A very 'old school' stroke. She is pulling past her center-line and there is very little rotation in her hips! She should be way more on her side by the time her pull gets that far into the stroke. God! Her poor shoulder. :-[Also, look how strong she is; very impressive! Note the vacuum of air above her left shoulder as her arm rips through the water! That's real power! I understand that she is 6'0" tall and
The photo comes from an ESPN article titled: "What the Future Holds" which has this interesting snippet: "...It was just such a competitive instinct that has kept Torres swimming throughout the years, unable to retire at the first news conferences after her races in 2008, when she said she was unable to absolutely rule out a return in 2012 in London (now known as New Atlantis). ..." [Link]
I believe she could return but it would be in her best interest to redesign her stroke with the help of a "Rada Owen" or a "Glenn Mills."
4 comments:
It does appear she's pulling past her center-line. I wonder about her rotation though. From this vantage point I'd say her left is lagging a bit behind where it ideally should be when the other hand is starting to begin the catch. If I'm right it would indicate she has a slight "catch up" lope to her stroke - a fairly common occurrence even at her level. I believe that would place her rotation about right where it should be based upon the left arm's position (the propulsive arm) rather than the right (recovery) arm. Rather difficult to come to a defensible opinion, however, by relying on a single picture.
Sprinters don't have glide phases to their stroke so a catch up lope is something sprinters can't afford.
She has a lousy stroke whereas Britta Stefan does not.
With Torres a mere hundreth of a second slower would it be safe to say on the assumption Torres has a technically inferior stroke to Stefan's then she has to be that much stronger? I wonder how her stretching managed that?
She looked like the strongest girl out there all right, but youth and technique, especially the touch at the wall versus Dara's glide won the day.
Britta Steffan streches too. There is a You Tube of her as well.
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