Interesting, what phase of arm motion contributes the most to a swimmer speed?
Many would say, from 10 to 15 on the above pictures if we are talking about right swimmer’s arm (on the left on the pictures). But I think in general the correct answer would be, it depends on a swimmer’s speed. And in our particular case, since the speed is high (see the wave ahead the swimmer), the most to contribute to speed is the phase from 1 to 10 (talking about right arm).
Yes the phase when the straight arm is just getting from surface to about 45 degrees slope. The rest of the arm motion from 11 to 15, as for me, is just a waste of time at the high speed swimming. That horizontal push spiral movement of arm has no much effect at the high speed. The amount of water it pushes back is very limited, and a swimmer needs to waste a lot of energy to move the arm very fast relative to his body.
The reason why “1 to 10” phase is effective at high speed is that the arm is moving forward and when it presses down, it affects a lot of water staying still under the arm, the greater speed – the more water is affected. A swimmer is almost literarily sliding down the slope of the water, - a minimal relative motion and great effect.
And now here is the question: Is there a way to arrange a technique to let a swimmer not to push-back the water energetically ineffectively, but rather to rebound from the swift and firm streams of water?
I think we could invent it right now. Let’s see:
- An arm should affect as much water as possible. Thus it should not be just straight arm movement down.
- A human possesses 2 arms, and water is not just beneath a swimmer, it’s also on the left and on the right. Thus the left arm should rebound from the bottom-left water and the right arm from the bottom-right water, - did you hear of skate-skiing, this should be somewhat similar, arms should not propagate much back relative to the swimmer’s body, they should perform sort of circular motion, the active phase being almost the whole circle.
- Once the arm's trajectory found, a swimmer could master the downward force to be as big as his half-weight. It could be doable, as, though, the force is big, the arm’s motion relative to the body is not big. Thus the swimmer should be able to keep his body above the water surface (other half of his weight would be lifted up by legs).
- Legs, they are not much different than arms. On a swimmer entering full-speed mode they should make motions almost above the surface horizontally. They should act on a stream of water like skates on ice.
- Thus a swimmer should work in 4 phases: arm, leg, arm, leg. The phases should overlap; there should not be dead moments to let a swimmer sink below the surface.
- As the body is above the surface, the water resistance is much less compared to the classic freestyle water resistance.
- The border effect of water surface dictates that a swimmer should be lightweight, current heavy-weights probably won’t be able to master the technique. Entirely different set of muscles is envolved compared to classic swimmers, that's another reason why new swimmers woull emerge.
Detailed descriptions of the particular motions are beyond the scope of this posting. Well, the descriptions have not been expressed in written form yet, but I do have some virtual model in my mind. It would take me 6 weeks of hard training to show the idea live (hey, just to show the idea, not to beat Phelps :-) Perhaps in the future I'll find the time to start it.
About me: I am not a swimmer at all, I am not even a sportsman at all, and I even did not touch water suitable for swimming for many years. Some bathing in Black and Mediterranean seas – that’s all my swim-related experience, keep that in mind, please.