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Follow the Black Line
In practice it is important to circle swim so nobody gets
injured, but in meets it is just as important to swim in the middle of the
lane. I have caught many of you circle swimming at meets and we have talked
about it after your race. We came across this short article by Jan Prins in
Swimming World. Jan is a professor of
kinesiology at the University of Hawaii.
It isn't often when we can sound both frivolous and deadly serious at the
same time. This is one of those occasions because, distilled to its purest
form, the winner in our sport is the swimmer who stays as close to a
straight-line path as possible and covers this path in the shortest possible
time.
How this is accomplished is complicated, but in the realm of biomechanics,
this is where we usually start - by examining the most fundamental concepts
associated with motion: distance and linear displacement.
By definition, a distinction is made between "distance" and
"displacement." While "distance" is a change in position, "displacement" is the
difference between where we start and finish.
We can agree that in competitive swimming, "displacement" doesn't have much
practical significance because most races start and end at the same wall. what
is of importance is "distance," which for each race is a fixed measurement.
Consider the dimensions of a typical lane in short course meters. The
swimmer moves in a rectangle, 25 meters long and usually 2-1/2 meters wide. The
diagonal distance between the two opposite ends is 25.12 meters.
If the swimmer swims at a pace of 2 meters/second - which is a pace equal
to a 50-second 100 meter swim - and moves diagonally instead of at right angles
to the walls, it will take an additional 6-hundreths of a second to cover each
length. Multiply this by the number of lengths, and it is easy to see that
watching that black line on the bottom of the pool and not racing in circles is
critical. Also, remember: if the athlete swims at a pace that is slower than
the example, more time will be added to the final result.
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