Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Biomechanics”
The 2021 [2020] Tokyo Olympics are fast approaching and no one is approaching them as fast as 16-year-old David Popovici. He went from a deep swim nerd name to a gold medal contender to expectations of breaking 46 seconds (from some, not this author) in less than 6 months. However, will we see Popovici break a 100 free WR in …
The relay exchange is a critical component of relays. Subjectively, you can watch a great relay exchange and watch the superior relay start make a significant improvement over their competitors. Yet, the ideal swimming relay start technique has garnered minimal research. Like most aspects of swimming, research is often behind the elite swimmers. Coaches and swimmers are creative and can …
Using hand paddles during swimming is a common practice in the sport. Although many swim coaches use hand paddles for training, do they consider how swimming hand paddle training influences swimming biomechanics? Utilizing paddles during training likely will alter biomechanics, but how does the paddle size change biomechanics? Shouldn’t this be a consideration considering the arms produce approximately 85% of …
Strength training and swimming have always been a debated topic. In fact, some argue that strength training and/or plyometrics are not beneficial for swimming performance. I personally performed a comprehensive strength training for swimming review and produced Dryland for Swimmers. However, new research is evolving and new research on how strength training improves swimming starts was recently published. Strength Training …
Ideal body shape and structure is a common topic in swimming communities. It is most common for coaches to use their subjective eye when deciding if a swimmer has the perfect backstroke body (somatyape). A recent study by Sammoud (2018) assessed the key physical characteristics of young backstroke swimmers. The goal of this study was to determine what factors predict …
Something unique for our readers in this week’s interview. What follows are notes from a phone interview I conducted with Dr. Jan Prins, Ph.D. Dr. Prins is the Director of the Aquatic Research Laboratory at the University of Hawaii at Manoa along with Founder and Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Swimming Research. He is one of the contributors to The Swim …
The burden of shoulder problems highlights the need for injury prevention strategies. Identifying risk factors and developing strategies to prevent injury, based on these risk factors, are key components for preventing injuries in sports. This reflects the second and third step in the ‘sequence of prevention’ and ‘translating research into injury prevention practice’ models. Overall, 4,740 studies were excluded from …
Troubleshooting Series: Cervical Spine Understanding cause-and-effect lies in the heart of effective movement correction, both in and out of the water. The better grasp we have of the body’s movement fundamentals, the more capable we can decipher the visual presentation of stroke flaws. The quotations around “flaws” are intentional, as the flaw that catches our attention on deck may be …
1) Swimmers posture can heighten injury risk2) Stroke mechanics may be implicated by swimmers posture3) Swimmers posture can affect both land and water strength We all know what swimmers posture looks like but how can we actually describe it? Characteristics include forward head, rounded upper spine (kyphosis), elevated and protracted scapulae, anteriorly positioned humeral head, highly developed upper trapezius, and …
This is an interview with Dr. Lucas Wymore. Dr. Wymore recently published: Shoulder Functional Performance Status of National Collegiate Athletic Association Swimmers: Baseline Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic Scores. This interview discusses this research article, but don’t forget to look at Dr. Wymore’s other study: No correlation between stroke specialty and rate of shoulder pain in NCAA men swimmers. For more on Swimmer’s Shoulder checkout Swimmer’s Shoulder …