Few Americans are good with the Australian crawl and I'm not going to get provincial about it but it's a fact most flap their arms around in the water and they do make forward progress but it's not a crawl. A well-executed Australian crawl is an elegant thing to behold and Kurt Vonnegut Jr told us, "I'm beautiful in the water."
If he could do a competent crawl, I imagine he was. It turns out, however, even if you know what you're doing with the crawl, you're doing it wrong.
Physicists started reviewing whether it's important to keep your fingers open or closed to get the best stroke and keeping them wide apart works the best. (Science Daily: Paddle or rake to improve your swimming stroke?)
So, yep, you've been doing it wrongly all this time. So have I and I did a pretty good crawl until my shoulder decided it didn't want to cooperate anymore. A motorcycle helped with that decision.
The attraction in the article is that physicists would go to such lengths to study the matter.
Of course it needs some bizarre diagrams:
Top panel (a), left to right, shows the five hands and finger positions evaluated with finger spreads of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20?. The angle of each finger is defined as the angle relative to the 0? position. Middle right, panel (b), shows the schematic view of the wind tunnel experimental setup involving two force sensors in tandem configuration. Lower left, panel (c) shows the computational domain in which force moments are computed with respect to the point P.
That's the conclusion of new research from the Netherlands in which a team of fluid dynamicists built and printed a 3-D hand model using the public domain software Make Human, tested it in wind tunnel experiments, and then combined those results with computer-based fluid dynamics simulations. While previous studies suggested spread fingers do, in fact, boost swimming efficiency, this is the most comprehensive evidence to support the concept. The team presents their findings at the American Physical Society annual meeting, Division of Fluid Dynamics, held Nov. 20-22 in Portland, Oregon.
If he could do a competent crawl, I imagine he was. It turns out, however, even if you know what you're doing with the crawl, you're doing it wrong.
Physicists started reviewing whether it's important to keep your fingers open or closed to get the best stroke and keeping them wide apart works the best. (Science Daily: Paddle or rake to improve your swimming stroke?)
So, yep, you've been doing it wrongly all this time. So have I and I did a pretty good crawl until my shoulder decided it didn't want to cooperate anymore. A motorcycle helped with that decision.
The attraction in the article is that physicists would go to such lengths to study the matter.
Of course it needs some bizarre diagrams:
Top panel (a), left to right, shows the five hands and finger positions evaluated with finger spreads of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20?. The angle of each finger is defined as the angle relative to the 0? position. Middle right, panel (b), shows the schematic view of the wind tunnel experimental setup involving two force sensors in tandem configuration. Lower left, panel (c) shows the computational domain in which force moments are computed with respect to the point P.
Credit: Van de Water, et al.
Note to elite swimmers: Are you looking for a competitive edge in the hydrodynamics of your front crawl? Start by considering your stroke. If you are paddling, swimming with fingers pressed together like a blade, try spreading your fingers apart and rake the water for greater efficiency. The rake position of spread fingers increases the drag of the hand and reduces the slip velocity between the hand and the water. This diminishes the power dissipated for propulsion and as a result, increases your swimming efficiency.
That's the conclusion of new research from the Netherlands in which a team of fluid dynamicists built and printed a 3-D hand model using the public domain software Make Human, tested it in wind tunnel experiments, and then combined those results with computer-based fluid dynamics simulations. While previous studies suggested spread fingers do, in fact, boost swimming efficiency, this is the most comprehensive evidence to support the concept. The team presents their findings at the American Physical Society annual meeting, Division of Fluid Dynamics, held Nov. 20-22 in Portland, Oregon.
- Science Daily
Sure, all you wanted was a cool and refreshing swim; who knew there were such complexities. As they note in the article, the difference in performance from holding your fingers apart versus holding them together is small but it counts if you're competing for Olympic gold.
I kind of dig it more when the science is pure curiosity and doesn't have any particular reason. Even so, when it's for something so seemingly trivial as the shape of your stroke in the crawl, it gets compelling for the nonsense of it.
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