Fina World Champs Barcelona

[Richardsk]

Good morning

Great race and our Hungarian friend has uploaded a fairly full video. I notice the commentator pronounces Ledecky in the Czech style as Ledetsky. I suppose Katie's family originally came from that area because that seems to be where most of the Ledeckys originate.

Amazing that Lauren Boyle, who was a long way behind the two leaders, was right on the old world record line until the last length. A gutsy swim with nobody to pull her along and finishing with an Oceania record.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byMv67RbWgM

Looking forward to the men's 800 final tonight. I wouldn't bet against Sun. ;-)

[Richardsk]

Men's 800 final (start and last 400m or so) from the Hungarian fan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeIcoMvYDKk

Good swim from McBroom, just touching out Cochrane.

[terry]

Originally Posted by Richardsk

Men's 800 final (start and last 400m or so) from the Hungarian fan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeIcoMvYDKk

Good swim from McBroom, just touching out Cochrane.

Sun was clearly just toying with (tantalizing?) them until final 3 lengths.

Stuff I can't help noticing--and thinking:

Notice: How McBroom lifts his head every breath--so noticeable as he swims next to Sun. I didn't count his strokes, but let's say 35 breaths per length x 16 lengths. Or 560 times multiplied by What portion of 10 lbs (4.5kg). Let's say it's only 1 lb extra weight borne - 560 unnecessary 1-lb lifts WHILE trying to keep pace with the greatest distance swimmer in history.

Think: How can you be the coach of an athlete with the capability to stand on the podium at the World Championships and leave that particular highly visible 'stone unturned?'

[Richardsk]

Yes. He certainly has a bouncy stroke and I suppose what you'd call a gallop. His style reminds me of the Russian Yury Prilukov.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LtBWw6c-Aw

However, although Prilukov has a similar rhythm, I don't think he lifts his head, or not as much. I wonder if he's still active?

[andyinnorway]

I thought Sun looked almost contemptuous at the start of the race, like an athlete who'd had a big row with his coach or team manager.

The way he fired the turbo and took a 2 second lead between 650-700m was astonishing.

[Richardsk]

Here's another video of the men's 4 x 100 Free from France this time, and understandably the French commentators get a bit excited ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTgzQ...=TLV5A1AB12Xe8

Here are the splits for France and USA

1 6 FRA***France 3:11.18
AGNEL*Yannick 0.68 23.16 48.76 (7)*48.76
MANAUDOU*Florent 0.36 22.91 47.93 (4)*1:36.69
GILOT*Fabien 0.19 21.99 46.90 (4)*2:23.59
STRAVIUS*Jeremy 0.31 22.66 47.59 (1)*3:11.18

2 4 USA***United*States*of*America 3:11.42 0.24
ADRIAN*Nathan 0.67 22.31 47.95 (1)*47.95
LOCHTE*Ryan 0.18 22.47 47.80 (2)*1:35.75
ERVIN*Anthony 0.25 21.76 47.44 (1)*2:23.19
FEIGEN*James 0.18 22.73 48.23 (2)*3:11.42

Gilot's 3rd leg was obviously crucial or Stravius could never have made up the deficit.

Since Terry has pointed out the importance of keeping the the differential between first and second 50 as small as possible and the risk of going out too fast, I thought that the differentials might also be of interest

AGN 2.44
MAN 2.11
GIL 2.92
STR 2.27

ADR 3.33
LOC 2.86
ERV 3.92
FEI 2.77

In the individual 100 Free Final Vlad Morozov was a spectacular example of the consequence of over swimming the first 50, with a first 50 of 21.94 and a second of 26.07 for a differential of 4.13. It was still a pretty good time of course, and good enough for fifth place, ahead of Gilot, for example. One could say that he swam a brilliant 75 meters.

[terry]

Originally Posted by Richardsk

Since Terry has pointed out the importance of keeping the the differential between first and second 50 as small as possible and the risk of going out too fast, I thought that the differentials might also be of interest

AGN 2.44
MAN 2.11
GIL 2.92
STR 2.27

ADR 3.33
LOC 2.86
ERV 3.92
FEI 2.77

Richard
I'd thought of going back to calculate differential for French swimmers, but lacked the time so thank you for doing so. I think one could make the case that the French won the gold--not by swimming faster than the Yanks, but by swimming a bit slower at the right time.
When I was coaching relatively advanced competitive swimmers (In 1982-83 I coached a swimmer who was ranked Top 10 worldwide in the 50LCM and was pretty decent for that era in 100LCM -- 51+ and coached Joe Novak to a 50-point in 100LCM in the late 90s) I was quite strict about the importance of their learning to maintain a differential in flat-start 100s of 1.5 to 2.0. With a relay start that should convert to 2.0 to 2.5.

In sprints most are decelerating in last 25m. I coached my sprinters to use pacing tactics early to delay that deceleration until 85m or later and reduce the amount of speed loss. In racing it worked exceptionally well because of the great advantage psychologically of feeling strong and catching/passing rivals in final 25m--and conversely the stress of being the prey, not the predator.

According to the formulation, Manaudou and Stravius swam tactically superb legs--which take enormous discipline in such circumstances. That was a well-earned gold.

[andyinnorway]

Originally Posted by terry

Richard
In racing it worked exceptionally well because of the great advantage psychologically of feeling strong and catching/passing rivals in final 25m--and conversely the stress of being the prey, not the predator.

This is why I've decided to be a better runner for Triathlon - overtaking people for 10km must have a synergistic benefit on your energy levels as opposed to being overtaken for 10km as happened to me last time.

Since Gilot swam 46.9 I think we should forgive him his 2.92 split difference?

[andyinnorway]

4x200m men

yangtastic !!!

[terry]

Originally Posted by andyinnorway

4x200m men

yangtastic !!!

Yangtastic indeed.
There were 4 or 5 swimmers who swam faster than Yang on the first 100, but no one in the entire field was within 2 seconds!!! of his final 200 time.

His splits 50.6-52.5 -- Differential of 1.9 sec.

This is how winners swim relays.

It takes mental discipline and an efficient stroke.

One does not achieve this kind of swim by either stroking faster, nor harder.