Coach Jon Urbanchek, swim coach for Michigan, states on video at a USC practice that torque; (fancy word for acceleration), is more important than power.No wonder I am better at long course and open water than I am short course. It is all about the turnover, baby!
He states it on video at Flowcast.org/swimming while attending a USC practice with Larsen Jensen and Oui M., and Klete Keller: [ Video is at the bottom of the page - Link]
4 comments:
Torque measures the ability of a force to produce an angular acceleration - or spinning motion. Power is the rate at which energy is expended. These two concepts should be used with great care because they are defined very precisely in science. A good example of the former is found in backstroke, where the pull tends to rotate the body of the swimmer because the lever arm is so great. Torque does not normally produce an acceleration in the direction of motion - a force in the forward direction is required to produce an acceleration in the forward direction. Consequently, I must say I found Jon's comments quite confusing.
I just looked up both the word torsion and torque. Ultimately his definition is all about acceleration only versus spinning, axial thrust.
Do you feel acceleration is more important than power? I thin acceleration is, at least in a shorter race.
Torque is a commonly used measure of an engine's underlying power rather than it's top end speed. I understand his comment as clearly referring to the ability to accelerate the pull from the initial catch - it has nothing to do the the actual mechanics of an internal combustion engine.
Perhaps a better explanation of torque would be the ability to call upon all the potential power of the engine at any point in time. In car engines a high torque number is used to refer to an engine's ability to quickly gain power in the low rev range: something which I believe translates into Urbanchek's language as an ability to put power into your stroke very early on.
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