Spear Depth Revisited

[tomoy]

I had a weird realization this week. After thinking I got my balance pretty 'right', I gradually started spearing less deeply. As documented in these forums, it seems that once you have the feel of balance, you can spear a little less deeply (more shallowly?), decrease drag a little, and increase your speed.

So this week I got a new silicon swimming cap, and it makes my head a little more buoyant, and I notice an ever-so-slight shift in my balance rearward. To compensate, I go back to a relatively deeper spearing than normal. Result? I get to the wall with my left hand, when it's usually my right... hmmm. Let me count. My strokes-per-length drop from 14 down to 13 (25Y pool) while remaining the same lap time and effort (! clearly I've become a TI geek).

I often think a deep spear looks a little weird :-D There. I said it. I mean, look at that Sun Yang video! (Yeah, okay, I can't do anything like that forearm catch, or much else for that matter.) But it's my reminder that staying horizontal in the water trumps a lot of the other focal points.