I don’t understand…

[moonvine]

Mixed triathlon. It is a head scratcher for sure.

 

[moonvine]

In diving, I’m trying to figure out how the men enter the water with so much less splash than the women even though they are much larger. Is it because they can jump higher and thus have more time to straighten themselves out before they hit the water?

 

[anonymoose_au]

In diving, I’m trying to figure out how the men enter the water with so much less splash than the women even though they are much larger. Is it because they can jump higher and thus have more time to straighten themselves out before they hit the water?

Maybe it's because their hands are bigger? The commentators on the channel I watched mentioned that rather than hold their hands together like they're praying, divers actually stretch them out flat, to break the water surface before they enter. Which was interesting because I always thought they did the prayer hand thing

I imagine the jumping higher and being straighter when they enter the water helps too.

I also don't understand how you get a 10 in diving! The guy who won did the most spectacular dive in Round 2 (I think), even the crowd gasped in appreciation and he didn't even get at 9.5 for his trouble, let alone a 10.

 

[anonymoose_au]

Mixed triathlon. It is a head scratcher for sure.

I found the Mixed Relay in swimming more intriguing as women could go against men in that, in the mixed triathlon it was men against men, women against women.

I wonder how the swim coaches decided the relay legs, the commentators mentioned a lot of planning would have gone into it. I assume they wouldn't have known which person others teams would put in beforehand. Which I imagine would have quite an impact, in the butterfly leg for instance, the US put a guy in and went from like half a pool behind to neck and neck.

Also of interest, apparently the rules state you can swim any stroke you want in freestyle - since it's...free style, but it's funny to think of someone being a troll one day and doing backstroke or something. The confusion from the other swimmers might give them an edge!

 

[moonvine]

I found the Mixed Relay in swimming more intriguing as women could go against men in that, in the mixed triathlon it was men against men, women against women.

I wonder how the swim coaches decided the relay legs, the commentators mentioned a lot of planning would have gone into it. I assume they wouldn't have known which person others teams would put in beforehand. Which I imagine would have quite an impact, in the butterfly leg for instance, the US put a guy in and went from like half a pool behind to neck and neck.

Also of interest, apparently the rules state you can swim any stroke you want in freestyle - since it's...free style, but it's funny to think of someone being a troll one day and doing backstroke or something. The confusion from the other swimmers might give them an edge!

Yes. The freestyle is whatever stroke you want. I have not looked at the real Olympics rules but Master Swim and Senior Olympics (which is the level I swim on) rules say you can do whatever you want as long as you don’t walk on the bottom of the pool. So you could do side stroke, breast stroke, back stroke, butterfly. You could do the doggie paddle if you want.
Most people’s fastest stroke is the crawl. My best and fastest stroke is butterfly so I use that for my free. It’s not unknown, I’ve seen an NCAA swimmer do it. But not at the Olympics. I can’t even make the “big” National Senior Olympics. They have minimum times I can’t make.

 

[anonymoose_au]

Yes. The freestyle is whatever stroke you want. I have not looked at the real Olympics rules but Master Swim and Senior Olympics (which is the level I swim on) rules say you can do whatever you want as long as you don’t walk on the bottom of the pool. So you could do side stroke, breast stroke, back stroke, butterfly. You could do the doggie paddle if you want.
Most people’s fastest stroke is the crawl. My best and fastest stroke is butterfly so I use that for my free. It’s not unknown, I’ve seen an NCAA swimmer do it. But not at the Olympics. I can’t even make the “big” National Senior Olympics. They have minimum times I can’t make.

How interesting! The crawl is actually my worst stroke (although I can't say I've tried the butterfly really) because my co-ordination is just awful and I can never figure out which side to breathe from etc etc.

I wonder if you can swim whatever stroke you want in the Marathon swim too

 

[moonvine]

How interesting! The crawl is actually my worst stroke (although I can't say I've tried the butterfly really) because my co-ordination is just awful and I can never figure out which side to breathe from etc etc.

I wonder if you can swim whatever stroke you want in the Marathon swim too

I had to take lessons even though I learned to swim long ago. I was trying to do laps and I kept running out of breath. I asked the swim instructor and she told me I probably wasn’t breathing properly. I took some lessons and she was correct. That’s how I learned to do the butterfly. It is so my stroke, people compliment me on my form all the time. Unfortunately although my stroke is said to be “textbook” I am still very slow. But, it gives me something to shoot for. I also watch swimming to see if there is anything I can do to emulate what they’re doing. So I saw they were only breathing 1 time per 2 butterfly strokes and I started doing that.

I forgot, in freestyle you can also switch strokes whenever you want. So if I get tired of crawl I just flip over and do backstroke. But no serious Olympic swimmer is going to do any of that. Nevertheless it is legal.

 

[moonvine]

Why do athletes in the “throw heavy objects” (discus, hammer, shotput, any other heavy object I’m missing) foul so often? Isn’t it part of their practice to throw the things without fouling?

 

[4everchan]

a lot of them foul on purpose when they see their throw is not as far as a previous throw...

also, throwing is a fine balance between speed (often in rotation) and power... if an athlete is too careful, the throw may not be as successful... so that also explains the fouls... it's much harder to control than in long jump for instance.

 

[4everchan]

now.. regarding freestyle... well... in theory it is "free" but i have never seen a serious swimmer not use crawl for it... and i swam competitively until i finished college. my strongest stroke was butterfly....but i still swam a couple seconds faster per 50 meters in crawl... even if I never felt that great in crawl. the word freestyle mostly refers to the fact that the movements of the style DO NOT HAVE STRICT RULES. Other styles all have specific rule requirements, for instance both hands touching the wall at once or being on your back... or recovering the arms over the water like in butterfly... etc etc

 

[4everchan]

I wonder if you can swim whatever stroke you want in the Marathon swim too

nobody would swim another stroke for two reasons... freestyle is the least demanding one in energy... so there is no way one would want to switch to another style... also, the other styles are all slower... So, unless one is doing a marathon using a specific race (for instance a lake crossing in butterfly) you wouldn't see anyone doing in competition, anything than freestyle... Also, something important : in freestyle, it is easy not to use your legs much to keep afloat... so in longer distances, swimmers will barely kick ( i used to kick only when i would breathe in longer distances) until they get to the last moments... without the legs, the other styles are impossible (the back is possible but very slow because the legs help for floating, the breast stroke and butterfly rely on the synergy between arms and legs)

 

[anonymoose_au]

Interesting! Although I can't actually swim freestyle/crawl properly. Like my arms flail all over the place and I have to stick my head up to breathe rather than breathing from the side.

So if I was ever forced to enter a Marathon swim I'd have to go for breaststroke. Hopefully I'd make it to the finish line at some point!

 

[4everchan]

Interesting! Although I can't actually swim freestyle/crawl properly. Like my arms flail all over the place and I have to stick my head up to breathe rather than breathing from the side.

So if I was ever forced to enter a Marathon swim I'd have to go for breaststroke. Hopefully I'd make it to the finish line at some point!

if you were forced to enter a Marathon swim, you would drown... reading what i am reading here or you would simply learn how to swim freestyle properly not that hard... it's my weakest stroke and it's still the least demanding and fastest...

 

[moonvine]

now.. regarding freestyle... well... in theory it is "free" but i have never seen a serious swimmer not use crawl for it... and i swam competitively until i finished college. my strongest stroke was butterfly....but i still swam a couple seconds faster per 50 meters in crawl... even if I never felt that great in crawl. the word freestyle mostly refers to the fact that the movements of the style DO NOT HAVE STRICT RULES. Other styles all have specific rule requirements, for instance both hands touching the wall at once or being on your back... or recovering the arms over the water like in butterfly... etc etc

Well I compete. I am not competitive. And if I get tired of doing the crawl I will flip over and do the backstroke. At Senior Olympic level it really isn’t about the medals (I have too many already and I only keep them if they are especially pretty, otherwise I donate them back). My butterfly literally is my fastest stroke though. At Senior Olympic level it is more that we can get out there and do it still. We have a guy who competes in 90 plus age group. He’s very slow but that’s not the point.

 

[TontoK]

now.. regarding freestyle... well... in theory it is "free" but i have never seen a serious swimmer not use crawl for it... and i swam competitively until i finished college. my strongest stroke was butterfly....but i still swam a couple seconds faster per 50 meters in crawl... even if I never felt that great in crawl. the word freestyle mostly refers to the fact that the movements of the style DO NOT HAVE STRICT RULES. Other styles all have specific rule requirements, for instance both hands touching the wall at once or being on your back... or recovering the arms over the water like in butterfly... etc etc

I attended a high school swim meet where the state champion backstroker was entered in a 500 free event. He backstroked it, and won. This was a dual meet against a newly formed high school team. The swimmers from the better team were randomly assigned to the events. I did this once - I was a breaststroke specialist, but drew the 100 fly... my worst stroke. I did not win. LOL

 

[4everchan]

I attended a high school swim meet where the state champion backstroker was entered in a 500 free event. He backstroked it, and won. This was a dual meet against a newly formed high school team. The swimmers from the better team were randomly assigned to the events. I did this once - I was a breaststroke specialist, but drew the 100 fly... my worst stroke. I did not win. LOL

500 free??? that is not a standard distance...and sometimes, you know, it can happen that coaches have fun with things.... i was asked to do the 400 IM because i was a great fly and breaststroke swimmer and could do freestyle as well... but then, my coach forgot about my poor backstroke... i won my heat but suffered a lot... I complained... next event, he assigned me to the 200 back, to spite me... but this is just for fun... as i said, no serious swimmer would swim anything else than crawl in a serious freestyle event ... it's sort of a urban myth that free means free...

 

[4everchan]

Well I compete. I am not competitive. And if I get tired of doing the crawl I will flip over and do the backstroke. At Senior Olympic level it really isn’t about the medals (I have too many already and I only keep them if they are especially pretty, otherwise I donate them back). My butterfly literally is my fastest stroke though. At Senior Olympic level it is more that we can get out there and do it still. We have a guy who competes in 90 plus age group. He’s very slow but that’s not the point.

good for you to remain active.. regarding switching to back if you get tired, that's strange because back requires more energy with constant leg kicking... maybe you need to examine your breathing pattern if you get tired with crawl... the main reason why people find crawl difficult is because of improper breathing. Then, your cardio gets fried and the acid lactic builds up... that's why some people think switching to the back, where they can breathe easily or even to breaststroke as again, it is easier to breathe..

 

[TontoK]

500 free??? that is not a standard distance...and sometimes, you know, it can happen that coaches have fun with things.... i was asked to do the 400 IM because i was a great fly and breaststroke swimmer and could do freestyle as well... but then, my coach forgot about my poor backstroke... i won my heat but suffered a lot... I complained... next event, he assigned me to the 200 back, to spite me... but this is just for fun... as i said, no serious swimmer would swim anything else than crawl in a serious freestyle event ... it's sort of a urban myth that free means free...

This was in the United States, so it was a 500 yard race in a high school's 25 yard pool.

Edit: The national high school record was recently broken: https://swimswam.com/jake-mitchell-sets-national-public-high-school-record-in-500-yard-free/

In the case of my butterfly adventure, our coach knew the coach of the brand new high school team, and rather than put up our big guns in the specialty events, he put us in random events just to have some fun in a meet we had no chance of losing - and to spare the humiliation for a group of young athletes just learning to compete on the opposing team. I literally drew the 100 fly out of a hat.

 

[4everchan]

i never understood why the USA would stick to swimming in 25 yard pools (and weird distances like 500 yards), when the whole world is swimming in 25 M pools which are slightly longer... (25 yards is only 22.86 meters) but there is a great story about this : Olympic champion in 100M fly is Canadian swimmer Maggie MacNeil. She goes to U of Michigan and trains usually in a 25 yard pool. Which means that she has developed really great turns and underwater dolphin kick compared to swimmers who train in 50 M pools (she has to turn 3 times instead of 1)... So after the first 50m at the games, she was quite behind, but her turn was so good, that she come back to win gold. The smaller pools do have this advantage... When I first started to train/compete in 50M pools, I thought it was much harder.... I lacked endurance. Not being able to turn as often was hell for me at first... especially with butterfly... but I guess that once you overcome that, you can use it to your advantage...

 

[TontoK]

i never understood why the USA would stick to swimming in 25 yard pools (and weird distances like 500 yards), when the whole world is swimming in 25 M pools which are slightly longer... (25 yards is only 22.86 meters) but there is a great story about this : Olympic champion in 100M fly is Canadian swimmer Maggie MacNeil. She goes to U of Michigan and trains usually in a 25 yard pool. Which means that she has developed really great turns and underwater dolphin kick compared to swimmers who train in 50 M pools (she has to turn 3 times instead of 1)... So after the first 50m at the games, she was quite behind, but her turn was so good, that she come back to win gold. The smaller pools do have this advantage... When I first started to train/compete in 50M pools, I thought it was much harder.... I lacked endurance. Not being able to turn as often was hell for me at first... especially with butterfly... but I guess that once you overcome that, you can use it to your advantage...

I suspect that 25 yard pools are much cheaper to construct and maintain than Olympic size pools, and that's a consideration for public high schools. I think that even most college pools are 25 yards rather than 50.

USA sticks to yards because we don't widely recognize the metric system. Sometimes I wish we did, sometimes I'm glad we don't.

Edit: Obviously we "recognize" the metric system exists, but if you asked most Americans "What's longer? 1500 meters or a mile?" they wouldn't know the answer with certainty.

Your point about MacNeil is valid. I think the same can be said about Dressel's turns, which are spectacular. His finishing stroke is not the best though - he always looks "long" to me - and I wonder if training yards but competing meters has anything to do with that.