All elite performers perform slightly different and when watching them this become apparent that they all have slight variations of their stroke. , they all perform slightly different, depending on whether a swimmer has a more dominant leg kick or arm pull, If the swimmer has a dominant arm there are more likely to use a flatter stroke, this generates a screw like propulsion, the flatter stroke generates a peak acceleration during the squeezing of the arms. If the athlete has a dominant leg, they use undulation, by lifting about 1/3 of body arms out of the water.
Men usually do the flatter style stroke, and women usually use undulation. In a narrow whip kick the knees are close together and in a vertical line under the hips. The feet are dorsi flexed and initially both the lower limb and the inside of the foot unite to forma compounding area of lever in the drive backwards. Elite performers have the coordination and ability to finish the inward circular scull with the feet nestling into each other. The first part of the leg action is circular with the legs then squeezing together on the inward phase, some degree of knee angle will be maintained to create a high level of propulsion.
Stronger swimmers would use a wide out scull followed by a high elbow to get more power in the stroke 2. Turn The turn is initiated by touching the wall during the gliding or during the recovery phase of the arms, depending on how the wall can be touched faster. After touching the wall, the legs are pulled underneath of the body. The body turns sideways while one hand is moved forward along the side of the body. Led by the elbow When the body is almost completely turned, the other hand will be swung straight up through the air such that both hands meet at the front at the same time.
The head stays looking at the wall and moves around when the second hand is removed from the wall. At that time the body should also be almost in the horizontal and partially or totally submerged. After the body is completely submerged, the body is pushed off the wall with both legs. Doing this under water will reduce the drag. After a gliding phase, an underwater pull-out is done, with a fly downbeat of the legs followed by a leg kick to coincide with the arm recovery followed by another gliding phase and then regular swimming. The head must break the surface before the finish of the outscull on the first stroke after the under water pull.
The power of that first stroke is vital to continue to make the most of the power and speed off the wall. The head is a very important lever during the turn during the underwater pull down phase, the head needs to be kept still and looking directly toward the bottom of the pool to minimize turbulence 3. The movement starts with the outskuul. From the initial position, the hands sink a little bit down and the palms face outward with the hands at 45 degrees, as they part just outside of shoulder width, During the first outskull speed increases and therefore you acclereate.
The outskull is followed by the inskull and down skull, the hands point down and push the water backwards. The elbows stay in the horizontal plane through the shoulders. The hands push back until approximately the vertical plane through the shoulders. At the end of the inskull the hands come together with facing palms in front of the chest and the elbows are at the side at the body. In the recovery phase the hands are moved forward again into the initial position under water. The hands increase speed throughout the stroke cycle.
At the point they start the recovery, this should be the fastest they move as the are now providing no forward propulsion and the legs are starting their recovery phase again providing no forward propulsion and infact at their maximum point of resistance. Elite performers produce maximum thrust trying to keep resistance to a minimum A couple of days before the competition I feel that my motivation drops and that I feel continued concerns with thinking that I am going to lose, or perform badly or let my squad down.
Also if progress at training is poor or my performance suffers for a long period of time I feel it very hard to motivate myself to continue and with low motivation levels my performance will continue to worsen. I tend to feel demotivated for a competition due to feelings of failure which is known as learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is feelings experienced by an individual when she believes failure is inevitable because of negative past experiences. There are two types of moviation which is extrinsic and intrinsic.