Over the span of a decade or so I have seen many articles, a few books, videos and a growth industry in clinics and individual tuition from various companies, that have been flooding the swimming and triathlon communities, promising to teach the secret to successful, fast swimming.
The information disseminated through the media of these articles, books, DVD’s and clinics sounds very impressive, as they encourage swimmers of all abilities to stop trying so hard during their swim sessions and ‘tune into’ swimming slippery.
But, that is not all, these articles etc go on to inform us that as coaches we are teaching/coaching, and training swimmers incorrectly. To this end the mantra we are subjected to enable our swimmers to swim fast, is that we must teach our swimmers to swim on their sides like a fish, and maintain a body position like a racing yacht.
These ideas are not based on biomechanical principles of propulsion, Physics or the analyses of world-class swimmers.
Since we are human and in no way assembled like fish, it is foolish to base any stroke technique or an entire training philosophy around these principles.
If you ever hear a Coach/instructor state that they "will have you swimming like fish" walk away,or better still tell them to go to the nearset Aquarium! No human can swim like a fish,not even close.
Check the speed that fish can attain i did and if I just pick one, say the Sailfish... that fish can reach velocities of up to 68 miles per hour.
Now, that is quite quick even for a car. In comparison, a world-record freestyle swimmer limps along at barely five miles per hour.
A fish's bulging muscles are packed along its sides. That's where a fish gets most of its swimming power. Fish may be up to 80 percent muscle, and these muscles are different from swimmers muscles.
Next time you buy some fish for your dinner look at the fish meat before you cook it. Fish muscle look like sideways W's stacked inside each other. These W's are called Myomeres (my-oh-mears).
When a fish wants to move forward, it begins a side-to-side wiggle that starts at its front and moves to its back. As this wiggle goes backward,the fish goes forward. The wiggle starts when the myomeres behind the fish's head on one side pull themselves shorter, and then the myomeres on the other side pull themselves shorter.
This much like football fans at the World Cup performing the now famous Mexican wave, these muscle contractions progress from side to side toward the back of the fish,and end with the flip of the fish's tail.
Of course, all fish are better swimmers than people. That's to be expected since they were born in the water and get to practice swimming every day. But if you put a fish on dry land, you can outrun it every time!
It has also been stated, by the promoters of “fish like” swimming that, “the most hydro-dynamically position that your body can be in is lying on your side, one arm extended for length and balanced. Not so very different from the way fish do.”
This statement really does upset my equilibrium, because 99.9% of fish in the oceans of the world DO NOT SWIM ON THEIR SIDE.
Take a look a very close look at fish... and you will become aware of a large fin sticking up toward the surface of the water. This fin is called the dorsal fin, and in my dictionary dorsal means back or upper surface. The dorsal fin is on the fish’s back, which means the back is up, and the front is down toward the bottom of the sea. In other words……. fish swim on their stomach not on their side.
The truth of the matter is that the concept of swimming like a fish lacks a whole lot of creditability. It is like seeing an advert in a magazine or a book that states you can perform gymnastics like an orangatang!
Can you imagine the break through this type of discovery would mean to the world of gymnastics?
Here are just a few of problems with the concept of fish like swimming…
• When swimming freestyle holding your body on it’s side will not increase or decrease the amount of drag or resistance than what is created when holding the body in a prone position. (On the Stomach) Why? Because buoyancy, lift forces from the water remain the same no matter what the position of the body.
• It is virtually impossible to generate propulsive forces from a long side stretched position. The muscles of the upper body cannot achieve efficient position to execute an effective freestyle pull, if the body is rotated perpendicular with the bottom of the pool.
• When a swimmer maintains this long stretched position as has been suggested, they will experience a drop in velocity followed by an increase in velocity. When a swimmer decreases their velocity and the suddenly increases it also known as negative acceleration and positive acceleration they must over come inertia. Newton’s first Law implies that far more energy is required to overcome inertia than is required to maintain inertia. Therefore the swimmer is wasting valuable energy repeatedly overcoming inertia.
• Maintaining a streamlined position is not more important than maintaining balance. If a swimmers streamlining is improved and no change occurs to their balance in the water, the swimmer will get not faster. If a swimmers balance iis improved and no change is made in regards to their streamlining, the swimmer will get faster.
But, if both are improved the swimmer will see the greatest increase to their velocity through the water of all. To eliminate one at the expense of the other is a waste of time and effort and will not result in successful swimming.
Since humans are not fish, it does not make since to try and copy either in an effort to gain improved efficiency when swimming. This is not to say that a streamlined position is not desirable, it is.
Professor Bill Boomer states “streamlining is very important but should not be emphasized at the expense of developing great balance in the water."
This is achieved via a series of unique swimming drills to develop a sense of floating or feeling “suspended” in the water creating a horizontal position, not vertical.
Balance is important because without it in the water there is no way to stay afloat unless the arms and legs are constantly moving to keep us from sinking to the bottom. However, we want to use the arms and legs to assist in moving forward, not prevent us from becoming a bottom feeder. The swim instructors of our youth gave us some poor information by telling us to “kick harder” or “move the arms faster”.
Once a swimmer is feeling more balanced the next step is to begin the process of streamlining and lengthening the bodyline. By getting more on your side (no more than 45 degrees) to streamline and extending the arm to lengthen the body, drag is reduced in the water. If you want to design a fast moving boat, engineers design a long, slick, narrow hull. The same is true for humans: create a long swimmer and you will have continuous force application.”
The best approach to improving swimming is to learn from what the very best are doing. Here are a few characteristics current great swimmers all have in common.
1. World Class swimmers have a maximum rotation of 45 degrees to the left and to the right. Not the “fish like” goal of 90 degrees to each side.
2. World Class swimmers do not leave their arm extended for a long period of Time. The length of time the upper arm is extended for is “dependent on the Duration between arm recovery and propulsion.” Taller male and female swimmers all always demonstrate this stroke characteristic. Federica Pellegrini is a great example of this of stroke style.
3. The best swimmers are good at streamlining and have effective propulsion.
Swimming technique is not limited to any one aspect of the stroke. Swimming is a complicated sport where the athlete is suspended in fluid, and every action will create an opposite and equal reaction. (This is Newton’s third law. Just in case you were wondering.) Sometimes the reaction is positive, other times the reaction results in technique flaws and hampers performance.
Freestyle is a stroke that requires constant movement through a range of motion, no pauses should occur in any one position, especially if that pause detracts from or limits propulsive forces. To recommend swimming on ones side (90 degrees) may reduce a small amount of resistance. I say may because most indications suggest that it is no different than swimming in a prone position.
However, the restriction and reduction of propulsive forces make it not worth the effort and in fact will harm performance. One thing is certain; none of the great freestyle swimmers swim on their side.
Fish do no swim on their side. And if you want to swim at high velocity, you probably should not swim on your side either.
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