Some sharp-eyed viewers on Twitter noticed an evolution of underwater kicking technique in one of the world’s best underwater kickers.
Credit to @kimagureswimmer, @Swimcast_de and @Propulsion_Swim on Twitter for their thread pointing out these interesting observations.
The big development: Caeleb Dressel appeared to be one of the last swimmers in the Olympic men’s 50 free final to start underwater dolphin kicking.
That’s very interesting, as Dressel is also consistently one of the best underwater kickers on the planet, and outkicked that Olympic field though the seemingly-backwards strategy of waiting longer to start kicking.
Look at this underwater @SwimNerds @pullbuoy @Propulsion_Swim @Braden_Keith where everyone else is kicking right after entry and Caeleb's waiting until he's in horizontal position. https://t.co/3pi04d481Y
— SWIMCAST (@Swimcast_de) August 3, 2021
On a closer look, though, the strategy does make sense. Considering that even the fastest swimmers are at their absolute fastest the moment they enter the water off the start, Dressel is actually prioritizing that max speed by holding a better bodyline and reducing drag right away.
Underwater dolphin kicking is the fastest way to swim, but even for a superstar like Dressel, it’s still not as fast as the speed carried off an explosive start. And underwater dolphin kicking is a tradeoff of sorts, with an athlete leaving a perfect bodyline and taking on a little bit more drag, in exchange for the extra propulsion from the kicks.
Dressel, essentially, is delaying that tradeoff until he’s carried a bit more of his speed off the blocks. You can see him get into a great, horizontal body-line almost right away, and he holds that minimal-drag position for a split second, until he loses enough speed to justify the drag-for-power tradeoff of underwater dolphin kicking.
This is far from a novel strategy. In fact, it’s probably better described as more evidence of a growing trend in sprinting. One other example: Arizona State assistant coach Herbie Behm (@SirHerb_the3rd on Twitter) previously pointed out the same phenomenon in another great underwater kicker, Ryan Hoffer, at NCAAs:
Hoffer was the first to 15m but the last to start kicking. Nothing faster than a good streamline! pic.twitter.com/1JlHtOUhj3
— Herbie Behm (@SirHerb_the3rd) March 26, 2021
Another interesting note that came up in the same thread: @Propulsion_Swim noted that Dressel appeared to cut off his fly kicks a little earlier in this race compared to an earlier race video in which he extended his dolphin kicks even as his arms were starting the breakout phase:
Credit to Natacao Tecnica on YouTube for the race video in slow-mo below:
https://youtu.be/AOl_QFJqwRU?t=21
Walls 101: don’t start kicking until you decelerate to kicking speed; don’t start swimming until you decelerate to swimming speed or 15m, whichever comes first.
There are very few superior (not only one superior way) ways and a lot of inferior ways to put an overall technique together. ..of the superior ones, find the one that matches what body tools you have to work with. Done properly, it’s not an easy task at all eh.
I believe Sean Hutchison (sorry) talked about delaying the first dolphin kick back in the late ‘00’s.
Townley Haas does this too. He just doesn’t add a dolphin kick
Also seems like it would conserve a bit of energy too. Trying to dolphin kick when your bodyline is whack is much more tiring than when you kick with a good bodyline and hip position. I feel like by delaying the beginning of that kick he is not only utilizing the fastest part of the race, but also saving a bit of energy
Emma McKeon does the same thing.
My coach always told me to get straight into kicks off the walls and I was never sure if they were insinuating that my push-offs were just weak or not, always knew I gained more by pausing for that extra half-second.
I’ve pointed out before, the secret to his start (besides his 40in vertical) is that he doesn’t drop his legs when initially fully submerged. I have a video from 2016 Olympic Trials 50Fr semis when he’s next to Cullen Jones. Frame-by-frame, you see Jones enter the water further than Dressel, but the frame immediately after submersion is when Dressel passes Jones.
He essentially “slows down slower” than everyone else because of that line he hits with his entry. Virtually every other swimmer in the world has at least a slight drop in their legs upon entry (thus putting them not in a perfect horizontal position, and thus creating more drag). It’s the perfect timing that I’m not 100% sure… Read more »