Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Thoughts on Pellegrini's world record swim!

I love watching great swimmers in slow motion and Pellegrini is a great swimmer.

1) She wore two suits
2) A long stroke, nice catch
3) She looks up when she swims
4) Straight-up-and-down flipturn - left leg is lower than her right on the push-off
5) Dolphin kicks
6) Takes her first freestyle pull with her left arm underwater and makes a 360 degree rotation with it as her first pull above the water and breathes on the second pull
7) Loving that Tattoo (Enough about my problems)
8) Looks at her opponent at the finish instead of streamlined.

I am seeing athletes wear two caps and this is the second one I saw wearing two suits. Does wearing pairs of suits and caps create buoyancy?

10 comments:

Glenn said...

I've heard of a few athletes wearing two suits for the buoyancy. This is the first "big time" swimmer I've seen use the technique.

Rumor has it the best combination is a blueseventy UNDER an LZR.

Now it's going to take 95 minutes to get ready to swim. :)

Tony Austin said...

Wow! I heard that 2 blueseventys were the de facto speedster combo. I think FINA is going to step in again.

I am going to wear 2 caps tonight to see why they are doing that. I just don't get it.

Tony Austin said...

Oh, I bought your Schoeman DVD, I get it soon. Can you point me to a trailer so I can post it? I totally endorse th Kara Lynn Joyce one..

Anonymous said...

I think she wore a two-piece under her suit to prevent a "costume malfunction" - those Arena suits have a rather daring cut at the sides...
Don't know about the two caps, but when did everyone, and I mean everyone start wearing their goggles under their caps?

Tony Austin said...

Anon- It did seem to have a flowered print too. hmmm. I could be right.

Amarins said...

I read on the blog of the ducth swimmer Ranomi Kromowijojo that it's hard as h*ll to get the suit on and that you get blisters all over your body. Maybe she wears a suit under her main suit tp prevent getting blisters.

I used to wear 2 caps with the goggels in between during races, it kept the goggels in place and i didn't have to worry my cap sliding off.

Anonymous said...

Didn't Manaudou have a problem with the Arena suits appearing transparent under the right light? That's what came to mind when I saw Pellegrini with a second suit underneath.

Glenn said...

I've been using the two cap thing this year... feels more solid... like I'm pushing better through the water.

Of course, that could be because my head is generally filled with mush and a tad soft. So it'll be interesting to see how you feel about it Tony.

FYI... you can grab the trailer directly from Roland's page on the site. In that player, click on the little envelope on the bottom right corner, then grab the "get code" link. Lemme know if you have any trouble.

Anonymous said...

usually girls wear 2 caps... first cap is to hold the hair, 2nd cap is "fast" cap.

also, lots of people wear a small suit underneath their race suit. this is so you can take your speed suit off easier after your swim. i do this all the time with my fastskins.

when FINA talks about "buoyancy," im sure they mean floatation devices inserted into the suit. an example would be pull buoys sown into the suit.

Tony Austin said...

Thank you anon. When I wore two caps tonight my head felt like a balloon and my skull felt like rubber