The under 22:00 club! - When the 50 free goes off, you will see nothing but steam coming out of the pool!

Lane 9 News has a recap of today's 50 free prelims. The times are mind boggling and have reach a new standard for all those competing. That standard is under 22:00. [Link]

I am going to make a technique prediction: What rotation in the freestyle stroke was to the 90's, the catch will be redefined in these Olympics. All of us will be catching water in many different styles. Look at Nystrand, Sullivan, Leveaux, Tobriner, Jones, Bernard, Cielo, Weber Gale, all with different styles of catching water.

Swimming evolution in the last 70 years or so - Click on it to make it larger.

Here is a series of illustrations denoting proper swim technique throughout the past century or so. I found the first three illustrations on a swim blog from Spain called NotiNat which is a great blog too so go there and look when you are done reading. [Link]

The year is 1838: A French swimmer is swimming on his side using a on one-legged breaststroke kick as the primary means of propulsion.

The year is 1875: See how low the swimmers legs go when he takes a breath. It's almost like sighting when swimming in open water. There is very little kick if any.

The year is 1893: Modern technique is becoming more recognizable but the kick and the breathing need work not to mention that there is no rotation.

Circa 2000: The last picture is the from the Total Immersion school. The kick is coming from the hip flexors instead of the knees, there is rotation in the stroke and side breathing plus women are allowed equal access to pools, competitive events, and hydro dynamic swimsuits. You can feel the athleticism as well. The swimmers ankle flexibility is so superior to average that she looks like a ballerina en pointe )

What is ironic is that my swim technique is a bit sketchy and here I am pretending I know something. Let that be a caveat ;-)

Swim workout links

Swim.net Workout Archive: Link
Go Swim Practices: Link
Swim World find a workout: Link
Swim Workouts by Olympic Champions: Link
Swimming World - Swim Workouts and Technique: Link

A swim technique page with photos and movies

Here is a site called swim.ee with lots of swim theory, photos and movies. They provide technique info on all the strokes, which includes, starts, turns, legal turns for backstroke in the IM and if you look deep enough you can also find an analysis on speedsuits.

Here is a link to the 'models' page which has all of the technique theory on all the strokes: [Link]