font size A A A

Pic of the Week - April 15, 2005

Posted by Glenn Mills on Apr 15, 2005 08:00AM (30,986 views)

This week's Pic of the Week features Amanda Beard swimming breaststroke. And we are offering a special incentive for you to post your comments.

Amanda kick

[url=http://www.goswim.tv/potw/amanda0451800.jpg]View or download larger image[/url]

If you post a comment about this picture, we'll send you the link to the video clip from which it was taken. To get the video, you've got to get involved!

Responses

SS	Responded Apr 15, 2005 08:58AM Narrow knees and good wide catch with fett grabbing the water. Body and hands really streamlined to maximise the benefit of the upcoming kick.
FishTail	Responded Apr 15, 2005 11:11AM Amanda makes this look soooooo easy. It takes a great effort to look effortless. I know, I'm just learning breaststroke. She's my inspiration.
LongAxisCombo	Responded Apr 15, 2005 11:13AM This shows perfectly the timing of the kick in breastroke. A lot of my swimmers kick too early, and do not get maximum power/distance per stroke because of it.
pravin	Responded Apr 15, 2005 11:14AM I donot see narrow knee in this picture, inspite knees are widely apart,Feet are ready for kick
nguedez	Responded Apr 15, 2005 12:50PM Hi friends. The main things I can see in this picture are: Knees not too separated, as much of her shoulder wide and minime hip flexion. Hip near water surface as horizontal as posible, looking down help for this pourpose. An excelent arm extension (flexibility is vital to do this easily, FishTail) with finger pointing a little bit down and forward, this will help for body wave. It shows the timing too just like LongAxisCombo wrote. I think this is a critical position because in this fase the speed down at slowest point and to perfom this movement right with minimun effort is one of the biggest diferences betwin great and average athletes.
Coach Wobser	Responded Apr 15, 2005 01:16PM I am constantly amazed by the amount of ankle flexability the top breaststrokers have. Obviously it is one of the keys to her success.
JonLi	Responded Apr 15, 2005 08:26PM WOOHOO GO BREASTSTROKE!! Are the hands supp be vertical, /\ or \/ because ive heard all three are just as good.
JZ	Responded Apr 16, 2005 02:49PM I only see a nice W. Hey, Glenn, you can use it in the logo: Go s"W"im.
Stacy	Responded Apr 16, 2005 03:18PM This is a perfect breaststroke that most people will never achieve.
mark brown	Responded Apr 16, 2005 09:09PM Hi Nice kick good W good body position,streamlining.Look at the depth of her hands to the surface of the water,ready for the outsweep and a nice solid catch with the water.small point I didnt notice any air bubbles with exhalation?
WNYSWIMMER	Responded Apr 18, 2005 12:59AM Amazing knee torque...i'd need arthroscopic after that...
jacetheace	Responded Apr 20, 2005 04:10AM Are her arms suppose to be diving down, or going forward?
Alain Speed	Responded Apr 21, 2005 09:50AM What if... you made Amanda Beard the model swimmer, her stroke would be correct and every one else's would be incorrect (by varying amounts depending on how closely they resembled Amanda's stroke). All hypothetical stuff, but do we learn more from watching individuals doing it well, or from notions of the perfect technique talked about by experts. hmmm?
SS	Responded Apr 21, 2005 10:13AM The really interesting thing is to compare actual techniques of elite swimmers against the text book views on what is or isn't correct technique and timing. Even the best books on technique cannot always agree on what makes the perfect stroke and on what errors cost you time when swimming at speed. So the question in my mind is would Amanda go any faster if she altered her timing and is there such a thing as perfect timing or is it more the case that there is a ideal timing zone? Like the sweet spot on a Tennis racket. The question is then how big is the sweet spot.
Alpha	Responded Apr 21, 2005 10:16AM Swimming has always been a passion of my life and I wish I could swim as well as Amanda. I would really appriceiate if she could teach me this art.
Alpha	Responded Apr 21, 2005 10:42AM I have a passion for swimming and love the way she swims.
Claudio	Responded Apr 21, 2005 12:14PM I see Amanda's feet taking sun light.
Shelly	Responded Apr 21, 2005 07:40PM HOW DOES SHE DO IT ? I MEAN , HER KNEES ARE PERFECT AND HER ARMS ARE FULLY EXTENDED AND HER EARS ARE HIDDEN BY HER SHOULDERS. PLUS SHE IS A WORLD CHAMPION SWIMMER!!! GO AMANDA!
Shelly	Responded Apr 21, 2005 07:40PM two words.
Shelly	Responded Apr 21, 2005 07:41PM GO
Shelly	Responded Apr 21, 2005 07:41PM AMANDA!
Ken Lau	Responded Apr 22, 2005 03:25AM I have not viewed any underwater video of Amanda's but I suspect the reason for her photo to show that her timing seems to be off, is that, she has a very small kick and while most breastroker use their legs as the main propulsion she uses her upper body, hence her high torso breaststroke style.
Alain Speed	Responded Apr 22, 2005 05:31AM Going back to SS and the perceived timing error, although stroke technique is taught and analysed by dividing the stoke into various bits, it is possible that in correcting one bit in accordance with "correct" technique, it throws out some other part of the stroke.
Glenn Mills	Responded Apr 22, 2005 12:53PM Ken, There's actually a TON of Amanda's underwater video available on her DVD. :)
Glenn Mills	Responded Apr 25, 2005 08:27AM http://www.goswim.tv/productreviews_reviews.php?id=1605_0_19_0_C25 Click the BUY NOW button. :)
swimtowin1	Responded Apr 26, 2005 12:08PM Great ankle flexibility!
soguja	Responded May 02, 2005 02:48PM Perfect streamline position
aqman	Responded May 19, 2005 05:53AM Is she doing a larger kick or a smaller one?
bdebry	Responded Oct 27, 2005 09:54AM Trying to figure out exactly what her hands are d oing
Glenn Mills	Responded Oct 27, 2005 11:15AM I'd say... reaching forward. Extending. I wouldn't worry too much about HOW she's doing it... it's only important that she IS.
Ken Lau	Responded Oct 28, 2005 12:24AM Glenn, You must be glad to know that I have eventually bought Amanda's video. It's amazing to see her compete and broke the world record. Like she said, her difference is that she can hold on to her form and maintain speed till the end. So I guess when one's in the competitive situation, the final question is not how you do the stroke but how you do the competition. (Having said so, of course, I still maintain that stroke technique is super important, first and foremost)
Dinn0xXx	Responded Jul 03, 2007 04:56PM I like her style is fast

Please login or signup to leave a comment.

Pic of the Week - April 15, 2005

Responses

The Pool

Videos-Evals

Drills

Products

Practices

More

Underwater Tag Cloud

Who is GoSwim?

Want More GoSwim?