Windmill Revolution

Swimming Technique, Jul-Sep 2004 by Volckening, Bill

Although not widely used m previous years, the recent wave of sprinters using straight-arm freestyle has triggered a philosophical rethinking of the technique.

In the early 19th century, the British swam in a very polite and peaceful manner. Civilized swimmers entered the pool carefully-without getting their heads wet-and glided gracefully along with their heads above the water. This style of swimming was also preferred in the British competitive swimming leagues, although the early competitors swam with a slightly greater sense of urgency.

In 1844, native Americans, Flying Gull and Tobacco, rocked the British swimming empire during a demonstration in London. According to legend, Flying Gull swam 130 feet in 30 seconds to defeat Tobacco and win a medal. Their stroke was described as a "thrashing" style in which the arms moved "like a windmill" and the legs moved in an "up-and-down" motion.

Almost a century-and-a-half later, a spry youngster named Janet Evans rocked the swimming world and obliterated world records in the distance freestyle events using a windmill, straight-arm freestyle recovery. It seemed all at once impossible, yet strangely familiar.

Straight-arm freestyle recovery has been seen at different points throughout the history of swimming, but it hasn't been widely used. Even though it was highly successful for some, straight-arm freestyle was generally considered to be unorthodox, purely individual and even accidental. However, the recent wave of sprinters using straight-arm freestyle has triggered a philosophical rethinking of the technique.

Small Wonder

When Janet Evans broke her first world records in 1987, people were shocked and surprised by her technique. Although she was very petite, her swimming was a huge spectacle. Evans swam like a water bug, scuttling quickly and weightlessly across the surface of the water. Her rapid freestyle arm turnover was just as alarming as was her straight-arm, windmill recovery.

"My straight-arm recovery was natural," said Evans. "I really couldn't swim it any other way. I think I developed it when I was a kid, and I wanted to get down the pool the fastest. I figured the fastest way to get to the other end was to turn my arms over as fast as I could."

"If It Ain't Broke..."

As Evans developed into a world-class athlete, coaches soon realized that any attempt to change her stroke would be counterproductive.

"When I started coaching Janet in 1985, she was 14 and already was becoming a top national-level distance swimmer," said Coach Bud McAllister, who currently coaches with the Kitchener-Waterloo Training Center in Ontario, Canada.

"I first noticed her swim when she was 10, and she had the same style of stroke-straight-arm recovery and very high stroke count." A firm believer in the "if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it" theory, it was obvious to McAllister from Day 1 that it was working very well without any interference.

"I didn't try to change Janet's freestyle stroke for some time, but one day I did have her try to swim with the classic high-elbow recovery to see what it looked like. I don't think that experiment lasted more than five minutes! It didn't look natural at all, and it was slower than her normal stroke. I accepted it as what worked best for her, and began to watch it closely to see what made it work for her."

"Coaches would try to change my stroke," Evans recalled, "but I would go back to the straight-arm recovery. I think that bending my arms slowed my tempo down, and my stroke was definitely driven by tempo."

As her swimming evolved, her stroke stayed very much the same.

"I always thought that I had such a great amount of force in the push from my hips to the end of my underwater stroke," said Evans. "It naturally made my arms fly-windmill-style-out of the water. That's what it felt like to me."

Pcking It Apart

Upon closer analysis, there are several other noteworthy elements in Janet Evans' freestyle. Aside from the incredibly high stroke rate and straight-arm recovery, Evans displayed an excellent hip and shoulder rotation, an effective catch, super propulsive underwater pull, an undulating body movement and forward head lift on the breathing strokes, which appeared to be tied to the undulation.

"I did have a lot of undulation in my stroke," said Evans, "and I definitely brought my head up just a little. I think that ties into the undulation. I worked a lot with a stroke coach named Nancy Schlueter. She and her late husband, Walt, did a lot of work with Mark Schubert. They were fantastic stroke coaches! Nancy always said that my freestyle was almost a modified butterfly."

Evans was a great puller in workout. Interestingly, her kick may have been as weak as her pull was strong.

"I was always in the back of the lane in kick sets," Evans chuckled. "Have you ever seen my feet? They're a size 6-tiny! I think I used my kick simply to keep the tempo of my stroke going." With this highly unusual combination of elements, it's easy to see why very few swimmers imitated her.