is that
why so many people do it? It doesn't seem natural to
me.... I see two-year olds with more flexibility in their
choice of arm movements than this straight-arm effort I
see in adults.

I was 15 and they learnt me to swim crawl on straight arms
(the same with back). I rember that I was given 5+ ( in 1 to
6 scale) for these styles !!! I don't think it is a natural
movement. For adults who haven't swum before nothing is
natural in deep water. In my opinion they simply do not know
that they do something wrong.

Gosia
---------------
PL

Quoted message said:

I was 15 and they learnt me to swim crawl on straight arms
(the same with back). I rember that I was given 5+ ( in 1
to 6 scale) for these styles !!! I don't think it is a
natural movement. For adults who haven't swum before
nothing is natural in deep water. In my opinion they
simply do not know that they do something wrong.

Gosia

Rereading what I wrote, I realize I was not entirely clear.
I am not talking about the arms being straight while underwater---
just absolutely straight when they are brought forward
through the air portion of swimming.

Pat in TX

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Rereading what I wrote, I realize I was not entirely clear.
I am not talking about the arms being straight while underwater---
just absolutely straight when they are brought forward
through the air portion of swimming.

I swam with straight arms under and above the water and had
to wait some years for someone who said me that. I thought
that while swimming free and back I should make circles
normal(perpendicular)to the bottom of the pool with straight
arms. Propably my elbows were not completely stiff but I
remember exactly the day when I started to bend them. My
point of view is that autodidacts and people that are only
seasonal swimmers or beginners and weren't training any
sport in the past have not developed movement imagination.
Even if they watch technically good swimmer they do not
notice that for example his wrist is below the elbow. Even
if they see more details they dont' have the move pattern
and could not control the arm
- being sure that the move is right when in fact it has
different shape than they wanted.

Gosia
----------------
PL

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

Quoted message said:

Rereading what I wrote, I realize I was not entirely
clear. I am not talking about the arms being straight
while underwater---just absolutely straight when they are
brought forward through the air portion of swimming.

Don't worry about it. Many of the greatest swimmers do
that. E.g., Inge DeBruijn and Michael Klim. Inge is a world
record holder!

Don

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Rereading what I wrote, I realize I was not entirely
clear. I am not

talking about the arms being straight while underwater---
just absolutely straight when they are brought forward
through the air portion of swimming.

Quoted message said:

Don't worry about it. Many of the greatest swimmers do
that. E.g., Inge DeBruijn and Michael Klim. Inge is a
world record holder!

Don

These people I have been seeing using the straight arm
method have their arms barely an inch above the water line
and sometimes their arms skim the water. I'll bet your two
examples have their arms high.

Pat in TX

Pat said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Rereading what I wrote, I realize I was not entirely
clear. I am not

talking about the arms being straight while underwater---
just absolutely straight when they are brought forward
through the air portion of swimming.

Quoted message said:

Don't worry about it. Many of the greatest swimmers do
that. E.g., Inge DeBruijn and Michael Klim. Inge is a
world record holder!

Don

These people I have been seeing using the straight arm
method have their arms barely an inch above the water line
and sometimes their arms skim the water. I'll bet your two
examples have their arms high.

You are right. Janet Evans is perhaps the most famous of
the windmill straight arm strokes. The straight arm stroke
you describe is often a cause of shoulder pain. My own
stroke tends to be too straight, but it isn't nearly as bad
as you describe.

martin