I remember the first Age Group Clinic I attended. It was at Soka University back in 2003 or 2004, and it was put on by ASCA. Learned a lot from that clinic as I was still pretty raw as a swim coach. I remember one of the messages from that clinic was the idea of swimming tall.
A coach explained that they talked to their swimmers about what their height is and what their swimming height is. She talked about how the swimming height is dependent on the length of a stroke, and that short people can actually swim very tall, although they lack in size out of the water.
The swimmer height was from toes to fingertips. The length of the body line measured when the toes are pointed and the arm is extended to its max. Any bend or curve in the body will shorten the swimming height. If the arm is not fully extended; if the knees are bent; or if their toes aren't pointed all the way; the swimmer has reduced their height in the water.
The height of swimmer does change, as one side the may swim taller than the other, or the swimmer can change their height as the speed up their tempo, but the goal is always to swim tall. This is to maximize the distance that the swimmer can cover in one stroke and glide. This will ultimately result in the maximum speed as they'll develop turnover rate while maintaining the length.
I just talked to my group yesterday about swimming long. It was in regards to not having a swing arm that allowed momentum to move their arm across the body (thus making a bend in the body and shortening their swimming height). Instead to stay on their side and have the arm swing down and forward into the entry. I have been talking to them for a few months now about rotating their shoulder forward on the freestyle, and now we are applying it to be sure that the rotating forward leads to better length.
Younger swimmers need to learn this. Their length of stroke not only will create a better distance per stroke, but creates more length to their surface area, which results in better buoyancy.
Swimmers need to swim as tall as they can.
HI, IT'S ME AGAIN! YOU HAVE A BIG WEEK AHEAD SO I WAS TO SEE AN ENTRY IN YOUR BLOG! ANYHOOO, I LIKED THIS ARTICLE A LOT. JUST A THOUGHT IN COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR ATHLETES...WE USED TO SPEND A GREAT DEAL OF TIME DISCUSSING SHOULDER ROLL(FREE/BACK ON LONG AXIS). PEOPLE SOMETIMES THINK 'LIFTING' THE SHOULDERS IS ENOUGH, BUT YOU ARE RIGHT TO STRESS ROLLING/ROTATING THE SHOULDER FORWARD. I USED TO EXLAIN THIS AS A 'TEETER-TOTTER' VS. '2 SNOW-CONES' CONNECTED AT THE POINTS. TRIED TO KEEP EVRYTHING MOVING FORWARD! MAYBE THAT CAN BE USED? BEST WISHES FOR YOUR WEEK AND FUTURE, BEST REGARDS, mitch ivey
ReplyDeleteThank You again for leaving the comment. I am glad that you enjoyed the post. Thank you for your regards, as it was a great weekend. Doing an entry into the blog kept my mind from the wedding, as I was nervous. Thank You again.
ReplyDelete