The Most Sacred Cow

[email hidden] (4precious) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Every sport has their "sacred cows". That is, ideas that researchers or practitioners have long
since refuted but just will not die.

In the World of swimming, the most sacred cow of all just has to be that lifting your head out of
the water lowers your hips and increases drag, and therefore should unquestionably be avoided.

I wonder if this is valid for kick sets--can I hold my head up here? I have a very
inflexible neck. :-)

[email hidden] (4precious) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Every sport has their "sacred cows". That is, ideas that researchers or practitioners have long
since refuted but just will not die.

In the World of swimming, the most sacred cow of all just has to be that lifting your head out of
the water lowers your hips and increases drag, and therefore should unquestionably be avoided.

I wonder if this is valid for kick sets--can I hold my head up here? I have a very
inflexible neck. :-)

[email hidden] (4precious) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Every sport has their "sacred cows". That is, ideas that researchers or practitioners have long
since refuted but just will not die.

In the World of swimming, the most sacred cow of all just has to be that lifting your head out of
the water lowers your hips and increases drag, and therefore should unquestionably be avoided.

I wonder if this is valid for kick sets--can I hold my head up here? I have a very
inflexible neck. :-)

(4precious) said:

In the World of swimming, the most sacred cow of all just has to be that lifting your head out of
the water lowers your hips and increases drag, and therefore should unquestionably be avoided.

Moo. Clearly there are some elite swimmers that manage to lift their heads and raise their legs,
maybe by kicking hard, maybe by using the arch of the lower back, maybe something else. But many
average swimmers *do* swim with lifted head and lowered hips and that *does* slow them down. The
easy way to reduce that drag is to lower the head.

Quoted message said:

And I think it's worth mentioning the very technical and very good Yanai article in which he used a
computer model of swimmers to compute the buoyant torque.

Unfortunately, all his test subjects were swimmers with "busy kicks" and there was a very wide range
of results for that torque number, about 12 to 60. The bigger the kick, the higher the torque. I
suspect that my puny kick might generate no buoyant torque at all.

Donal Fagan AIA Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com (Anglicise the name to reply by e-mail)

(4precious) said:

In the World of swimming, the most sacred cow of all just has to be that lifting your head out of
the water lowers your hips and increases drag, and therefore should unquestionably be avoided.

Moo. Clearly there are some elite swimmers that manage to lift their heads and raise their legs,
maybe by kicking hard, maybe by using the arch of the lower back, maybe something else. But many
average swimmers *do* swim with lifted head and lowered hips and that *does* slow them down. The
easy way to reduce that drag is to lower the head.

Quoted message said:

And I think it's worth mentioning the very technical and very good Yanai article in which he used a
computer model of swimmers to compute the buoyant torque.

Unfortunately, all his test subjects were swimmers with "busy kicks" and there was a very wide range
of results for that torque number, about 12 to 60. The bigger the kick, the higher the torque. I
suspect that my puny kick might generate no buoyant torque at all.

Donal Fagan AIA Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com (Anglicise the name to reply by e-mail)

(4precious) said:

In the World of swimming, the most sacred cow of all just has to be that lifting your head out of
the water lowers your hips and increases drag, and therefore should unquestionably be avoided.

Moo. Clearly there are some elite swimmers that manage to lift their heads and raise their legs,
maybe by kicking hard, maybe by using the arch of the lower back, maybe something else. But many
average swimmers *do* swim with lifted head and lowered hips and that *does* slow them down. The
easy way to reduce that drag is to lower the head.

Quoted message said:

And I think it's worth mentioning the very technical and very good Yanai article in which he used a
computer model of swimmers to compute the buoyant torque.

Unfortunately, all his test subjects were swimmers with "busy kicks" and there was a very wide range
of results for that torque number, about 12 to 60. The bigger the kick, the higher the torque. I
suspect that my puny kick might generate no buoyant torque at all.

Donal Fagan AIA Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com (Anglicise the name to reply by e-mail)

George Grattan said:

Donal Fagan at Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com said:

(4precious) said:

In the World of swimming, the most sacred cow of all just has to be that lifting your head out
of the water lowers your hips and increases drag, and therefore should unquestionably be
avoided.

Moo. Clearly there are some elite swimmers that manage to lift their heads and raise their legs,
maybe by kicking hard, maybe by using the arch of the lower back, maybe something else. But many
average swimmers *do* swim with lifted head and lowered hips and that *does* slow them down. The
easy way to reduce that drag is to lower the head.

Exactly. I teach adult beginners, and these folks are (generally) so

anxious

Quoted message said:

about merely having their faces in the water and exhaling out while underwater (their natural
reaction is to hold their breath) that they literally propel their heads (and necks, and
shoulders, sometimes) up, forward, out of the water to take a breath. Obviously, for folks without
well-developed water balance skills, a good sense of streamlines, and/or steady flutter kicks,
this produces a Brick Wall effect: hips and legs go way down, drag increases, swimmer stops.

So, I keep worshipping the cow in that context. Sure--better swimmers can certainly work ways
around it, of course-- but for folks learning to swim its a good principle to keep in mind, as it
forces them to work on getting comfortable with having their heads down, faces fully in the water,

turning

Quoted message said:

to the sides to breathe, keeping their hips up, etc. For them the simple dictum of "Head Up=Legs
Down" is therefore generally true and instructive.

I think the balance is the key word. The usual cause of lifted head is pushing down on the water to
lift the head, because of lack of confidence. This ALWAYS causes leg/hips to sink. If the head is
lifted when the body is in equilibrium, the shoulders will drop and the rear parts of the body will
rise as the centre of buoyancy is moved.
--
BD

George Grattan said:

Donal Fagan at Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com said:

(4precious) said:

In the World of swimming, the most sacred cow of all just has to be that lifting your head out
of the water lowers your hips and increases drag, and therefore should unquestionably be
avoided.

Moo. Clearly there are some elite swimmers that manage to lift their heads and raise their legs,
maybe by kicking hard, maybe by using the arch of the lower back, maybe something else. But many
average swimmers *do* swim with lifted head and lowered hips and that *does* slow them down. The
easy way to reduce that drag is to lower the head.

Exactly. I teach adult beginners, and these folks are (generally) so

anxious

Quoted message said:

about merely having their faces in the water and exhaling out while underwater (their natural
reaction is to hold their breath) that they literally propel their heads (and necks, and
shoulders, sometimes) up, forward, out of the water to take a breath. Obviously, for folks without
well-developed water balance skills, a good sense of streamlines, and/or steady flutter kicks,
this produces a Brick Wall effect: hips and legs go way down, drag increases, swimmer stops.

So, I keep worshipping the cow in that context. Sure--better swimmers can certainly work ways
around it, of course-- but for folks learning to swim its a good principle to keep in mind, as it
forces them to work on getting comfortable with having their heads down, faces fully in the water,

turning

Quoted message said:

to the sides to breathe, keeping their hips up, etc. For them the simple dictum of "Head Up=Legs
Down" is therefore generally true and instructive.

I think the balance is the key word. The usual cause of lifted head is pushing down on the water to
lift the head, because of lack of confidence. This ALWAYS causes leg/hips to sink. If the head is
lifted when the body is in equilibrium, the shoulders will drop and the rear parts of the body will
rise as the centre of buoyancy is moved.
--
BD

George Grattan said:

Donal Fagan at Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com said:

(4precious) said:

In the World of swimming, the most sacred cow of all just has to be that lifting your head out
of the water lowers your hips and increases drag, and therefore should unquestionably be
avoided.

Moo. Clearly there are some elite swimmers that manage to lift their heads and raise their legs,
maybe by kicking hard, maybe by using the arch of the lower back, maybe something else. But many
average swimmers *do* swim with lifted head and lowered hips and that *does* slow them down. The
easy way to reduce that drag is to lower the head.

Exactly. I teach adult beginners, and these folks are (generally) so

anxious

Quoted message said:

about merely having their faces in the water and exhaling out while underwater (their natural
reaction is to hold their breath) that they literally propel their heads (and necks, and
shoulders, sometimes) up, forward, out of the water to take a breath. Obviously, for folks without
well-developed water balance skills, a good sense of streamlines, and/or steady flutter kicks,
this produces a Brick Wall effect: hips and legs go way down, drag increases, swimmer stops.

So, I keep worshipping the cow in that context. Sure--better swimmers can certainly work ways
around it, of course-- but for folks learning to swim its a good principle to keep in mind, as it
forces them to work on getting comfortable with having their heads down, faces fully in the water,

turning

Quoted message said:

to the sides to breathe, keeping their hips up, etc. For them the simple dictum of "Head Up=Legs
Down" is therefore generally true and instructive.

I think the balance is the key word. The usual cause of lifted head is pushing down on the water to
lift the head, because of lack of confidence. This ALWAYS causes leg/hips to sink. If the head is
lifted when the body is in equilibrium, the shoulders will drop and the rear parts of the body will
rise as the centre of buoyancy is moved.
--
BD

"4precious" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm sure head lifting ain't for everybody. But for crying out loud, would somebody please put a
bullet in this cow?

I tried for a long time. TI'ers are not amenable to reason.

Don

"4precious" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm sure head lifting ain't for everybody. But for crying out loud, would somebody please put a
bullet in this cow?

I tried for a long time. TI'ers are not amenable to reason.

Don

"4precious" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm sure head lifting ain't for everybody. But for crying out loud, would somebody please put a
bullet in this cow?

I tried for a long time. TI'ers are not amenable to reason.

Don

Donal Fagan at Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com said:

(4precious) said:

In the World of swimming, the most sacred cow of all just has to be that lifting your head out of
the water lowers your hips and increases drag, and therefore should unquestionably be avoided.

Moo. Clearly there are some elite swimmers that manage to lift their heads and raise their legs,
maybe by kicking hard, maybe by using the arch of the lower back, maybe something else. But many
average swimmers *do* swim with lifted head and lowered hips and that *does* slow them down. The
easy way to reduce that drag is to lower the head.

Exactly. I teach adult beginners, and these folks are (generally) so anxious about merely having
their faces in the water and exhaling out while underwater (their natural reaction is to hold their
breath) that they literally propel their heads (and necks, and shoulders, sometimes) up, forward,
out of the water to take a breath. Obviously, for folks without well-developed water balance skills,
a good sense of streamlines, and/or steady flutter kicks, this produces a Brick Wall effect: hips
and legs go way down, drag increases, swimmer stops.

So, I keep worshipping the cow in that context. Sure--better swimmers can certainly work ways around
it, of course-- but for folks learning to swim its a good principle to keep in mind, as it forces
them to work on getting comfortable with having their heads down, faces fully in the water, turning
to the sides to breathe, keeping their hips up, etc. For them the simple dictum of "Head Up=Legs
Down" is therefore generally true and instructive.

--
Shalom, Peace, Salaam

George Grattan

(This post is intended for a Usenet newsgroup only. Its appearance in any other forum that does not
clearly identify it as originally posted to Usenet is therefore a misrepresentation, is done against
my wishes, and may indicate other unauthorized distortions of content and/or context. Correctly
attributed and/or unedited copies of this post in other forums do not necessarily indicate my
willing participation in them.)

Donal Fagan at Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com said:

(4precious) said:

In the World of swimming, the most sacred cow of all just has to be that lifting your head out of
the water lowers your hips and increases drag, and therefore should unquestionably be avoided.

Moo. Clearly there are some elite swimmers that manage to lift their heads and raise their legs,
maybe by kicking hard, maybe by using the arch of the lower back, maybe something else. But many
average swimmers *do* swim with lifted head and lowered hips and that *does* slow them down. The
easy way to reduce that drag is to lower the head.

Exactly. I teach adult beginners, and these folks are (generally) so anxious about merely having
their faces in the water and exhaling out while underwater (their natural reaction is to hold their
breath) that they literally propel their heads (and necks, and shoulders, sometimes) up, forward,
out of the water to take a breath. Obviously, for folks without well-developed water balance skills,
a good sense of streamlines, and/or steady flutter kicks, this produces a Brick Wall effect: hips
and legs go way down, drag increases, swimmer stops.

So, I keep worshipping the cow in that context. Sure--better swimmers can certainly work ways around
it, of course-- but for folks learning to swim its a good principle to keep in mind, as it forces
them to work on getting comfortable with having their heads down, faces fully in the water, turning
to the sides to breathe, keeping their hips up, etc. For them the simple dictum of "Head Up=Legs
Down" is therefore generally true and instructive.

--
Shalom, Peace, Salaam

George Grattan

(This post is intended for a Usenet newsgroup only. Its appearance in any other forum that does not
clearly identify it as originally posted to Usenet is therefore a misrepresentation, is done against
my wishes, and may indicate other unauthorized distortions of content and/or context. Correctly
attributed and/or unedited copies of this post in other forums do not necessarily indicate my
willing participation in them.)

Donal Fagan at Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com said:

(4precious) said:

In the World of swimming, the most sacred cow of all just has to be that lifting your head out of
the water lowers your hips and increases drag, and therefore should unquestionably be avoided.

Moo. Clearly there are some elite swimmers that manage to lift their heads and raise their legs,
maybe by kicking hard, maybe by using the arch of the lower back, maybe something else. But many
average swimmers *do* swim with lifted head and lowered hips and that *does* slow them down. The
easy way to reduce that drag is to lower the head.

Exactly. I teach adult beginners, and these folks are (generally) so anxious about merely having
their faces in the water and exhaling out while underwater (their natural reaction is to hold their
breath) that they literally propel their heads (and necks, and shoulders, sometimes) up, forward,
out of the water to take a breath. Obviously, for folks without well-developed water balance skills,
a good sense of streamlines, and/or steady flutter kicks, this produces a Brick Wall effect: hips
and legs go way down, drag increases, swimmer stops.

So, I keep worshipping the cow in that context. Sure--better swimmers can certainly work ways around
it, of course-- but for folks learning to swim its a good principle to keep in mind, as it forces
them to work on getting comfortable with having their heads down, faces fully in the water, turning
to the sides to breathe, keeping their hips up, etc. For them the simple dictum of "Head Up=Legs
Down" is therefore generally true and instructive.

--
Shalom, Peace, Salaam

George Grattan

(This post is intended for a Usenet newsgroup only. Its appearance in any other forum that does not
clearly identify it as originally posted to Usenet is therefore a misrepresentation, is done against
my wishes, and may indicate other unauthorized distortions of content and/or context. Correctly
attributed and/or unedited copies of this post in other forums do not necessarily indicate my
willing participation in them.)

"4precious" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Every sport has their "sacred cows". That is, ideas that researchers or practitioners have long
since refuted but just will not die.

In the World of swimming, the most sacred cow of all just has to be that lifting your head out of
the water lowers your hips and increases drag, and therefore should unquestionably be avoided.

It's getting down-right annoying. The coach of my Masters team was parroting that the other day.
And I just saw it again on the USA-Swimming website. Their latest "perfect race" entry is the
Olympic 200 IM in which Summer Sanders placed second. They say,

"On her breathing strokes, she does something unconventional by today's technique standards - her
neck is completely out of the water and she looks almost straight ahead. Normally, this action
would cause a swimmer's hips to drop because your body is like a see-saw in the water - when one
end goes up, the other end goes down. That would slow someone down considerably, but Summer is
able to maintain high hip position. While Summer's technique worked very well for her, it probably
would not work for most swimmers."

And I think it's worth mentioning the very technical and very good Yanai article in which he
used a computer model of swimmers to compute the buoyant torque. The upshot of which is the
following quote,

"The average buoyant torque over the stroke cycle (mean=22Nm) was directed to RAISE THE LEGS and
lower the head, primarily because the recovery arm and a PART OF THE HEAD were lifted out of the
water and the center of buoyancy shifted toward the feet."

His article is available for free at: jbiomech.comjbiomech.comOpen ↗

In another words, your head out of the water weighs a lot more than your head in the water. And
your center of buoyancy is about at your naval. So USA-swimming did get one thing right - we are
teeter-totters in the water. Except if you push down on your head, and you keep your back arched,
it leverages your legs UP because your torso has air in it and doesn't want to sink.

But so much for complex research papers by academics. How do really fast people swim? I recently
saw for the first time a clip of one of the great Australian distance man, Kieren Perkins. He's
loping, or "galloping" and lifting his head like crazy before he breaths. Same for Grant Hackett,
ditto for Janet Evans, and Pieter VDH also drives his whole upper body up while he starts his
non-breathing side pull. All those men and women are/were World Record holders.

I'm sure head lifting ain't for everybody. But for crying out loud, would somebody please put a
bullet in this cow?

-Eric

Hi. I don't think you should talk about shooting cows.

Thanks.

Brian D at said:

George Grattan said:

Donal Fagan at Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com said:

On 22 May 2003 23:56:00 -0700, [email hidden] (4precious) wrote:

> In the World of swimming, the most sacred cow of all just has to be that lifting your head out
> of the water lowers your hips and increases drag, and therefore should unquestionably be
> avoided.

Moo. Clearly there are some elite swimmers that manage to lift their heads and raise their legs,
maybe by kicking hard, maybe by using the arch of the lower back, maybe something else. But many
average swimmers *do* swim with lifted head and lowered hips and that *does* slow them down. The
easy way to reduce that drag is to lower the head.

Exactly. I teach adult beginners, and these folks are (generally) so

anxious

Quoted message said:

about merely having their faces in the water and exhaling out while underwater (their natural
reaction is to hold their breath) that they literally propel their heads (and necks, and
shoulders, sometimes) up, forward, out of the water to take a breath. Obviously, for folks
without well-developed water balance skills, a good sense of streamlines, and/or steady
flutter kicks, this produces a Brick Wall effect: hips and legs go way down, drag increases,
swimmer stops.

So, I keep worshipping the cow in that context. Sure--better swimmers can certainly work ways
around it, of course-- but for folks learning to swim its a good principle to keep in mind,
as it forces them to work on getting comfortable with having their heads down, faces fully in
the water,

turning

Quoted message said:

to the sides to breathe, keeping their hips up, etc. For them the simple dictum of "Head Up=Legs
Down" is therefore generally true and instructive.

I think the balance is the key word. The usual cause of lifted head is pushing down on the water
to lift the head, because of lack of confidence. This ALWAYS causes leg/hips to sink. If the head
is lifted when the body is in equilibrium, the shoulders will drop and the rear parts of the body
will rise as the centre of buoyancy is moved.

Absolutely, balance is key.

But learning it in the water takes time. I get 45 minutes once a week for six or eight weeks to
teach these folks how to "swim". "Head down, hips up, legs level" is a lot faster and more effective
in that context than a hour or so of floating on kickboards and working on balance. :-)

In other words, sure: it's a chestnut that's a bit misleading, but when working with beginners, it's
also a good beginning.

--
Shalom, Peace, Salaam

George Grattan

(This post is intended for a Usenet newsgroup only. Its appearance in any other forum that does not
clearly identify it as originally posted to Usenet is therefore a misrepresentation, is done against
my wishes, and may indicate other unauthorized distortions of content and/or context. Correctly
attributed and/or unedited copies of this post in other forums do not necessarily indicate my
willing participation in them.)

Hi Eric,

Good post.

I dropped out of the newsgroup around the time the latest mid-east war started. I've collected all
of the posts (from Terry Laughlin and others) which were flying around then. Following World
Championships (where I plan on capturing as many swims as I can to "prove" my points), I'm going to
try and address all the issues, ranging from head lifting to loping to Adrienne Binder to TI to how
swimming is and perhaps should be taught.

For now, I can't resist commenting on your spot-on post.

If I was teaching swimming to a non-swimming adult, the first thing that I'd have him do is to
purchase two kickboards.

For that matter, I think that the kickboard is the most useful swimming appliance which any swimmer,
including an elite competitive swimmer, can utilize in perfecting the most efficient freestyle
stroke possible. I'll talk about all of this later this summer.

For the time being, however, I'd like to use the kickboard to prove, once and for all, that lifting
the head raises the butt and thighs, rather than lowering them.

Try the following. Get a standard kickboard. If you are a short and slight of stature, you may need
to cut the board 2/3 or 1/2 the way up.

Grasp the board on the side, about 2/3 from the top. Point the board straight ahead. Stretch your
arms out straight in front of you, "aiming" the board straight ahead in the direction of travel.
Imagine that the board is really a motorized device that pulls you forward in the water. You steer
by pointing the board. You want to go straight ahead; so just pretend that you are steering straight
ahead while grasping the sides of your motorized board. Only you will, of course, be propelling
yourself by kicking.

Now, have your head in the water, but look forward. The waterline should be right about at goggle
level. Note the position of your butt and thighs and legs. Note also the position of the board.

Now, do the following:

Add in a little arch to the small of your back...as if, on land, your were trying to have good
posture by "stretching yourself to full height." Just a little arch to the small of your back.

What happens? Your butt rises; your thighs rise, and there is downward pressure of your hands
against the side of the board. The board wants to go down into the water.

Now, raise your head, forward looking, out of the water, while maintaining the little arch in the
small of your back.

Butt comes up even more, thighs come up, legs come up, board goes down under water. You want to keep
kicking, with the board parallel to the surface of the water, but underwater. Again, pretend it is
motorized; you WANT it to be underwater and parallel to the surface of the water. When the board is
in this position, you are PERFECTLY STREAMLINED (front to back, horizontal balance of the trunk and
thighs and legs) for fast, efficient swimming.

So you want to do the following exercise:

Kick 50 (yards/meters), holding the board in the above (underwater) position...maintained in that
position by a combination of a lower back arch and a head lift. Then swim a 50, full stroke, in the
same (body) position (don't worry about your head for now, just concentrate on the lower back arch).
Then kick a hundred/swim a hundred.

Elite swimmers get such perfect body position, I believe, to a substantial degree by all the kicking
they do in workouts, with kickboards, with their heads out of the water (so they can better chat
with each other, among other things). Elite swimmers almost always have a very nice arch to their
lower backs.

Elite swimmers don't get their great water position by "hiding their heads" and/or "pressing their
buoys.' The get that way by hundreds of hours of training with kickboards.

And anyone can do the same.

Later in the summer, I want to talk more about head lifting, as done by the greatest swimmers
of our time.

Couple of interesting observations pertaining to the "Dual in the Pool" :

1. Didja hear Rowdy Gaines refer to Michael Phelps' freestyle at the end of his world record 400 IM
as "he's swimming with a loping stroke" ?? (nb: he was, at the time). The first time I have ever
heard any TV commentator or swim coach use the term "loping stroke." Score one more for the
power of RSS!

2. Diana Munz now swims exactly the same way that Janet Evans swam in 1988, except that Diana
doesn't use the straight arm recovery (the LEAST remarkable feature of the Evans stroke).
Specifically including raising her head completely out of the water on every stroke to look
straight ahead, coincident with her left arm recovery.

Diana Munz did NOT swim this way in year 2000. Where did she learn to swim like Janet Evans in the
interim? Possibly score another for RSS?

Larry Weisenthal Larry Weisenthal

Certitude is poison; curiosity is life

(Larry Weisenthal) said:

Elite swimmers don't get their great water position by "hiding their heads" and/or "pressing their
buoys.' The get that way by hundreds of hours of training with kickboards.

Last weekend, I had to go to Home Depot (which we call Home Despot) to buy bins. So I walked across
the parking lot to The Sports Authority, a big, warehouse-type superstore found throughout the US,
and looked at their swimming gear. They had nothing esoteric, but do stock all the usual swim
training tools: boards, fins, goggles, a few chamoises and ... leg floats.

I've never been on a team that didn't use leg floats and kickboards. We didn't even have goggles
in high school, but the coach had us doing kick sets with boards and pull sets with those
classic floaties, two cylinders of white plastic foam connected by a strap, between our legs.
The Speedo floats are much fancier, a board of extruded foam plastic, shaped to fit comfortably
between the legs.

In high school, I swam faster and more comfortably with leg floats than without. I would have used
them in races if it was legal. Over the years, many rss posters have said the same thing - they swim
faster with leg floats.

So I looked a these floats and asked myself, Why would anyone ever need to use these if there was a
natural buoyant torque raising the legs? Why not just stop kicking, concentrate on pulling and let
the buoyant torque raise your legs?

Because when they stop kicking, their legs sink, that's why. To me, the universal use of leg floats
is the most effective rebuttal to Yanai Toshimasa's proposal that a buoyant torque lifts our legs
when swimming front crawl.

Donal Fagan AIA Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com (Anglicise the name to reply by e-mail)