Late to this party but glad youtube found me based on my other free style learning selections. I’m a smooth swimmer, started swimming seriously About 10 months ago. I’m 6 foot 6 inches and thought I could use my length to try to be more efficient and less strokes per lap until I increase my cardio and strength. Splashing is a waste of energy and I’m lazy, so I tried to be as smooth as possible. Glad to see it’s a good style to work on. I’m still working on my technique to be more efficient. I use a center snorkel since I can’t side breath, but it allows me to do about 2 miles at a time. Thanks for this video, it’s really helping keeping me motivated knowing that it’s a good style to emulate.
Brilliant video! I swam for an elite squad growing up, and I can attest to the fact that the best sprinters are indeed smooth types! Now, I'm a complete swinger...
Very much a personal preference thing. We’ve done a lot of videos lately on the 2-beat kick and its suitability for distance freestyle swimming, so you’re on the right path!
I would like to know how I can achieve 76 strokes/minute. I have the feeling that my arms are too long for that pace, and I have to push harder than I am able to, or that I need to shorten the way of my arms under water. For me it seems not to make sense to pace all swimmers at the same rhythm independently of body height and arm length?
the one thing i don't appreciate about these videos is how immutable they make these styles sound. "smooth swimmers are almost always, without exception, people that swam extensively as kids." well gee, that's very inspiring and will encourage me to improve my stroke toward something that's apparently a statistical anomaly D: i don't really believe in "naturally suited for" when talking about technique; it's all about learning, anyway. one's BODY might be better suited for marathons than sprinting, but never technique. tl;dr - extensive swimming background as a kid? i'll work my ass off for a fantastic stroke, no matter what!
I think it's just a statistical statement. Reality shows that most of smooth swimmers have a massive swimming background. I assume that a small fraction of those swimmers who seem to have this kind of "smooth technique" are average Joes who haven't swam that much in their childhood and in the present they like to spend their free time in the pool perfecting their technique.
Nice video. I was living with the impresion that smooth is the way for open waters and not swinger. But if you want to swim super big distances ( like English Channel) and don`t care about winning a open water race , is the smooth more efortless ?
After watching the overviews for all 6 swim types, there's an obvious similarity between the amount of air bubbles around the feet of the kicktastics and the smooths. Arent's those bubbles a sign of pushing too hard (cutting, rather then pushing the water)?
+katelynn bloom It depends on fitness. Just pull the water slower if you can't manage the intensity, but I think the idea is just to maintain continuous propulsion with alternating arms.
Hi sickoid87, the figures should cover your whole speed range in most cases from sprint to distance speed. Take your 400m pace as a good figure in relation to this. :)
Total Immersion techniques seem to recommend a glide. Here it's recommended against. What's the reliable authority on the effectiveness of having a glide or not? Is it situational, or is there a generally preferable technique?
Hahah, okay just watched all the swim type videos and I'm definitely an overglider, and the profiling was creepily accurate. I see now that there are different styles with smooth/swinger being the best, and potentially relatively advantageous for shorter/longer distances, although smooth tends to get the best wrap perhaps in part due to aesthetics.
Surely as a counter example to this idea that you need to have a swinger style to swim distance freestyle (efficiently and effectively) would be the best distance swimmer Sun Yang (ever in the pool at least) is about the smoothest swimmer you'll ever see? Shouldn't people be trying to emulate him (with stroke rate adjusted to height and non olympic genes of course?) and this argument that Ian Thorpe held 76 spm so everyone should have a similar stroke rate surely is just ridiculous given his elite level of VO2 max makes comparison in a 400m race for mortals just pointless?
Emil Aliyev ...and keep face always in water and breath to side. As soon as you lift your head your legs drop. Breath to side, one goggle in, one goggle out.
When you swim for as long as a competitive swimmer does, you learn to control your core muscles to the point you are able to have your hips high without looking bottom :)
While I agree that swimmers like ian thorpe do tend to have a faster stroke rate on camera (in meets), I would have to disagree that their all day cruise stroke rate is not much slower. I was watching a crew of swimmers in AGUA do 50 sprints and their stroke rates were all really slow. They were still getting fast times. I mean I was watching the old Bill Kirby video and you can literally see his stroke rate was very slow. Same as Jono Van Hazel when he is cruising.
the smooth swimmer are the best for a reason. its not like oh you are smooth then you are a good swimmer then.... more like you are a good swimmer then you are smooth.
I am like 3 times smoother than this. Very close to TI swimming but only except that i couldnt do the 2beat kick right. And theres minimal bubbles around and smooth entry to water. What is this group called then?
+Alex Maybe you're an overglider. TI method can be good only if you start the catch higher with a high elbow for more propulsion and less drag. In that way you are both efficient and beautiful to watch
+Andreas Tobing You are mistaken. The moment propulsion stops (when there is no arm propulsion), the body starts to slow down. For elite swimmers who can plantar-flex alot, their kick compensates for the gap in arm propulsion, but recreational swimmers like myself, kicking gives very little propulsion relative to arm propulsion.
