This is REALLY good! I've watched lots of videos about Caeleb Dressel's start, and this is the best by far. Great breakdown of specific small ways to build up to adopting his best practices.
Thank you! So have I, and I noticed all of them were very general and didn’t really cover Caeleb Dressel’s start specifically, which I thought would make a great video.
this was actually way more helpful than I expected! ever since I signed up for Dressel’s course last year, I’ve been always trying to implement his start into mine, but I always found it uncomfortable, despite the extra power I would gain. I can tell you did a lot of your own extensive research, especially from Caeleb’s videos of his own and some from his course. This is gonna help me and so many others a lot, thanks 🙌
Great, Amazing vidéo , thanks ! Fantastique,merveilleuse vidéo , avec des explications claires ,créatives, simples, originales, et ludiques. Un grand Merci
Hi Derek! Thanks So Much For These Precious Training Session. I Am Located In Umbria, Central Italy And Have Been A Primary School Teacher For 25 Years. American Colleagues Have Been Great In Guiding Us And Inspiring Us With Their Kindness And Enthusiasm. I Am Practising Athletics And Swimming In Synergy And I Am Interested In Continuous Sport Education. Blessings, Andrea
Wow this had really made my start much much better, I always used to uses Michaels start but now I’m losing time with dressel’s start. But I also think that Tandy has a really good start, not sure who’s is better. But thanks so so much ❤️
IMO tandy's is better because he gets more out of his front leg, but it's something that's really difficult and it's high risk high reward. The increased overhead arm swing allows him to "store" momentum and stay pushing on the blocks longer, but as a result he gets into his streamline at the very last second.
AWESOME video, man! Great breakdown! If I may make a request, it would be awesome if you circled or highlighted the talked-about swimmer when showing a clip from a race. When a clip shows seven guys on the blocks, I don't know who I should be watching. Maybe that's just me! I definitely appreciate when you give cues like "wearing the blue cap". Thanks again for the outstanding tips!
Great point! I've honestly just been editing on iMovie, but for future videos it will definitely be beneficial for me to use a more complex editing system and implement the techniques you mentioned. Thank you for the support!
Me doy cuenta que trabajar la fuerza explosiva en piernas es importantísimo. Así como aprovechar el movimiento de brazos durante el vuelo. ¡Excelente video! Gracias
I race motocross and we use a term called roll-speed to determine your efficiency entering turns. It seems to me you could do the same with your start technique to check the glide distance of your starts off the block.
@@DerekMaas update on my swim meets. I did great and came in 3rd and fourth for all of my events. My coach said that’s not too bad for my first LCM meet and my first overall meet in 16 months although I was gunning to win. Because you made this video my starts looked really good in my meet and was able to complete all of my 8 swims
@@javidfarr556 nice man I love to hear it! That’s definitely good for your first meet back in a while. If you want me to take a look at some of the races I’d be happy to.
very interesting in general...also interesting that - at least on one point - you say the exact opposite as The Race Club (lifting head to create momentum). As usual, "truth" is somewhere in between, so we - swimmers and coaches - will keep experimenting and working! thanks!
Dressel's arms were setup for immediate explosive pushing action. Phelps' arms setup was for initial pull and turn into pushing action when body is already moved forward. Phelps' method may be less explosive but resembles his longer stroke which may contributes to his entering momentum and fast UDK.
You’ll notice that over time Phelps has actually changed his start technique a bit and it became a bit closer to what Dressel’s looks like by 2016. It was unfortunate we never got to see Phelps race side by side with Dressel tapered, as this would have been a great visual for start technique. But, you can time the two and see that Dressel makes it to 15m significantly faster than Phelps. You could argue this is due to his higher vertical leap, and not purely his technique, but I would say both of those factors help give Dressel the fastest start in history, at least according to most watches.
@@DerekMaas I and everyone in swimming world know that Dressel is the fastest ever to 15m. So I didn't propose that Phelps is faster. I merely pointed out that Dressel's arm setup allows him to explode with immediate pushing action. But from my experience, particularly strong upper-body and limbs are needed to effectively take the lead in moving the body forward with such action. Without explosive power, one may need to synchronize arm action with those of body/hips/legs a little more.
It’s an interesting idea. Can you explain how Michael’s method synchronizes his arm action with his body? Also, are you talking about his start early in his career or later?
@@DerekMaas For Phelps, I talked about his in your video example (the first one). I'll try my best to elaborate what I mean. Of course it's just my personal understanding which may not be exactly what Phelps did. Phelps sets up arms with elbow out. The forward motion is initiated by the lower body as the arms begin pulling (coiling), then he pushes (uncoil) in synchrony with the body's launching in order to add momentum to it. In comparison, Dressel's push is a lot earlier and effectively sends his body forward. As his body is already in forward motion, the lower-body (acts later than arms) doesn't have to initiate the move and can fully add the drive to the launch. (launch here means the beginning phase of start, before the leap)
one thing you might have missed is his massive leg kick. a very noticable thing in brad tandy's start is his kick, and i think that dressel also does a leg kick very well
@@DerekMaas I’m a breastroker and in my meet today I had some trouble with the transitions between my pullout and that first stroke. Another thing I would love to see would be the transition from under water kicking into a fast breakout for the 50 freestyle. Your channel is super underrated, if you keep the high quality videos coming you will gain subscribers in no time.
Thank you! And I will definitely make some videos on pull outs, underwaters, and breakouts. The key for pull outs is to learn the correct depth after the kickout, as this is where most people struggle. For the freestyle breakout, you can actually take one underwater as you take the breakout stroke. This will give you added power along with smoothening out the transition.
@@alexstark9071 yes! First of all I would say try leaning a bit less far back on the block. After this one of my favorite reaction time drills is to lay flat on the ground and have someone start you. The goal is to stand up and jump in the air as fast as possible.
I would definitely recommend an explosive leap off the blocks. As for distance vs speed, there is a happy medium that you need to find that will take you to 15 meters the fastest.
@@Mr.Teriyaki try jumping out a little farther and see if this makes you overall faster to 15 meters and then you can ever try entering closer to the blocks and see if this makes you faster. This part is tough for me to say where exactly is the best place to enter because everyone has a different vertical leap, underwater speed, etc.
Hi - high school swimmer here that is fairly good at swim (state in 50 free, among other sprint events) but I have done a lot of work with physics and I really enjoy looking at tandy's (and dressel's) leg kick. It seems to me that it may actually be the key to their speed on entering the water, though it would also help with the body position. I really don't want to seem like i'm overexplaining something to you especially since you clearly know what you're talking about. I think the whole principle of the leg kick is the idea of storing force by moving it backwards and forwards. Imagine you're standing on a skateboard, and you have a 30 lb dumbell in your arm that is stuck out to your left. Now let's say you were to yank it to the right of your body, all the way from being all the way on your left to all the way on your right. What you would notice then is that you start moving left. What the key to this scenario (and the leg kick, to me) is that you've "taken" some of your speed and put it in the 30 lbs dumbell. However, when you stop the dumbell (your arm is fully extended to the right), you stop moving left. What's cool is that now you could "take" your speed back by moving the dumbell back to the right. I think the fundamental problem with starts is that you aren't on the block long enough - .5 of a second is not enough time or space to get to the maximum speed you could have as opposed to if the block was a meter longer and you could take another two steps forward. Therefore, you have to maximize the power you can get, and the most important component of that is the front leg, as it's on the block the longest. As best as I can explain it, I think that Tandy is using his arms and his leg (with the crazy overhead swing) as the dumbell from the skateboard scenario by throwing them upwards. By throwing his other 3 limbs up, he pushes his body down (like the dumbell moves the skateboard) into his front leg, allowing it to push better. Because human muscles produce less force with the speed they are working at (You can put way more power into a sled weighing 50 lbs than one that doesn't weigh anything), he's essentially slowing himself down on the blocks so that he can put more force into his body. It'd seem that it's kind of counterintuitive to slow down just for more force, but the cool thing is once his front leg leaves the blocks, he can now bring his hands forward and down, and move his legs together, and take the speed he had "stored" in them earlier back, and now he's faster. Just like yanking that dumbell back to the left! It's also part of why I think he goes with that full arm extension - from a rotational motion perspective, the fiurther a weight is from it's center of rotation, the more rotational inertia it has (holding a 10 lb weight at your chest is easy, holding it with your arms extended out from you is harder). While I think that Caeleb is a perfect in between of a lot of things, I think Tandy's put as much work as he can into mastering a start in which he is able to push for as long as possible. TL, DR; Tandy's start is fully based around "taking" the speed he has from his initial push off of the block with his arms and back leg, storing it in his limbs that he pushes up and back, and allowing his center of mass to stay close to the block so that his back leg can get that crucial extra .1 seconds of push in. Does any of that make sense? Am I talking out of my ass?
very good and very detailed video, but one thing i'm still having trouble with is actually getting into the pike position. are there any drills i can do to work on this?
I think one way to improve the video is to highlight the swimmer you want us looking at, a little bit. I have to reach watch sections just to see what you are talking about. Great video, and great info!
This is a really informative video, and gives a lot of helpful drills I've tried myself. However, I do think that there is only so much you can do technique-wise and in the weightroom to get a better start, as some of the limiting capacity will be your genetics and physiology. You see some guys with obvious deficiencies in their start technique, like Chad le Clos, yet are much more effective off the blocks than guys who incorporate the modern "flyover" technique with their arms like Bruno Fratus and Blake Pieroni. And in Bruno's case, his poor start hasn't been from a lack of trying-Brett Hawke has said they've worked so much on trying to get a decent dive, but just never got it down. And, sometimes less can be more. Look at Flo Manadou, probably the best guy to 15m in the 50 FR outside of CD, yet he does very little with his arms and doesn't have much exaggerated back leg motion-his start is almost akin to the simple "arms swing down then out" style that was popular up until around 2004 (Metella does something like this too, not sure if it's a French thing or what). Another example is Ervin, whose start got better has he did less (big key as to why he won gold in 2016).
This is a great analysis on your part. There will always be limiting factors which do sometimes make it tough to determine which technique is truly the most efficient. I do think that Dressel starts with a huge advantage in this category, but he does also take it to another level with his great technique.
I was watching some clips about Matt Biondi, about 1984. Both feet on the front of the platform, shallow dive, and no glide. We have come a long way. I am surprised you didn't mention the heel kick. That seems to add almost as much to the start as the arm lift.
I think the heel kick can help get your body position in the right spot but I haven’t necessarily been convinced that it adds any power, that is something that I’ve been looking into although.
I don't really think it adds any power, at least as getting you farther off the block, but figure it could give you a little extra height, so maybe that would include some extra power.... I am old school, back to the days when we started in the shallow end, and 'slapped the water so we could start swimming' rather than the glide, and both feet on the front of the starting box..... What I know about this new start is from Gary Hall Sr. I do like his channel, but don't agree with all that he says....
He just dissed the technique of a 23 times olympic gold medalist that quit a couple of years ago. That says alot about the development in the sport of swimming.
Lol I thought this was going to be a hate comment at first but I totally agree with what you’re saying. It’s crazy even watching the Beijing olympics and seeing how much technique has changed since then.
This is actually a very common problem. I would look into gradual and repeated exposure to your fear. Maybe try a dive off the side of the pool and get acclimated to that before moving to the big guns!
@@khadinsoto4103 that may be a problem! I would say to find a pool shallow enough where you would be able to stand but that would not be ideal for training starts in!
Hi Derek, great video and love the drills cause I've been really struggling with my dive. I was wondering if there are any sort of drills or ways to practice that slight pike entry that Dressel does?
Thank you! 👍 If you struggle getting the pike position at all I would start by trying to over pike and then scale it back. A running dive is actually a great drill to try to do this. Because you will be moving faster you will have to pike farther to counteract this momentum, otherwise your legs will scorpion.
@@DerekMaas awesome thank you so much for the advice! The way you explain drills and the purpose behind is something that not a lot of people do so thank you and keep doing what you're doing!
Great vid. Also, you may want to visually indicate the subject of your analysis when there are multiple people on-screen. Some viewers may not be familiar.
First clip is kind of hard to compare though, dressel had the "kick off slab" in the diving board while phelps doesn't, that could be the reason behind the difference in power/distance
You’re right, that is part of it. But trust me, Dressel is getting way farther off the blocks every time he does a start than Phelps ever did even with the wedge
Would you recommend leaning forward or backward on the start? I don't mean to pick on Brendan Hansen, for example, in his last olympics for the 100m breast in 2012, he leaned back on the start and came back behind everyone after his pullout. He's one of my favorite breaststroke swimmers.
I would recommend putting the shoulders directly above the front of the blocks, if not slightly in front. Brendan Hansen is a great breaststroker, but he did have one of the slowest reaction times in that 2012 field, so in my opinion he leans a little too far back.
@@DerekMaas nice, i'm into lifting heavy weights and calisthenics now. i swim on the side about one hour session a few times per week during college to stay in decent cardio shape for my college club team but, always looking for any way be more efficient in the water. even have raced you a few times back at states for age group swimming. do some a day in the life videos or a weight lifting video but don't go overboard like cody miller. i like how you get straight to the point with lots of explanation and purpose without the hesitation and clickbait. i like your style of videos because you're not trying to be like other youtubers, you got your own unique approach. you are very informative for the time spent watching the video.
Anyone has the link to the breaststroke event at the start of the vid? With the way the 15m rules have been eliminated and also the way Dressel starts makes it very very viable for 200m sprint style to be applied on 50m. But overall I believe the higher SR is much more important than the longer DPS in 50m sprint.
Yes! th-cam.com/video/68BIizz5GpM/w-d-xo.html I agree with your points. I enjoy hearing that you are also very interested in the analytics of the sport.
Awesome, thanks! Based on this and Peaty's sprint, I think 200m sprint style in 50m sprint event is viable. The pullout must complement the good start whereby every phase needs to drag by 1 more count. So by the first 25m with good DPS, it can probably even out against the high SR of 50 sprinters. As for the final 25m, i guess high SR is still king and the 200 sprint style needs to transit to higher SR but I dont know man, generally 50m and 200m dont mix unless you are kosuke kitajima
This is REALLY good! I've watched lots of videos about Caeleb Dressel's start, and this is the best by far. Great breakdown of specific small ways to build up to adopting his best practices.
Thank you! So have I, and I noticed all of them were very general and didn’t really cover Caeleb Dressel’s start specifically, which I thought would make a great video.
Thanks for the video. I need a program for less than 15 years. can you help me
this was actually way more helpful than I expected! ever since I signed up for Dressel’s course last year, I’ve been always trying to implement his start into mine, but I always found it uncomfortable, despite the extra power I would gain. I can tell you did a lot of your own extensive research, especially from Caeleb’s videos of his own and some from his course. This is gonna help me and so many others a lot, thanks 🙌
Thank you, this is exactly what I was going for! I pinned your comment 😁
You're supposed to be uncomfortable when starting.
I didn't know john cena swam
0:26 was a perfect slow-motion for the person diving into the pool on the left
Hahahah yeah I noticed that we timed it at almost the exact same time
Thank you from Russia, having shown to children this video and they understand👍
Awesome!!
greeting from Brazil. Just started to swim now at age 38, but loving this and I learned alot with your video! many thanks!!!
Wow, very thorough, even provided drills to work on. Thank you, Derek.
Glad you liked it, you’re welcome!
Great, Amazing vidéo , thanks !
Fantastique,merveilleuse vidéo , avec des explications claires ,créatives, simples, originales, et ludiques. Un grand Merci
Very glad you enjoyed it, thank you!
the level of technical analysis is on point here best dive video on youtube
Thank you!
This is outstanding!! Great analysis!
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is an absolutely fantastic video! Thank you so much for putting this together Derek.. Super helpful.
Thanks Derek! Excellent video!
Happy to help!
Hi Derek! Thanks So Much For These Precious Training Session. I Am Located In Umbria, Central Italy And Have Been A Primary School Teacher For 25 Years. American Colleagues Have Been Great In Guiding Us And Inspiring Us With Their Kindness And Enthusiasm. I Am Practising Athletics And Swimming In Synergy And I Am Interested In Continuous Sport Education.
Blessings, Andrea
Best video I have seen in 2021!!!!
Thank you for the support!
Recently found the channel and already loving it
Thank you for the support!
@@DerekMaas no thank you for the information and help
This is so good!!!! I really love the in-depth explanation of how to come off the blocks. Thanks so much!
Wow this had really made my start much much better, I always used to uses Michaels start but now I’m losing time with dressel’s start. But I also think that Tandy has a really good start, not sure who’s is better. But thanks so so much ❤️
Love to hear it! Tandy also has a great (similar) start. In my opinion, what sets Caeleb apart is his athleticism.
IMO tandy's is better because he gets more out of his front leg, but it's something that's really difficult and it's high risk high reward. The increased overhead arm swing allows him to "store" momentum and stay pushing on the blocks longer, but as a result he gets into his streamline at the very last second.
This is an amazing video. Thanks for the help!
No problem!
Классное и полезное видео, Дерек!!
That's crazy analysis! thanks for the video
Love to hear the feedback, thank you!
this was extremely helpful. Keep up the good content Derek. Looking forward to seeing you at NCAAs
Thank you Andrew!
Wow, I thought I had a pretty good start but after watching this I’m seeing so many new things to work on! This video is great, thanks so much!!
You’re welcome! Glad you enjoyed it
Great video and excellent explanation. I look forward to more videos.
Thank you! My next couple should go over turns and underwaters. If you have any other ideas feel free to let me know!
never watched a video this helpful thank you so much!
You're very welcome, I'm glad I could help!
Cool. This looks very creative and analytical.
Very Good! Great Job my Friend ! Many Thanks !
Thank you for the support!
AWESOME video, man! Great breakdown! If I may make a request, it would be awesome if you circled or highlighted the talked-about swimmer when showing a clip from a race. When a clip shows seven guys on the blocks, I don't know who I should be watching.
Maybe that's just me! I definitely appreciate when you give cues like "wearing the blue cap".
Thanks again for the outstanding tips!
Great point! I've honestly just been editing on iMovie, but for future videos it will definitely be beneficial for me to use a more complex editing system and implement the techniques you mentioned. Thank you for the support!
Fantastic stuff-super clips and clear explanations! THANK YOU!
This video is so helpful! I dropped my time 5 seconds after watching
That’s ok! The average after watching this video is around a 8 or 9 second drop but you will get there with some more practice!
@@DerekMaas Hahahhahahahahaha
yoooo wtffff
@@colin2345 he is joking dude
@@ballistics1186 Lmao 😂
Thank you so much. This was really useful.
Very good analysis, thanks :)
Excellent advices
Me doy cuenta que trabajar la fuerza explosiva en piernas es importantísimo. Así como aprovechar el movimiento de brazos durante el vuelo. ¡Excelente video! Gracias
Gracias! Sí, entendiste muy bien la idea del video. La fuerza explosiva es súper importante
Ay caramba!
Wow just wow! Absolutely love it! Man miss swimming but wish this stuff was available earlier
Love to hear the feedback!
I race motocross and we use a term called roll-speed to determine your efficiency entering turns. It seems to me you could do the same with your start technique to check the glide distance of your starts off the block.
I’m definitely gonna use this start on my meet this Friday and cinco de Mayo weekend. Thank you so much!
Love it! Lmk how it goes!
@@DerekMaas update on my swim meets. I did great and came in 3rd and fourth for all of my events. My coach said that’s not too bad for my first LCM meet and my first overall meet in 16 months although I was gunning to win. Because you made this video my starts looked really good in my meet and was able to complete all of my 8 swims
@@javidfarr556 nice man I love to hear it! That’s definitely good for your first meet back in a while. If you want me to take a look at some of the races I’d be happy to.
@@DerekMaas that would be awesome man but how would you do it?
@@DerekMaas I can post them on my yt in a little bit if that’s cool
So helpful. Thank you!!
Nice video! I don’t know swimming but just wanted to learn what and how these amazing athletes do what they do.👏
Awesome!!
You just have to train for twenty years..)
Damn dude, this was an excellent break down!! I learned a lot :D
Thank you!
Don't mind me, I'm just an animator using this video as reference. Great camera angles and breakdown 😁
Love to hear it! I’m still a beginner but I really tried to get great shots for this video!
Thanks for the video, super helpful 👍
Muchas gracias. Lo explicaste súper bien. Saludos cordiales desde Patagonia Argentina!!!
Con mucho gusto! Me encantan espectadores de otros países!
tener los espectadores*
Bro i was doing this from the start and i thought it was wrong so there you go
wow such a great video!
Thank you soooo much!
Great video and especially the slow motion and with the M.P. comparison.
Thank you!
Great vid and analysis bro!!
Thank you!
Excellent video indeed.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Cool video bro, good analisis, I like it congrats.
Thank you!
Thanks for your effort
My pleasure 👍
Wow great video
God loves you guys!!!!!
Awesome vid.
Крутое видео 👍 Спасибо 🤘
my swim league starts soon and i will definitely use this.
Best of luck!
very interesting in general...also interesting that - at least on one point - you say the exact opposite as The Race Club (lifting head to create momentum). As usual, "truth" is somewhere in between, so we - swimmers and coaches - will keep experimenting and working! thanks!
Dressel's arms were setup for immediate explosive pushing action. Phelps' arms setup was for initial pull and turn into pushing action when body is already moved forward. Phelps' method may be less explosive but resembles his longer stroke which may contributes to his entering momentum and fast UDK.
You’ll notice that over time Phelps has actually changed his start technique a bit and it became a bit closer to what Dressel’s looks like by 2016. It was unfortunate we never got to see Phelps race side by side with Dressel tapered, as this would have been a great visual for start technique. But, you can time the two and see that Dressel makes it to 15m significantly faster than Phelps. You could argue this is due to his higher vertical leap, and not purely his technique, but I would say both of those factors help give Dressel the fastest start in history, at least according to most watches.
@@DerekMaas I and everyone in swimming world know that Dressel is the fastest ever to 15m. So I didn't propose that Phelps is faster. I merely pointed out that Dressel's arm setup allows him to explode with immediate pushing action. But from my experience, particularly strong upper-body and limbs are needed to effectively take the lead in moving the body forward with such action. Without explosive power, one may need to synchronize arm action with those of body/hips/legs a little more.
It’s an interesting idea. Can you explain how Michael’s method synchronizes his arm action with his body? Also, are you talking about his start early in his career or later?
@@DerekMaas For Phelps, I talked about his in your video example (the first one). I'll try my best to elaborate what I mean. Of course it's just my personal understanding which may not be exactly what Phelps did. Phelps sets up arms with elbow out. The forward motion is initiated by the lower body as the arms begin pulling (coiling), then he pushes (uncoil) in synchrony with the body's launching in order to add momentum to it. In comparison, Dressel's push is a lot earlier and effectively sends his body forward. As his body is already in forward motion, the lower-body (acts later than arms) doesn't have to initiate the move and can fully add the drive to the launch. (launch here means the beginning phase of start, before the leap)
one thing you might have missed is his massive leg kick. a very noticable thing in brad tandy's start is his kick, and i think that dressel also does a leg kick very well
Nice drills! Thanks.
No problem!
Great Video!
Thanks!
Super helpful video, thank you so much!
You’re very welcome! If you have any other videos you would like to see I would love to hear them!
@@DerekMaas I’m a breastroker and in my meet today I had some trouble with the transitions between my pullout and that first stroke. Another thing I would love to see would be the transition from under water kicking into a fast breakout for the 50 freestyle. Your channel is super underrated, if you keep the high quality videos coming you will gain subscribers in no time.
Thank you! And I will definitely make some videos on pull outs, underwaters, and breakouts. The key for pull outs is to learn the correct depth after the kickout, as this is where most people struggle. For the freestyle breakout, you can actually take one underwater as you take the breakout stroke. This will give you added power along with smoothening out the transition.
Thx for the video, amazing👌🏻
Awesome video my man!
Thank you! Glad you liked it 👍
@@DerekMaas do you do any drills to get a faster reaction time? I’m usually around .70 reaction time.
@@alexstark9071 yes! First of all I would say try leaning a bit less far back on the block. After this one of my favorite reaction time drills is to lay flat on the ground and have someone start you. The goal is to stand up and jump in the air as fast as possible.
Do you recommend jumping for distance or length off the block? Also would you recommend an explosive leap or a slow and steady takeoff?
I would definitely recommend an explosive leap off the blocks. As for distance vs speed, there is a happy medium that you need to find that will take you to 15 meters the fastest.
@@DerekMaas can you give a rundown on how to find the happy medium fastest.
@@Mr.Teriyaki I would definitely use some trial and error for this one
@@Mr.Teriyaki try jumping out a little farther and see if this makes you overall faster to 15 meters and then you can ever try entering closer to the blocks and see if this makes you faster. This part is tough for me to say where exactly is the best place to enter because everyone has a different vertical leap, underwater speed, etc.
Hi - high school swimmer here that is fairly good at swim (state in 50 free, among other sprint events) but I have done a lot of work with physics and I really enjoy looking at tandy's (and dressel's) leg kick. It seems to me that it may actually be the key to their speed on entering the water, though it would also help with the body position. I really don't want to seem like i'm overexplaining something to you especially since you clearly know what you're talking about.
I think the whole principle of the leg kick is the idea of storing force by moving it backwards and forwards.
Imagine you're standing on a skateboard, and you have a 30 lb dumbell in your arm that is stuck out to your left. Now let's say you were to yank it to the right of your body, all the way from being all the way on your left to all the way on your right. What you would notice then is that you start moving left. What the key to this scenario (and the leg kick, to me) is that you've "taken" some of your speed and put it in the 30 lbs dumbell. However, when you stop the dumbell (your arm is fully extended to the right), you stop moving left. What's cool is that now you could "take" your speed back by moving the dumbell back to the right.
I think the fundamental problem with starts is that you aren't on the block long enough - .5 of a second is not enough time or space to get to the maximum speed you could have as opposed to if the block was a meter longer and you could take another two steps forward. Therefore, you have to maximize the power you can get, and the most important component of that is the front leg, as it's on the block the longest. As best as I can explain it, I think that Tandy is using his arms and his leg (with the crazy overhead swing) as the dumbell from the skateboard scenario by throwing them upwards. By throwing his other 3 limbs up, he pushes his body down (like the dumbell moves the skateboard) into his front leg, allowing it to push better.
Because human muscles produce less force with the speed they are working at (You can put way more power into a sled weighing 50 lbs than one that doesn't weigh anything), he's essentially slowing himself down on the blocks so that he can put more force into his body.
It'd seem that it's kind of counterintuitive to slow down just for more force, but the cool thing is once his front leg leaves the blocks, he can now bring his hands forward and down, and move his legs together, and take the speed he had "stored" in them earlier back, and now he's faster. Just like yanking that dumbell back to the left!
It's also part of why I think he goes with that full arm extension - from a rotational motion perspective, the fiurther a weight is from it's center of rotation, the more rotational inertia it has (holding a 10 lb weight at your chest is easy, holding it with your arms extended out from you is harder).
While I think that Caeleb is a perfect in between of a lot of things, I think Tandy's put as much work as he can into mastering a start in which he is able to push for as long as possible.
TL, DR; Tandy's start is fully based around "taking" the speed he has from his initial push off of the block with his arms and back leg, storing it in his limbs that he pushes up and back, and allowing his center of mass to stay close to the block so that his back leg can get that crucial extra .1 seconds of push in.
Does any of that make sense? Am I talking out of my ass?
very good and very detailed video, but one thing i'm still having trouble with is actually getting into the pike position. are there any drills i can do to work on this?
I think one way to improve the video is to highlight the swimmer you want us looking at, a little bit. I have to reach watch sections just to see what you are talking about. Great video, and great info!
You’re right, I’ve been working on a way to do that and make it more clear. Thanks for the support!
Good👍👍👍
Thank you 👍👏
2:47 he doing a great start:
Me watching the girl back there: 👁👄👁 wow thats impressive
Hahahah I figured I would get a comment about that... I could have picked a different angle but the start looked great in that video so I kept it
Good vid
Thank you sir
This is a really informative video, and gives a lot of helpful drills I've tried myself. However, I do think that there is only so much you can do technique-wise and in the weightroom to get a better start, as some of the limiting capacity will be your genetics and physiology. You see some guys with obvious deficiencies in their start technique, like Chad le Clos, yet are much more effective off the blocks than guys who incorporate the modern "flyover" technique with their arms like Bruno Fratus and Blake Pieroni. And in Bruno's case, his poor start hasn't been from a lack of trying-Brett Hawke has said they've worked so much on trying to get a decent dive, but just never got it down. And, sometimes less can be more. Look at Flo Manadou, probably the best guy to 15m in the 50 FR outside of CD, yet he does very little with his arms and doesn't have much exaggerated back leg motion-his start is almost akin to the simple "arms swing down then out" style that was popular up until around 2004 (Metella does something like this too, not sure if it's a French thing or what). Another example is Ervin, whose start got better has he did less (big key as to why he won gold in 2016).
This is a great analysis on your part. There will always be limiting factors which do sometimes make it tough to determine which technique is truly the most efficient. I do think that Dressel starts with a huge advantage in this category, but he does also take it to another level with his great technique.
Nice video!!!
Details.
True name of this video.
Very true
great video. thank you
I was watching some clips about Matt Biondi, about 1984. Both feet on the front of the platform, shallow dive, and no glide. We have come a long way.
I am surprised you didn't mention the heel kick. That seems to add almost as much to the start as the arm lift.
I think the heel kick can help get your body position in the right spot but I haven’t necessarily been convinced that it adds any power, that is something that I’ve been looking into although.
I don't really think it adds any power, at least as getting you farther off the block, but figure it could give you a little extra height, so maybe that would include some extra power.... I am old school, back to the days when we started in the shallow end, and 'slapped the water so we could start swimming' rather than the glide, and both feet on the front of the starting box.....
What I know about this new start is from Gary Hall Sr. I do like his channel, but don't agree with all that he says....
He just dissed the technique of a 23 times olympic gold medalist that quit a couple of years ago. That says alot about the development in the sport of swimming.
Lol I thought this was going to be a hate comment at first but I totally agree with what you’re saying. It’s crazy even watching the Beijing olympics and seeing how much technique has changed since then.
Michael Phelps is the best 💪💪💪
I’m kinda scared to do a regular dive off the side of the pool. How can I overcome this fear?
This is actually a very common problem. I would look into gradual and repeated exposure to your fear. Maybe try a dive off the side of the pool and get acclimated to that before moving to the big guns!
Derek Maas I don’t know how to swim
@@khadinsoto4103 that may be a problem! I would say to find a pool shallow enough where you would be able to stand but that would not be ideal for training starts in!
@@DerekMaas he’s trolling lol he goes like 54 1 breast sc
vry gud ma friend
Thanks!
Hi Derek, great video and love the drills cause I've been really struggling with my dive. I was wondering if there are any sort of drills or ways to practice that slight pike entry that Dressel does?
Thank you! 👍 If you struggle getting the pike position at all I would start by trying to over pike and then scale it back. A running dive is actually a great drill to try to do this. Because you will be moving faster you will have to pike farther to counteract this momentum, otherwise your legs will scorpion.
@@DerekMaas awesome thank you so much for the advice! The way you explain drills and the purpose behind is something that not a lot of people do so thank you and keep doing what you're doing!
Great video
Great vid. Also, you may want to visually indicate the subject of your analysis when there are multiple people on-screen. Some viewers may not be familiar.
@Derek Maas - I have a question.
At the end, what is the best way to position the head while being on the block for a start ?
I’d say this is in line with your spine, slightly lower than parallel.
Thx and good job for vidéo
First clip is kind of hard to compare though, dressel had the "kick off slab" in the diving board while phelps doesn't, that could be the reason behind the difference in power/distance
You’re right, that is part of it. But trust me, Dressel is getting way farther off the blocks every time he does a start than Phelps ever did even with the wedge
Would you recommend leaning forward or backward on the start? I don't mean to pick on Brendan Hansen, for example, in his last olympics for the 100m breast in 2012, he leaned back on the start and came back behind everyone after his pullout. He's one of my favorite breaststroke swimmers.
I would recommend putting the shoulders directly above the front of the blocks, if not slightly in front. Brendan Hansen is a great breaststroker, but he did have one of the slowest reaction times in that 2012 field, so in my opinion he leans a little too far back.
@@DerekMaas perfect, thank you! Swim fast!
@@--4606 no problem, you as well! If you have any other ideas for videos for me to make I would love to hear them!
@@DerekMaas nice, i'm into lifting heavy weights and calisthenics now. i swim on the side about one hour session a few times per week during college to stay in decent cardio shape for my college club team but, always looking for any way be more efficient in the water. even have raced you a few times back at states for age group swimming.
do some a day in the life videos or a weight lifting video but don't go overboard like cody miller. i like how you get straight to the point with lots of explanation and purpose without the hesitation and clickbait. i like your style of videos because you're not trying to be like other youtubers, you got your own unique approach. you are very informative for the time spent watching the video.
@@--4606 th-cam.com/video/h4qgfBCmTQY/w-d-xo.html that's a day in a life he did with lifting.
thanks
Yes sir
👌
Is this at the Holland aquatic center?
Yes it is!
@@DerekMaas can we meet up sometime I am on swim season rn
I am at the Holland aquatic center
STILL A PHELPS FAN ALL THE WAY HES THE BEST
nice
what are those shoes at 7:15 tho?
They are the adidas continental 80, cream/teal/pink, probably my favorite shoes!
@@DerekMaas cool thanks
Good
I wish you could have marked who is Phelp who is Dressel in the videos. I find it difficult in who I am going to look at.
one other big thing you didnt address was how he also times the leg kick, which is important for establishing a stronger angle to dive into the water.
You are very right! I actually remember thinking about this right after I posted the video.
Nice
Should dressels start at the beginning of the video be a dq for going past 15 yards?
Woah apparently it doesn't apply to breaststroke?
Yes! Exactly right!
good
How to use that pike position because my knees slap the water
How to fix that?
I would start by doing it on land to get used to the motion. Eventually you will start to get a feel for it and can do it off the blocks as well!
Anyone has the link to the breaststroke event at the start of the vid? With the way the 15m rules have been eliminated and also the way Dressel starts makes it very very viable for 200m sprint style to be applied on 50m. But overall I believe the higher SR is much more important than the longer DPS in 50m sprint.
Yes! th-cam.com/video/68BIizz5GpM/w-d-xo.html
I agree with your points. I enjoy hearing that you are also very interested in the analytics of the sport.
Awesome, thanks!
Based on this and Peaty's sprint, I think 200m sprint style in 50m sprint event is viable. The pullout must complement the good start whereby every phase needs to drag by 1 more count. So by the first 25m with good DPS, it can probably even out against the high SR of 50 sprinters. As for the final 25m, i guess high SR is still king and the 200 sprint style needs to transit to higher SR but I dont know man, generally 50m and 200m dont mix unless you are kosuke kitajima
Neighbors: Jimmy what in the world is this guy doing, he's dancing on a table when it's snowing.