The Swimming Thread - Pool/OW

[944fan]

Only 2.5 weeks until my marathon 10K swim. Haven't had much time in the lake recently but have been getting my weekly volume back up to 11K ish so pretty well prepared. Going to try and get a couple of longish swims (5-7K) done in the lake next week.

Aim for a sub 3 hr swim but will be happy just completing it.

[Otispunkmeyer]

Just watching the world champs tonight on iPlayer

Adam Peaty in the 100 br semi's.... fk me. That boy is a power house. When everyone else is hanging on for grim death in the last 25, Adam Peaty just keeps accelerating. Absolutely phenomenal. Hat tip to James Guy who took it to Sun Yang in the 400, but was eventually broken by the chinaman and claimed second place. The only way to swim the 400 against Yang though, you're either broken right off the bat, or you try to have Yang from the off and just hang on for dear life! Excellent swim.

On a side note, I have also being watching the British Summer Championships and my word are there some quick young guys. 13/14 year olds going 55 for 100 fly long course and 28's for 50 backstroke, same ages going under 2 mins for 200 free easy, 15 year olds going low 1.50's and those a few years older are dipping into the 1.40's. One of them is from our club, goes 16.11 for 1500, 4.30 for 400 IM and it won't be long before he's knocking on the door of sub 4 minutes for the 400. He's only just 13.

British swimming is looking good!

[Otispunkmeyer]

Peaty cut it bloody fine there! Cameron van der Burgh was off with clear intent, break Peaty in the first length. He's got a massively better start and a better turn. But Peaty hauled him back and got him on the touch! Well done that lad.

Just watching big Matt Greevers of the US doss about whilst taking everyone apart in the 100 back semi's. That man is absolutely gigantic, his hands are like paddles! Tancock had to work very hard to keep up with him, but nice to see Tancock now has some back end to his 100 back, for him it used to be all over at the 50. Here he was still ploughing on at a good lick right to the wall. Hopefully he's made the final.

Would love to try these backstroke start ledges they now have. Looks like you can get some serious purchase on the starts!

Edited by Otispunkmeyer on Monday 3rd August 15:57

[Otispunkmeyer]

And where do the BBC find these hosts! fking hell, this woman reminds me of that Stacy Dooley. Thick as fk and totally clueless and with a voice suitable only for childrens TV. Even horse lady Balding is a better option that this lass. At least she knows a bit about the sport.

[944fan]

Otispunkmeyer said:

And where do the BBC find these hosts! fking hell, this woman reminds me of that Stacy Dooley. Thick as fk and totally clueless and with a voice suitable only for childrens TV. Even horse lady Balding is a better option that this lass. At least she knows a bit about the sport.

They are no better on Eurosport. During the prelims for the Women's 4x100m relay they had failed to notice the lane assignments were wrong and banged on for ages how Hong Kong had one and the USA were out. Didn't notice even when the camera was showing pictures on the winners that they had American flags on their swim caps.

Funniest thing was they never corrected their mistake. About 20 minutes later when the results came up they just announced USA won as if nothing had happened.

[Otispunkmeyer]

Florent Manaudou is a monster

[Otispunkmeyer]

Well

This is good Worlds

Peaty again, what a guy. Cameron Vab Der Burgh must be scratching his head now, he's tried to break Peaty in the 100 and in the 50 (by doing a WR in the heats), but Peaty has simply turned up the pace. He is so strong on the back end of the race, its almost un-human.

Speaking of un-human. Katie Ledecky. What the juddering fk. Does the 1500 heats, breaks WR by 15 seconds. Comes back for the final, breaks WR again by 2 seconds. For some extra wow, her 800 split would have been the 8th fastest time in the world, if she had done that in the 800!! It wasn't far behind our own Rebecca Adlingtons time that won her gold in Beijing. 15 minutes later Ledecky swims in the 200 Free semi and makes the final. Unreal and totally putting to shame the likes of Siobhan-Marie O'Conner who seemed exhausted only doing a 200!

And a proper shock (although given his 400 perhaps not) was James Guy winning the 200Free against... Sun Yang, Ryan Lochte, Paul Biedermann, Chad Le Clos. I mean Yang was out for gold so he could sweep the 200,400,800 and 1500. That dreams been smashed. Locthe, always a force to be reckoned with didn't even get a medal! and thats despite his "super turns" where he's easily out doing everyone under water. Biedermann is the WR holder. James Guy simply flipped them all the V and swam faster.

Love that guys attitude. He must win at all costs and he's afraid of no one.

Chris Walker-Hebborn I think needs to get his head clear, he's not quite on form. Liam Tancock, the old boy, Is looking much better than he has previously. His back end in the 100 back is noticeably stronger than it used to be. Excited to see his 50, which is where he is best.

I just hope our lot aren't peaking too soon!

[944fan]

Otispunkmeyer said:

Speaking of un-human. Katie Ledecky. What the juddering fk. Does the 1500 heats, breaks WR by 15 seconds. Comes back for the final, breaks WR again by 2 seconds. For some extra wow, her 800 split would have been the 8th fastest time in the world, if she had done that in the 800!! It wasn't far behind our own Rebecca Adlingtons time that won her gold in Beijing. 15 minutes later Ledecky swims in the 200 Free semi and makes the final. Unreal and totally putting to shame the likes of Siobhan-Marie O'Conner who seemed exhausted only doing a 200!

To top it off she fking won the 200. Won it! Against Franklin and Pellegrini. Won it!. To quote Bert Le Clos, "Unbelievable".

Peaty is a legend. Oh you took my world record, I'll have that back in the semis please. Then I will beat you. Then I will go and help the mixed relay team win.

[944fan]

The BBC coverage of this has been ste. The host is truly awful and Sharon Davies interviews are appalling. I like Foster and Addlington giving the analysis but they are let down by the rest.

The coverage at the Olympics was so much better. Claire Balding is an infinitely better host and it was much better them being positioned in the pool area.

Also the coverage yesterday started 45 mins later than on Eurosport and they were missing races.

Thank god for Eurosport. You don't get the analysis and their interviewer is a bit of an air head but it is way better than BBC 2.

[944fan]

Katie Ledekey does it again. Anchors the 4x200m relay, starts with a .34 sec deficit and finished 2 seconds ahead.

She is going to become the female Michael Phelps, hopefully without the DUI.

[DJRC]

I completely forgot we had a swimming thread on here

Im loving this Meet! Uk Sport target was4-5 medals in total. Well I think 4 Golds alone and topping the table means we hit that one Well done Peaty. Have to love his repeated "Queen & country" lines...when was the last time you heard a sportsman saying such things? He kind of reminds me of Fred to an extent - except without the pedallo

The relays will be fun!

[Highway Star]

Otispunkmeyer said:

Just watching the world champs tonight on iPlayer


On a side note, I have also being watching the British Summer Championships and my word are there some quick young guys. 13/14 year olds going 55 for 100 fly long course and 28's for 50 backstroke, same ages going under 2 mins for 200 free easy, 15 year olds going low 1.50's and those a few years older are dipping into the 1.40's. One of them is from our club, goes 16.11 for 1500, 4.30 for 400 IM and it won't be long before he's knocking on the door of sub 4 minutes for the 400. He's only just 13.

British swimming is looking good!

I saw those results and in particular that lad from Leicester. Age group swimming is unbelievable now compared to when I was reaching NAG finals in the early 90s.

Loving the Worlds too, especially Laszlo Cseh taking the 200 fly.

[DJRC]

Did you see Foster talking about Las doing his sprint events every now and then and Foster wiping the floor with him but now Las is posting sprint times that Foster freely admits would have kicked his arse back and forth across the pool? Made me chuckle at the honesty

[Otispunkmeyer]

DJRC said:

Did you see Foster talking about Las doing his sprint events every now and then and Foster wiping the floor with him but now Las is posting sprint times that Foster freely admits would have kicked his arse back and forth across the pool? Made me chuckle at the honesty

Cseh is a legend, an overlooked legend. He always been there, but the lime light often fell on the likes of Phelps and Lochte. I am so happy this guy is getting the golds. His 100 fly is looking good as well.

Having said that I think in the 200 fly Chad did throw it away, it was his race to lose and he did. Properly horrible swim by him. His speed was up and down like a yo-yo and the looking about really gets on my tits! Just get your head down man! Needs to sort it out.

944fan, BBC coverage is a bit duff. I do like Sharon though. Its confusing to watch though as they often show repeated races from the night before (or at least thats what it seemed like). They also start about 45 minutes late, then splice in the races missed somewhere at the end. Very disjointed.

But its better that nowt! Swimming doesnt tend to get a lot of air time as it is so any air time is good.

Ben Proud just had a brilliant 50 free semi. One of 5 guys under the 22 mark. He's got a chance to nick a bronze I reckon and I hope he does. Can't see much beyond Nathan Adrian for the gold though and that Russian lad Morosov is having a stinker! out with a false start in the 100 and now a swim off to make the 50 final. He was supposed to be one of the Russian hopes!

[Otispunkmeyer]

Highway Star said:

Otispunkmeyer said:

Just watching the world champs tonight on iPlayer


On a side note, I have also being watching the British Summer Championships and my word are there some quick young guys. 13/14 year olds going 55 for 100 fly long course and 28's for 50 backstroke, same ages going under 2 mins for 200 free easy, 15 year olds going low 1.50's and those a few years older are dipping into the 1.40's. One of them is from our club, goes 16.11 for 1500, 4.30 for 400 IM and it won't be long before he's knocking on the door of sub 4 minutes for the 400. He's only just 13.

British swimming is looking good!

I saw those results and in particular that lad from Leicester. Age group swimming is unbelievable now compared to when I was reaching NAG finals in the early 90s.

Loving the Worlds too, especially Laszlo Cseh taking the 200 fly.

It is crazy isn't it. I liked as well how they had ponds forge set up like a much bigger meet, with advertising hoardings, cameras filming etc. Gives a real sense of occasion to those swimming. But the times the young ones are doing are just crazy. Interestingly theres often a pretty big step up between the 13/14 year olds and the 15 year olds. A proper step change in speed.

944fan said:

Katie Ledekey does it again. Anchors the 4x200m relay, starts with a .34 sec deficit and finished 2 seconds ahead.

She is going to become the female Michael Phelps, hopefully without the DUI.

Indeed, she is absolutely incredible. I am wondering when she will burn out though. And I just worked out why Phelps isn't here, not because hes avoided competition when he's perhaps not in full shape (though all indication is he's in optimal form!)...its because his DUI got him knocked off the team! They're probably wishing they'd brought him now because they're not doing all that well on the mens side.


Willis did well in the 200 br (shame we haven't got our other breast guys doing it). Its crazy to think he's managed that level of performance and also done an engineering degree. I tried to do uni swim team (Lboro) and engineering and I have to say I struggled, giving up the squad swimming to focus on my study. So hats off to that guy, really good stuff, quite different to some past GB swimmers who were placed on any old foundation course to get them in and training. I remember one swimmer had even deferred A-levels in order to train at loughborough.

[Otispunkmeyer]

Sorry for spamming as well, but has anyone noticed Lochte's "super" turns? He's pushing off on freestyle turns fully on his back and staying there until he's done about 12m, then he turns on to his front and surfaces. Completely legal because he surfaces doing the same stroke.

I don't think there is anything to stop you doing fly in a freestyle event (hence freestyle) I've known plenty of guys do 400 fly at lesser competitions. So long as you don't change strokes, you're good.

Swimming Science worked out that Lochte produces more power doing fly kick on his back than on his front. Something like 80 W vs 50 W or something like that. Numbers were only ball park because of limited data but the indication is he's more powerful on his back.

Odd one to contemplate for people outside of swimming, afterall the 5th stoke motion looks the same whether on your front or back, but I know for a fact I prefer fly kick on my back because I am stronger at it. I go further, I go faster for same effort. Not that I am about to take up doing turns like that in my next race!!!

[944fan]

Otispunkmeyer said:

Sorry for spamming as well, but has anyone noticed Lochte's "super" turns? He's pushing off on freestyle turns fully on his back and staying there until he's done about 12m, then he turns on to his front and surfaces. Completely legal because he surfaces doing the same stroke.

They have been talking about it a lot on Eurosport and keep playing clips of it. In the 200 IM it certainly seemed to give him a slight advantage on the final leg.

[Otispunkmeyer]

James Guy you fking hero!!!!

We just won the 4x200 free

beat the americans

1.44.7 last leg. Absolutely stormed that last length!

[DJRC]

1.5seconds.

Oh hell yes

Re: the back fly kick. Back muscles are incredibly strong in swimmer/rugby player builds. I know from my own gym work I naturally find back work much much easier and stronger to do than stomachs. Front fly kicking has always taught you kick from the hips and it's all thigh muscle with stomach muscles keeping the core tensile rigidity strength. On your back you have the entire back to provide the platform and core strength and lend some power to the kick. The science of it makes perfect sense to me - now that somebody else has done the sideways thinking to come up with it

[Otispunkmeyer]

DJRC said:

1.5seconds.

Oh hell yes

Re: the back fly kick. Back muscles are incredibly strong in swimmer/rugby player builds. I know from my own gym work I naturally find back work much much easier and stronger to do than stomachs. Front fly kicking has always taught you kick from the hips and it's all thigh muscle with stomach muscles keeping the core tensile rigidity strength. On your back you have the entire back to provide the platform and core strength and lend some power to the kick. The science of it makes perfect sense to me - now that somebody else has done the sideways thinking to come up with it

Interesting, I always just thought the motions were the same and because it doesn't seem to matter too much which way up you are in the water.

Heres the report I read:

http://www.swimmingscience.net/2015/08/ryan-lochte...

Not sure what his methods are for working it out, only that its something adapted from a mathematical model for calculating the swimming power of fish. But 84 W on his back vs 47 W on his front. Not a great deal of power in either case given the medium is water but at that level, if it gets you a few finger nails worth, its worth it.

Fly kicks were never something I was particularly good at (skinny feet, long levers, skinny muscles that tire quickly! and a bit of inflexibility in the back). It was never something our club ever worked on either, we were just told to try do 6 kicks off the turns and that was it. When you're doing 100x100's on 1.20 and getting maybe 3 seconds rest, 6 kicks when you know by the 6th one you'd be stopped dead, kinda goes out the window! So it was never really worked on, or policed. It was all about Bill Sweetnips and his high meterage!

Its something, now I am stronger over 10 years on, that I work on in the pool and the gym including "banana peel" exercises that train your muscles to engage in the right order to get the undualting kick right. You do look odd though when doing it...looks like you're dry humping the wall! Its funny really, I am faster now (up to 100m) than I ever was and thats over all strokes! Less swimming, more gym!