Swimmer Speed Curve – Part 1

I have been working on a presentation to improve understanding of ‘Easy Speed’ and ‘Smart Speed’ concepts in the Total Immersion swimming framework, as I see it. I will break this presentation down into 4 parts.

Let me post some diagrams to show these ideas visually followed by an outline of my main points…

In this diagram we are looking at the speed curve of a swimmer – I intentionally put POWER on the y-axis and SPEED on the x-axis because I like the way that the increasing slope gives the impression of an increasingly difficult mountain to climb as we get near peak speed. We get a visual sense of the diminishing investment-payoff ratio. Otherwise the graph would more appropriately be drawn with speed in the y-axis as the product of power applied, with curves leveling out at their speed limit.

Hull Speed Limits

Swimmer speed is like the hull speed of a boat, although a boat has a fixed shape and a swimmer has a shape that changes a lot in the act of swimming. So that makes things incredibly complex for measuring human hull speed. Therefore, these diagrams are completely conceptual, not to scale nor reflecting actual data. However, the same basic idea of shape-influences-speed applies.

~  ~  ~

To read more of this article – Swimmer Speed Curve – Part 1 – visit Coach Mat’s Smooth Strokes Blog.

 

The post Swimmer Speed Curve – Part 1 appeared first on Total Immersion.