[email hidden] (Totalswimm) wrote in message
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Quoted message said:Quoted message said:He suspects that a failure to fully rotate back after breathing keeps the body off-balance,
forces the non-dominant arm to re-establish balance and thus robs the non-breathing side of power
I just ordered the Maglischo book today and it sounds like a significant forward step for him.
I've noted the same phenomenon mentioned here and have found two focal points that help greatly.
1. After breathing, focus on driving the high hip down fully. Focus on that almost to the
exclusion of all else. When you want to swim faster, drive the breathing-side hip down faster.
2. Also, imagine you have a bullseye target beyond the fingertips of the hand extended forward as
you breathe (i.e. left hand when you breathe right). Picture yourself driving the
breathing-side hand through that target as you enter.
Either focal point corrects this incomplete rotation. Try 'em and let me know how you feel. Terry
Terry, you seem like a really nice guy. And I've pointed out in the past a number of
contributions that I feel you've made to the swimming culture. And I bought your book, your CD,
your short-axis video, and I ALMOST bought your pool-side flip-charts. So I'm helping pay off
those prep-school debts 🙂
But I gotta tell 'ya, I may try the two focal points that you mention. Then again, I may not.
Because if you're right, and trying to rotate quickly back to non-breathing side to get a hard, even
pull on that side is the best (only?) way to swim, then what are we to do about Mr. Tom Dolan?
You see most people already know that Tom Dolan is the greatest
I.M.'er of all time. But some may not realize that in 1994, in addition to winning the 400 I.M., he
was also National Champion in the 400 free, 800 free, and 1500 free. And in winning four
National titles, he equalled a feat accomplished by the legendary Mark Spitz over 20 years
earlier. Four years later, he did it again to become the first man since Johnny Weissmuller in
the 1920s to win four events at two National Championships.
So in a country of 260 million people, among those who can actually swim freestyle, tall, lanky Tom
is damn near the best!!!
So please look at the video sequence below to see the genius at work.
donalfagan.comimvideos.htmlOpen ↗
IMCrawl-TomDolan400mHeat6Sydney2000.mpg
Now back to your suggestions. You first suggest driving the breathing-side hip down faster. That
would be Dolan's right hip. Please note from the video that not only does he NOT drive his right hip
down quickly, he remains rotated on his left side at nearly 90 degrees (right hip elevated!) for
most of his pull on that side.
Your second suggestion is to drive the fingers of the non-breathing side hand through a target
stretched in front of you. Instead, in classic loping fashion, Dolan plants his left arm in the
proverbially pole-vaulters box. Which means it very quickly points directly at the bottom of the
bottom, in nearly unbent fashion. Which is to say, he ain't punching his left fingers through no
target in front of him.
You say you've studied the videos of 10,000 swimmers. Did you ever study Dolan?
You said in an ealier post that you weren't really a scientist. That implies that you feel that the
sublte nuances of a swimming stroke may be something which we can't analyze, hypothesize on, and
understand. Others that post to this site disagree with your assessment. Tom Dolan's style and
others like it have been discussed here at great length. Hypotheses have been put forth as to why it
is empirically so effective. Your notions about remaining stream-lined and dart-like all make
perfect sense. But what are we do with Dolan and others that swim like him? Would you have us
disregard the data of his swimming prowess?
The loping technique has been described in great detail by Larry many times. But I feel compelled to
add "my 2 cents", having now used the style for a few months.
In my opinion, the maintenance of momentum using arms alone may explain the greatest advantage of
the loping style. You may note from the video that Dolan doesn't even kick every other cycle.
In "Swimming Fastest", Maglischo has countless graphs that depict two pieces of data over time - the
swimmers velocity and the position of their arms. And time-and-time again, the good swim doctor
points out on the graphs that the swimmers forward velocity decreases while their arms descend to
catch on each side. And that's obviously because there's little to no propulsion at that point in
the stroke. To swim otherwise would put too much stress on the shoulder.
Well, Maglischo has a PhD and has been a swim coach for 37 years. But maybe lopers solved the lack
of propulsion and shoulder stress he talks about, and somehow, over that nearly four decade long
career, he somehow missed it. Because I'll bet you anything Dolan's swim velocity curve doesn't look
like the ones in his book. Dolan keeps his arm straight (no shoulder stress) and gets propulsion by
immediatley diving for depth.
He trades efficiency for time!
His straight left arm WILL uselessly push some water towards the bottom of the pool. But, unlike
some of the competitors on either side of him, who are punching holes in imaginary targets, and
patiently waiting for their catch, he will IMMEDIATELY get some propulsion on that side.
And the fundamentals of his loping style have been explicated countless times before by our own Dr.
Weisenthal. And the similarites of the style among the various practictioners as well as the
differences has also been discussed at great length.
And yet you persist in calling it in idiosyncratic.
I'm not religious, but even us heathens must go to the good book from time-to-time. And it's late,
and I do feel moved by some (swimming) spirit. So I end with Jesus Christ from Mark 8,
"Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?"
-Eric
