Katie Arnold: It’s no secret that European women are some of the best 50 freestylers in the world. One of the things that we as a staff have noticed is that most of these women stay underwater for at least 10 meters off the start. Despite this observation, we still get push-back from athletes who feel their underwater dolphin kicks are not strong enough to be a weapon, and would rather pop up and start swimming as soon as possible. I set out last month to find out if the data supports my belief that the underwater portion of the 50 freestyle is the fastest part of that swim. I looked at 10 of the top 12 women for 2011-2013, and used the three fastest races for which we had video for each. The chart below shows each swimmer’s average speed (meters per second) for various parts of the race: ![]()
So what does it all mean? Simply stated, the underwater portion of the 50 freestyle is faster than the swimming portion. For the best in the world, they are about ½ meter per second (or more) faster underwater than they are on the surface. The important thing to keep in mind is not the actual speed of each part of the race, but rather the speed of each portion relative to the rest of the race. Regardless of an athlete’s perceived underwater ability, this is always the fastest portion of the 50 freestyle and should be a focal point to develop and improve. A few weeks ago I discussed the women’s 50m freestyle and asserted that it is always in a swimmer’s best interest to exploit the underwater portion of this race. This week it’s the men’s turn. In setting out on my research, I wanted to see how similar the two races are. In addition to the obvious difference in speeds, there are a few other key differences that should be noted. ![]()
BY KATIE ARNOLD//HIGH PERFORMANCE CONSULTANT |