Who sings that old rock 'n' roll standby? The one with an
electric guitar wailing high while the guy screams, "Dude
looks like a Ladeeee!".
Well it happened yet again. I'm waiting for the Master's
workout to start at the local University. Two females on
swim scholarship come on deck, jump in and start
swimming. And I'll be darned if they don't swim the way
so many of them do:
1. Straight arm recovery.
2. Directly down with the hands on entry to catch.
3. No glide. Arm never fully straightened on entry.
4. Rather flat in the water.
5. Short push back, hands out closer to hip than thigh.
So I look at video of the current World's best female
distance freestyler, Hannah Stockbauer from Germany, and
she's doing the exact same thing.
On the elite male side, a lot tougher to spot this style but
I did find two.
This is all old material. But like a good comic, I'm
building a repertoire of people I can imitate in the pool.
For a few strokes anyways. Keller/Hackett, Phelps, Dolan,
Rossolini ... I got them down. You can drive yourself a
little crazy experimenting because the end result is usually
the same swimming speed. Either because it's the same
practictioner, or because it would take a long time to
master a particular style.
One thing about the rapid fire technique common on the
female side - you don't have time to agonize over balance,
and how long to glide, and whether you should work on your
kick or just forget about that pathetic thing. Just look
at the tiles on the bottom of the pool, and try to keep
them moving.
So I think it's time this dude learned how to swim
like a Lady.
Eric