Elites Mooching

[andyinnorway]

Relaxed lethargic fast swimming from some top swimmers. You see how they practice great strokes at relaxed effort level a lot.

Daniel Gyurta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCLMXxKk2dk&t=2m0s

Michael Phelps (also love the innocence of how he shows off his car)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBg8nTI2Xm0&t=0m17s

James Guy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSK-A5N1HII&t=0m40s

I see a pattern here - learn to relax with good stroke length.

[Zenturtle]

What an over the top breathing side recovery Phelps has.
I am still not sure how much time we should spend swimming in this style, if we even can imitate what they are doing.
If we swim at the same relative effort to our max effort as these guys are doing, how slow does this swimming get for us? 30 strokes/min? Arent we reaching strokerates that are too low?
I also like to stretch out and slow down from time to time, but not too much. Its good to reset and stretch out though.

Some good footage from elite marathon swimmers.
from 12 to 13.5 or 29 to 30 or 1h 7min 1h8 minutes a good overhead view to compare different styles.
Mellouli and Meyer with a long stroke and pretty clean side to side switches, most of the others in a more loose style.
Ky Hurst is somewhere in between.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlPyBqEajUI

[andyinnorway]

If I slow down too much then my hips drop and I feel raggy.

I guess it's about picking the easiest tempo you can maintain good form at to give your system the opportunity to fine tune.

I saw at the end Mellouli has full lope timing too.

[s.sciame]

what about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-azZKSfoPI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HAP63plXVQ

A great fluid stroke. But in his autobiography, he remarks that he doesn't even want to focus on the stroke. He rather focuses on the water, lets the water drive the stroke.

[Danny]

Ian Thorpe is known for the power of his kicking. I often have the feeling that a lot of really smooth swimmers can swim that way because they are great kickers. I think we at TI may not be trained to notice this aspect of the stroke, and when we see someone really smooth we look at the front quadrant and timing of the weight shift for an explanation. A great kick is also harder to discern from above the water.

[Zenturtle]

They can also do it with a pull buoy I guess. Probably also with a band but both willl be with some more variation in forward speed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3FSkkZLwsU
At speeds below their race speeds all these elites look smooth and effortless.
Even Swim Smooth is impressed by how these elites swim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dJs0ToB_z4
I guess Paltrinieri also swims like this sometimes.

Also that over the center recovery from Thorpe and Kirby
You must be damn flexible to make the stroke work underwater at these rotation angles.

here clips of Phelps(?) swimming really slow.
Still looking for traction with the lead arm as far as I can see. Must be an automatic action for him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pk0zur3lAg

[s.sciame]

Originally Posted by Zenturtle

I guess Paltrinieri also swims like this sometimes.

Your guess is right ;) here you are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm8Jh...e_gdata_player

By the way, in a recent interview he said that his weakness is not the turn but stroke length. He also said that he's distance focused and would like to compete in open water as well in the future. I'd love to see him in the 5k!

Salvo