Swimming Question of the week - March 3, 2009

Having been an engineer with a consulting company and a computational fluid dynamics company (which supported the Speedo suit development), I believe that science / research is important to optimizing performance in any sport. Basic concepts like lift, drag, turbulence, etc. are key to developing suit design and swim technique. Then there is physiology... So, my answer to your "bottom line" question is yes, but science sure helps!

The side of swimming without science is called social swimming (it is my term for the people who are getting into the pool for socializing....and I think of this positively! as they benefit from this without even thinking about it).....and sometimes it is called (or in some countries) masters swimming, as it is going without much science (at least nowdays in my country....I hope that will change though).

On the other hand, elite swimming/sports has always been about research (doing research on everything related to the specific sport and on ourselves) and the lessons learned from them as these generate improvement.....as Sprinter said already.

So I think there is no peak performance without science.

So far not a soul seems to be disputing the fact that science is important with regards to growth and development. However, my experience is that very few coaches use science on a day to day basis, and even less when you get to the elite level. We talk of science in an almost glowing manner, but the truth is, most coaches are reluctant to get involved in adopting scientific principles and prefer hip based programs over ones that are grounded in physiology. Why do you think it's that way in this country? (USA)

As a masters swim coach working within parameters of 60 minute practice sessions for swimmers - a few days a week, I feel the frustration of wanting to do more - learn more - teach more, with so little time.
I love trying and watching the newest latest and greatest - and try to grab up even the smallest bits for our masters athletes!

My take is perhaps coaches have these issues:
1 - not trained well enough to be comfortable with the technology
2 - groups are large and the coach finds it difficult to manage and enforce various specific new changes/tasks
3 - do not feel they have the available funds to justify purchase of new equipment
4 - like what they are doing already and feel it is good enough

I'm not in agreement with any of these points, but see them as hurdles we need to get over to utilize the available science.

In talking with Glenn about this, he is considering the development of a section that discusses the application of scientific principles or performance science. So the question this week was a feeler in two respects. What were the general opinions of the Goswim population, and if strong enough, was there enough readership interest to take it to a point where it became a weekly issue. The potential of a combination between straight articles written by me, and a back and forth option about questions that would be submitted by coaches or swimmers. I’ll follow this question with another one next week, and based off the two determine the possibilities. So yes there is a possibility, but at this point it would be more helpful to get a better sense of the level of interest in something like this.

Javier makes a great point with regards to something that was propogated prior to 1990 and has stuck around ever since. The idea that Bernoulli's principle drives propulsion in this sport. Even though Ernie came out in the early 90's and did a 180 with regards to some of his thinking in this area, the concept is still talked about as though it were lore. The funny thing is, so few coaches in this world even use the terms lift and drag in their discussions or presentations. And although they tend to propogate some of the base principles by talking about things like the S shaped pulling patterns in freestyle, I don't believe that many coaches truly understand the concept. Many are for the most part artists who have looked at other paintings listened to other artists, and figured out in their own way which colors work and which don't. On top of that, many of the athlete's based on their experience and feel, have in their own way found ways to teach us how to siwm faster

So maybe this should be one of the first discussion items. Does Bernoulli's principle hold water in swimming? (sorry couldn't help myself)

i gotta say that yes science helps at the elite level, but i dont remeber which athlete said about the lzr, i think it was keller "i threw the lzr in the water and it didnt go anywhere, which reminded me that i had to do the swimming"