Alexander Popov

See the swim god in action.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• popov
• swim
• training
• freestyle

[cyronix99]

I have a question,

I think this is a sprint,

I am doing triathlon,

so I do long distance swimming.

I want to glide more time with my one hand in front, before pushing it back than popov here in the video, so it regenerates better. Is this better for long distance swimming? Or is it better to push the hand back faster like Popov in this video, for long distance races.

[turboschroegi]

I am a triathlete also for serveral years. I have done all distances including IRONMAN distance. It depends but my swim is mostly somewhere in the first 30% of the field. I have learned one thing: Triathletes can't swim. Fullstop. If you want to be fast, you have to have a good stroke frequence. With a slow frequence you loose to much speed while gliding and you have to put a lot of energy in the next stroke to accelerate again. Learn from the best and focus on yourself.

[cyronix99]

I just wanted to get confirmed what the trainer (who does only swimming) said, and now you say the contrary :-). Maybe I should make myself more clear. I think of letting the hand glide a little bit longer and to push it back just a short moment before the other hand arrives.

Popov in the video pushes already his hand back when his other hand is over his shoulder.

The trainer from the ti video also pushes his hand back just before the other arrives. I think this might be better for regeneration.

[turboschroegi]

Forget TI - it's marketing. You can swim with a front quadrant timing if you are fast with legs only. Thorpe et al. make 100m with legs only in sub 1min. If you can not do this swim with rotation timing (Popov). Again: Find what is sutable for you. Professional swimmers are doing 50-80km per week in the pool. How much do you? So why do you think you can do what they are able to do? ;-)

[wladimirlenin]

Popov and also Thorpe are the best examples on how to swim the front crawl. Popov is an artist!

[turboschroegi]

Yes - Popov is an artist!

One question (regarding the english wording): What does "front crawl" mean? The reason i ask is: Thorp applies a "overlapping stroke" pattern (or "front quadrant pattern") while Popov doesn't. He applies a "rotary pattern". Both ar swimming very simmilar in a lot of aspects - but not when it comes to arm stroke timing.

[chrissybabby]

Alexander Popov, is the good the swimmer

[tj35rocker]

popov is the fastest man in the water. you can neil walker, ian crocker, bandan hansan, aaron peirsol, and most division one college couches around the country, popov is the faster man in the water

[futbolalbiceleste]

@turboschroegi I am a recreational swimmer since more than 20 years and I absolutely agree with you, if you don't want to loose speed the rotation timing is the best, however the front quadrant timing can be useful if you are very tired and need to save energy. Nice video, I never saw somebody swim so well as Popov,

[Artemis458]

he is the greatest

[Kikunis]

Don't forget one thing. Here you see Popov training. He used to swim at VERY LOW speed when he was training. The perfection of the movements was the main goal.

[Kikunis]

Incredibly elegant. The most elegant front crawl I have ever seen!

Popov ruled :)

[ADVERTlSEMENT]

Is he crossing over?

[Polarcupcheck]

This is swimming with beauty.

[cyronix99]

Thanks for your answers. I just finished a basic course on the basic swimmingstyles (although I already finished a middle distance, learning crawl myself ). Needless to say my technique improved a lot. For now I will try to swim as I learned in the course, but I will keep in mind your words and try out different styles when I have enough experience.