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I was disappointed (particularly given the title) not to see a comparison against freestyle swim times. The other strokes are essentially handicapped events - t
by pge 11y ago
I was disappointed (particularly given the title) not to see a comparison against freestyle swim times. The other strokes are essentially handicapped events - they measure how fast you can go given certain specific restrictions on what you can do. In some cases, those restrictions didn't anticipate underwater swimming, so that loophole was exploited (particularly in back stroke and breast stroke, where the rules resulted in slower times than free and fly). But for freestyle, where there are (almost) no restrictions on the style of stroke, does this fish-style of underwater swimming provide any advantage?
I am curious if anyone is aware of a comparison.
- falcolas 11y agoThe advantage is that you aren't fighting against the surface tension of the water. The disadvantages are that you can't breathe, or use your arms. In my (admittedly dated) experience, a good crawl stroke (what is usually used in freestyle events) will beat the underwater dolphin kick, because the arms create a remarkable amount of forward power.
- hopeless 11y agoI was disappointed too but then a comparison might not be fair. Most swimmers have had a lot of frontcrawl practice and it would take a lot of commitment to achieve the same level in this stroke