John Payne provides "opportunity and motive" as to why Libby Trickett changed her stroke

John Payne at ix3sports quotes me in his blog post about Libby Trickett's new straight-arm freestyle and as usual I start out sounding really smart till you get the typo and then I finally sound like the idiot I really am.

With this in mind, I am linking to the post, not to illustrate my typo; (which I fixed), but rather the motive behind Trickett's stroke change. John Payne has done the homework and here is a snippet about what he deduced:

"...I think Trickett’s change in stroke mechanics are a calculated move made less on “body-type and/or physical abilities” and more on taking advantage of bleeding-edge, but controversial, swimsuit technology available to swimmers today. She and her coach are betting that some of the advantages - if not all - conveyed to swimmers by the new technology will remain in place after the upcoming FINA meetings regarding swimsuit construction. ..."

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I am guessing that the crux of his argument is that speedsuits maintain momentum more efficiently and consequently you have less speed loss when taking that additional lunge needed to generate more torque. Correct me if I am wrong.

I have included a trailer to Glenn Mills, Go Swim Straight-Arm Freestyle with Olympic gold and silver medalist Scott Tucker to illustrate how the stroke is executed. Here is a link to the DVD if you are interested:

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John Payne of 'IX3 Sports' has a succinct and lucid article on speedsuits that is rather refreshing as of late!

I have read the New York Times, the Times Online, Associated Press, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Daily Mail, Reuters, The BBC, Sports Illustrated, ESPN and especially the swim media at large with all of the above presenting a biased case against Speedsuits.

John Payne of IX3 Sports cuts through all of that and has a thorough article exploring the pros and cons in a very measured way:

"... The triathlon community is one that embraces technology and radical shifts in technology. That one of the defining characteristics of the species! The swimming community, while embracing technological change in the training world, has not been as quick historically to incorporate it in the competitive arena.

The pace at which the new suit technology has changed the playing field has been astonishing, particularly for the rule makers. Hopefully they can act quickly, but not in haste. ..."

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