This article “Mass plus power equals speed” : in dated dated Aug3-4, 2002, written by Chip Le Grand
This is my best short-read article on sport analysis!
Leading a query…can we have a playground of competition against other species??!.
Few months back was watching this documentary film <Dolphin Tale>based on a book of same name, an inspired true story of Winter, a bottlenose dolphin.
Seemingly, dolphins can only swim if they flap their tail vertically, and if they flap them horizontally, then their spine gets damaged.
Coming back to this article, fascinatingly Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe’s speed is compared to sea creatures and key to his success was his size and his ability to maximize its length in the water.
Experts feel humans generally don’t go fast enough, because they don’t have a proper bow wave, and one of the reason being, the backs of swimmer is inside the water most times, so is middle part of the body.
A bow wave is a term used by the marines. It’s a wave that forms at the bow of a ship while moving through the water.
With swimmers, a bow wave is formed at the head when they move through the water. The channel of this wave lies near the mouth of the swimmer helping them to inhale air.
A perfect swimmer should be looking for “Kelvin-wake”, viz less wave and more speed.
I am wondering if one has to create a perfect bow or a “Wake”, then swimmers should slap splash less water which creates less waves, and focus on maximizing their length of their body, and keeping their backs out of the water(surf board)!.
