Ryan Lochte stole the show at the 2010 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. Six gold medals and he came within a few tenths of his world record in the 200 IM, with a Lycra suit on! It was a very impressive performance, indeed. So what was the difference? What enabled Ryan to have such a stellar meet? Nutrition.

Apparently Ryan has changed his eating habits and it shows. We heard he gave up eating a lot of junk food and it shows. Yes, he was lean and mean and fast. I didn’t speak to Ryan nor ask him about his nutrition, but here is what was reported.

In 2008, during the Beijing Olympics, Lochte was quoted in the NY Times on line with the following. “Nutrition’s probably the last thing I worry about,” Lochte said. “It’s probably my downfall. I’ve been eating McDonald’s almost every meal here.”

This year, at the Pan Pacs, Lochte tells The New York Times, “I haven’t really been eating fast food. Before, I always thought it didn’t really matter what you put in your body because you burn so many calories. What I’ve learned is it does make a difference.“ Read the rest of this entry »

In order to reduce the air bubbles behind your hand underwater, you must enter the hand delicately.

Many beginner swimmers are taught to enter the hand into the water just in front of their head and slide it underwater forward as the elbow extends. Or some are told to slow the hand down before it enters the water, kind of like one of those new toilet seats with the spring shock absorber on it. The reasons, I can only assume, are to try to reduce the number of air bubbles one gets when the hand pulls through the water.

Having a lot of air bubbles behind the hand reduces the amount of propulsive drag one can generate as the hand moves backward in the propulsive phase of the pull. And, if you haven’t already noticed, most of the great swimmers have little or no air and the not-so-great swimmers often have lots of air. Why?
Well, it doesn’t have to do with laying the hand in slowly or sliding it out from the head forward, because none of the great swimmers do that. In fact, quite the opposite, they move the arms/hands aggressively and quickly forward through the recovery, hurrying to get them back into the water again. Read the rest of this entry »

The reason you keep the elbows high on the underwater pull is to increase power.

I hear this often from both coaches and swimmers. When one looks at the underwater shots of the world’s fastest swimmers, sprint or distance, one finds the recurring position of high underwater elbow, also called Early Vertical Forearm (EVF). The elbows are not just high, they are unusually high…almost in a contorted position with extreme extension (negative angle) of the shoulder joint, particularly when coupled with the body rotation in the opposite direction. it begs the question, can one really be stronger in this almost contorted position? I believe the answer is no. To test this, one can go in the gym and using the Free Motion pulleys, that many gyms now have, pull as much weight down with your arm relatively straight forward, then try it with your arm at the side, shoulder extended and elbow up. You will not be able to pull as much weight in that position. With the shoulder fully extended (negative angle), it is simply not in a good mechanical position of strength. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, the world lost one of its finest distance and open water swimmers, Fran Crippen. His body was apparently discovered submerged just 400 meters or so from the finish line, hours after the completion of the FINA open water race near Dubai. The water was allegedly very warm for competition, with temperatures reported at 84 degrees Fahrenheit or higher by others. The air temperature was allegedly near 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Several athletes ended up in the hospital after the race from dehydration or heat exhaustion. I don’t know too many other details about the race other than it was a circuit course of around 2 miles and that there were some race supervisors on jetskis, but exactly how many, I do not know.

When I first learned of Fran’s death, my first thought was ‘this should not have happened’. Open water swimming has its inherent risks. One of the mystiques and intrigues about this fast growing sport is that one has to deal with a wide range of conditions; warm water, cold water, wind, waves, current, poor visibility, jelly fish, sharks, seaweed … just to name a few. Somehow, I cannot bring myself to believe that when considering this particular race, involving young talented swimmers among the most physically fit on the planet, that death by drowning should be one of the risks. I suppose anything is possible. Fran could have had a cardiac arrhythmia or even a myocardial infarction, although the likelihood of either at his age and condition would be extremely rare. But if either had been the case, I would have preferred to hear that they could not resuscitate him after pulling him from water seconds or even minutes after he stopped swimming. Instead, they found him on the bottom. Read the rest of this entry »

Aside from shaving, wearing a cap and a high tech suit or wetsuit, the only way to reduce drag is by streamlining off the start and turns.

Of the 3 fundamental laws that govern swimming technique, drag, motion and inertia, drag is by far the most important. Drag is the number one enemy of the swimmer…something we learned 250 world records after changing suit fabric from lycra to polyurethane. What most swimmers fail to realize is that there are three common mistakes made by far too many swimmers that add significant drag to their swim (more than the suits reduced) and they make them through every stroke cycle…over and over again. The first is head position. Most swimmers hold their head position way too high, looking forward. I call it defensive swimming, because after getting smacked in the head by someone veering over into your side of the lane, you will start to swim like Tarzan. Problem is lifting the head causes the hips to sink and the surface (wave) drag on your head to increase. Swimming through the water like a hammock, or if you have no legs, at an angle of 5 to 10 degrees from head to toe, creates a huge increase in drag. Read the rest of this entry »