Thanks, Eric, that is very helpful. Regarding my catch up, I don't do a
full catch-up. I do a shark fin and start pulling when the catching arm
passes the ear. So, it is FQ, but not full catch-up. I can catch up
further on my non breathing side (right side breather only). because I
can keep the glide and catch up further w/o loosing balance. On the
breathing side, I need to start pushing down with the pulling hand
while the other hand is still catching. So, on my breathing side I
start the pull earlier.
Regarding the kick, I can do two, four and six. I don't do six that
much but I experiment with it once in a while. I mostly do a two and
can do a four. I essentially kick from my hip. I do a deeper kick when
I try to go faster, and sometimes, I bend the knee to add extra power
(getting the foot out of the water). However, I haven't noticed much
more propulsion with the extra knee bend. One thing that I noticed is
the there is always a tiny little kick after I finish my intentional
kick. In other words, I sort of wind up the leg that I am going to kick
by lifting it a little higher before I push down with my hip.
The way I usually swim is very slow and almost hedonistic (I get a lot
of pleasure from gliding through the water with long, slow, relaxed
strokes . I usually swimm two to three thousand without stopping. I
break my swim into sets of 5 laps where I focus on an asspect of the
stroke and the movements that go into it. I am alwyas trying to compare
the stroke to what others do and try to help my friends with their
strokes. I've notice how some of them get very poor advise from thier
coaches, sometimes. I have a friend that has been told to hold a tennis
ball between her chin and her chest. This forces the neck to bend and
the spine not to be aligned. This has not helped her bring the legs to
the surface. Now, she swims with her torso slanted down, her feet doing
a six beat, and her neck bent down. I keep telling her that she need to
arch her lower back to bring the legs up, but since I am not an
"official coach", she won't listen to me. I have noticed a lot of
people that are swimming with the head facing staight down trying to
keep it under the water and still drag their legs. I have tried to look
down and I get dizzy right away.
Anyways, Eric. Thanks for your help
Andres
Quoted message said:You're kicking as most elite males kick. You are swimming
fundamentally as TI advocates.
As you point out, it is very efficient. But when you want to increase
your speed, to find another
gear as it were, you need to do one of two things - kick more, or
stroke faster. Most elite
males have great kicks so they start 6-beating. Wonderful Peter
Vanderkaay swims TI for
half his race, and then increases his turnover dramatically for the
back half. He obviously
has chosen the "faster turnover" approach to get more speed. Maybe
he's a poor kicker or
it's simply habit.
Most elite males who use your approach have at least a 4-beat. It's
what we call the
distance 4-beat on this group. Look at any video of Hackett, Prilukov,
and sometimes
Keller for examples. With respect to the loss of momentum you are
concerned with, the
elites appear to solve the same way you are talking about - as soon as
that rear hand has
stopped pushing, then the front hand needs to be descending to catch.
Incidentally, one huge difference with respect to TI and the way elites
swim is that they
don't swim catch-up both sides. Are you swimming catch-up both sides?
Elites will
swim catch up on only one side. To see that, freeze underwater video
when their lead
hand is piercing the water after recovery - on the non-breathing side,
the other hand will often be out
in front of their head (FQS) but on the other side the stroking hand
will be well below
their head and into it's power phase. We've talked about that a great
deal here. (i.e. "loping"😉
So I wouldn't try to swim catch-up on both sides - none of the elites
do unless they kick
like mad and the only examples I know of in the elite World are Thorpe
and Jensen.
Finally, I've noticed that elites use their kick in different ways.
Most will kick predominantly
at the knee while others use their hips more. If you use your hips
more, you will generate
more torque on your body. The best example of this is Prilukov - after
breathing he scissers
his legs at the hip, one down and the other violently up to generate
body torque. Hackett
often swims with exactly the same style but does not do that - his kick
is more supple and
not as much hip driven, almost like flicking the end of his toes.
Different kicks for different
folks.
Eric
