Head position: These ladies say always look up while doing freestyle.

In the photo above, Joe Jackson is in the middle. I believe Rebecca Adlington is to her left. Note the head position on all three swimmers. They are all looking up 45-degrees or more.

UPDATE: Below that is a video from GoSwim with a rational supposition as to how to figure out which sort of head position is best for you.

Bring on the slings and arrows!

Katie Hoff on bieng " out-touched" in Beijing against Rebecca Adlington in the 400m Free!

Look at that smile, isn't that smile full of "awesome and win?" Damn straight it is!

Let's go back to August '08 - In a dramatic moment in the 400 meter free at the Beijing Olympic Games, Rebecca Adlington out-touched Katie Hoff at the wall after coming back from a body length deficit in the last 100 meters.

SCAQ coaches and American swimmers were in a state of shock. ;_;

Clay Evans: "... Katie Hoff gave away the 400 free with horrible beginner's finish/ touch. She looped down and up touching with almost a completely flat hand like she did not want to break a nail. Meanwhile the Brit lunged forward plunging in a direct STRAIGHT line to the electronic pad making up at least one foot. It was plain as day in the under water shot. I was dumbfounded at that error. ..."

Erik Hochstein: "... This Katie Hoff finish will be replayed by American coaches for the next decade - yes, even a world-class swimmer can lose a 400 Free on a finish. This type of finish is actually more common than expected - I have seen this quite often at the elite level in the last few years.

I had no opinion at the time but I did feel perplexed after watching most Olympic swimmers avoid such basics like no breathing off the walls, don't look at another swimmer underwater, or even looking up as they glide into wall: (i.e. Milorad Cavic's "FAIL" was a bigger mistake than Hoff's.)

In this Baltimore Sun article Katie Hoff opens up on Bob Bowman coaching style and how someone like Michael Phelps is able to thrive whereas someone like Hoff was like "WTF, dude! This is a swimming pool, not Satan's bladder!" (I made that quote up, I'm serious.)

This is a "home run" as a swimmer profile: [Link]

Better than anyone else, Hoff knows how a swimmer's legacy can be shaped by fractions of a second. In the 400-meter freestyle Olympic final, she led by nearly a body length with 100 meters to go. But at the wall, Great Britain's Rebecca Adlington out-touched her by seven hundredths of a second. Had she held on, she knows it's likely her Olympic experience would have been viewed differently.

"A lot of my struggle was that [race]," Hoff said. "That is something that obviously still bothers me a little bit. But it bothers me a lot to be like, 'Could I have touched differently?' There is nothing more that I could have done. At this point it's like, OK, time to move on and keep going."

Joanne Jackson and Rebecca Adlington interviewed after placing in the 400-free.

Four World records set this weekend so far- Is 'Arena' the new 'Speedo' ?

Maly sent me an update regarding Jessica Hardy's suit of choice.

UPDATE: From AP:

She set the world record in the 50 breaststroke with a split of 29.95 seconds when she time-trialed the 100 breaststroke on Thursday.

Hardy wore a Jaked suit Friday. It and other record-breaking polyurethane bodysuits will be banned by swimming's world governing body on Jan. 1.

[Link]

If Speedsuits are allowed in masters in 2010, I suspect Jaked will be a top seller.

Roland Schoeman in the 50-free SCM, Joanne Jackson in the 400-LCM 400-SCM, Cameron van der Burgh in the 50 and 100 breast SCM. All of these records were NOT set in a Speedo swimsuit.

Joanne Jackson was not wearing a LZR, only Rebecca Adlington was and Adlington was quoted in the Times Online as looking forward to January 1st, 2010 when suits are outlawed. Personally, I think it was the Speedo LZR that put her on the map since she is a 'soft and comfy' and the Speedo delivers amazing body compression with its polyurethane panels.

Getting down to business Speedo has taken a huge hit. Once the world record leader in swimsuit design but now it wouldn't be an understatement to say that for the first time in 40-years of swimming, Speedo is not seen as the number one. They have been replaced by Arena and even the Jaked 01.

We will leave the speedsuit era with Arena and Jaked having the last word for most of the world records in 2009 will have been set in their suits.

How will Speedo convince the swimmer at large that their briefs and jammers will be more, better, or filled with "mad phat win" when compared to Arena or Jaked?

2009 FINA World Championships: Germany's Paul Biedermann is "mad fast" in the 200 free during prelims!

I like German swimmer, Paul Biedermann's, catch and turnover. Are the suits encouraging a new technique where it is all about brute strength and technique rather than one's heart and lungs?

Photograph and caption for the image to the right comes from the Washington Post: "...Germany's Paul Biedermann, swimming in a 200-meter freestyle heat, breaks Michael Phelps's mark in the event, finishing in 1 minute 43.65 seconds. ..."

Phelps reaction:

"...Phelps was giving an interview when he heard the meet announcer bellow, "championships record!"

He spun toward a nearby television screen.

[...] "What did he go?" Phelps, officially distracted, asked eagerly. "He go 1:43?"

"He just dropped a lot of time," Phelps volunteered, almost talking to himself. "You usually don't see a six-second drop in the 400 free in a year. In the 200 free, he dropped about three seconds in a year. . . . It will get me more excited, more ready for tomorrow. I'm going to have to, I guess, really prepare myself. ..."

[Link]

Phelps' comment is really refreshing to me. If it were Eamon Sullivan or Rebecca Adlington you might have heard a suit rant!

FINA is requesting 8 new events for the 2012 Olymics!

FINA is requesting 8 new events for 2012. Two which would include adding an 800m free for men and then a 1500m free for woman. However, the Times Online accuses an "American led lobby" of wanting to screw that up and drop the 800m free altogether and just add a 1500m free for the women.

Personally, I think they should let NBC decide and I am sure they would want as much swimming as they could film. Heck, they are paying for it.

The Times Online article is not very fleshed out but this would certainly effect Rebecca Adlington who is quoted in the article.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is considering a request by FINA, swimming’s governing body, to add eight new events in time for 2012. They include a 1500m freestyle race for women and an 800m race for men.

Sources say the IOC, which is keen to limit expansion, is unlikely to grant such a request and could instead opt for a compromise favoured by the American-led equality lobby that would see Adlington’s strongest event dropped and allow women to step up to 1500m for the first time. The IOC’s executive board will decide on the matter later this year.

[Link]

Rebecca Adlington has been awarded an 'Order of the British Empire'

Chivarly has ranks and now Rebecca Adlington has joined those ranks and has been awarded with an Order of the British Empire (OBE)

The Order of the British Empire motto is For God and the Empire. It is the most junior of the British orders of chivalry and has more members than any other.

Here are the ranks from Wikipedia:

• Knight Grand Cross (GBE) or Dame Grand Cross (GBE)
• Knight Commander (KBE) or Dame Commander (DBE)
• Commander (CBE)
• Officer (OBE)
• Member (MBE)

Rebecca Adlington recognized with a BBC award!

For a higher-rez version, here is the You Tube link: [Link]

Times Online: "Strokes of genius that changed the world for Rebecca Adlington"

The Times Online has a great overview regarding Rebecca Adlington's training for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Shades of Michael Phelps here: Technology and a plan allowed Adlington to reverse split in the 400-meter free earning herself a solid gold medal in Beijing by 700-of-a-second:

"...To swim faster, most swimmers increase the stroke rate, but with the aquapacer, Miley took Adlington through a session where they slowed her stroke rate down and found she was able to maintain the same high speed. In other words, the length of her stroke was her asset. “Rebecca is one of the rare swimmers where this is the case,” Miley said. “She was moving with such efficiency, it may have felt like she was swimming downhill....”

Adlington also worked on the finer points of her swim such as her turns. I like the innovative way they addressed filming them:

"... Once back in the pool, Adlington was able to fine-tune the weaker part of her game: her tumble turn. This involved linking up again with Jodi Cossor, the biomechanist at British Swimming, who, over the course of the previous year, had worked with her in the pool at Loughborough, videoing her turns from above and below. ..."

Then there was her finish, the one side-by-side with Katie Hoff. The one where I quoted Clay Evans angrily saying this about Katie Hoff: "it looked like she didn't want to break a nail. ..."

"... The finish itself was programmed into Adlington, too. “Rebecca knows exactly how many strokes per length so she is coached to finish at the end of a stroke,” Furniss said. “It's been drilled into her. And that is what she did.”

Hoff, however, finished with her arm not straight, her wrist cocked and her hand flat. No one can be sure how much time that final error cost her but for that last five metres took Adlington 2.69sec, Hoff 2.89. ..."

The photo comes from RobH3's photostream at Flickr.com.

Here is a direct link to the photo: [Link]