Drafting technique

Here is a recent review about drafting

http://www.svl.ch/Windschattenschwimmen

You can find an alternative method for sighting in

http://www.goswim.tv/drilloftheweek_comments.php?id=1374_0_20_0_C

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Quoted message said:

Here is a recent review about drafting

http://www.svl.ch/Windschattenschwimmen

Thank you for the link!

However, I think that the study is deeply flawed.
See the source at http://www.coachesinfo.com/category/swimming/329/
They mention that "during the drafting situation, the lead swimmer was towed
passively (no stroking or kicking or assisted flotation)".
This is absolutely not a realistic situation. My concern is that the water
moved backward by the feet and the arm of the lead swimmer may create a
stream which could completely cancel the benefit of drafting.

Will have to see other studies to be conviced that drafting in swimming is
such a big advantage...

-- Olivier

"Silver0l" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

I tended to think that the contrary stream created by the kick and the pull
made drafting a bad option, but this is obviously not the general feeling
among triathletes.
Any idea about the impact of drafting on performance?
Any idea about drafting technique?
Best position and distance to do so?
And how do you do that in dark water, when your poor neck flexibility
makes
looking ahead very difficult?

-- Olivier

Hi
I use "drafting" - we call it slipstreaming - alot.
My partner & I generally do 1500m, swapping the lead every 500m, so I lead
the first and last
sets, he leads the middle set. Neither of us are club swimmers, and we're
not youngsters either,
but we completed Friday's swim in 23:02

Performance:- My training partner and I recon it saves about 15-20% of
maximum effort.
We can go a <bit> faster, but only at the cost of exhausting the lead
swimmer.

Technique:- We both swim front crawl,

Position & distance:- Our opinions differ here, I prefer to be off to one
side, with my head
level with his ankles. This is more like surfing in his bow-wave, not true
slipstreaming.
Kinda like geese flying in formation. He prefers to stay completely behind
me.
It could be down to the power of the legkick - I have none, he's quite
strong.

Dark water? - Nope, we swim in a well lit pool, but that's not important, we
tend to do it by
"feel" - using the water currents to tell us what's going on.

HTH

DB

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

Performance:- My training partner and I recon it saves about 15-20% of
maximum effort.
We can go a <bit> faster, but only at the cost of exhausting the lead
swimmer.

From memory, a pair of the guys who were running the US swimming flume at
Colorado Springs said that swimming behind another person some small but
normal distance (2 metres?) was good for 3 sec per hundred.

This was part of a q&a session following the presentation, and I have no
notes, but the numbers were a bit bigger than what I would have expected;
then again they're the ones with the gazillion dollar research facility...

Now that number (3 sec per 100m) of course would only be for swimmers of a
certain speed, efficiency, and fitness level; whether it would be 15-20% of
real effort, or even of percieved effort, I cannot tell, but making some
educated guesses about the quality of the swimmers involved and the shape of
the v/e curve it is probably the right order of magnitude, at least.

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

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

Performance:- My training partner and I recon it saves about 15-20% of
maximum effort.
We can go a <bit> faster, but only at the cost of exhausting the lead
swimmer.

From memory, a pair of the guys who were running the US swimming flume at
Colorado Springs said that swimming behind another person some small but
normal distance (2 metres?) was good for 3 sec per hundred.

This was part of a q&a session following the presentation, and I have no
notes, but the numbers were a bit bigger than what I would have expected;
then again they're the ones with the gazillion dollar research facility...

Now that number (3 sec per 100m) of course would only be for swimmers of a
certain speed, efficiency, and fitness level; whether it would be 15-20%
of
real effort, or even of percieved effort, I cannot tell, but making some
educated guesses about the quality of the swimmers involved and the shape
of
the v/e curve it is probably the right order of magnitude, at least.

My figure comes from a "gut feel" of swimming with, and without my training
partner.
Also, I'm aware that unless I "throttle back" , I run into his feet when
he's the lead swimmer. Our lap-times don't increase when he's leading
either!
We usually swim 3 times a week, never less than 1.5Km, and we've been doing
this at least
3 years. We've both had our ups & downs after illness & injury, but we do
push each other along.