Once Inspired

Incase you were wondering…

“Every triathlete knows good technique is critical to swimming performance. But not everything you think you know about effective freestyle technique is true. There are many myths floating around. Here are some of the ones to watch out for:

1. Triathletes don’t need to kick much. While it’s true that triathletes need not rely on a hard kick for propulsion (that’s for pool sprinters), a good, steady kick will greatly enhance your body position and rotation. It will bring your hips closer to the surface of the water, allowing you to be more streamlined and enhancing your stroke efficiency.A“good, steady kick” is a noticeable kick (some would call it a four-beat kick, with four kicks for every stroke rotation) that provides some propulsion, enhances body position and doesn’t noticeably tire your legs. The key is to practice swimming with this kick so your muscles will develop to appropriately support this kick during a race.

2. A wetsuit minimizes the negative impact of stroke deficiencies. First of all, wetsuits are not even allowed in some races, including a little out-of-the-way event called the Hawaii Ironman World Championship. That’s reason enough alone not to depend too much on your wetsuit to make up for inefficiencies in your technique. But the bigger issue is the fact that a wetsuit can’t reallymake up for these inefficiencies. True, a wetsuit helps with buoyancy and body position for most swimmers, but it also helps efficient swimmers in the same way, so you don’t gain anything on them if you’re both suited up. And a wetsuit does nothing to ensure proper rotation, catching, pulling and recovery. It won’t swim for you.

3. You should breathe on both sides (breathe on every third stroke). Alternate breathing is a great way to train your stroke to become balanced, as it develops equal left-right muscular strength and reduces left-right technique asymmetries. However, in a long-distance swim, oxygen is very important, and you get more oxygen when you breathe on one side every second stroke. Over the course of a mile, 1.2 miles, and especially 2.4 miles, this will result in the uptake of significantly more oxygen than would occur if you were to breathe on every third stroke. And that’s more oxygen your body can use to power your working muscles. Analysis of the world’s best long-distance swimmers shows that 95 percent of them breathe on every stroke cycle for this reason. They can sustain a faster pace for a longer distance with more oxygen delivered to their muscles.

4. You should cup your hands to grab more water. Ironically, this results in grabbing less water. The surface area of your hand in a cupped position is much less than it is in a relaxed position. Try it: cup one hand and measure the area presented to the water and put the other hand in a relaxed position. In fact, research has shown that a hand in a relaxed position with fingers at their normal separation actually has a “webbing” effect and pushes more water than a flat hand with the fingers pressed together.

Colleen Kelley, PhD., a chemistry professor at the University of Arizona, is a long-time triathlete and an associate coach of Troy Jacobson’s Triathlon Academy.”

Taken from http://triathlete-europe.competitor.com/