Swim commentators should never try to explain technique to viewers; they don’t know what they’re on about.
But this is not to exclusively disparage their knowledge, since even scientists admit the waters are muddied when it comes to an exact understanding of swimmer propulsion.
In fact, the better informed the expert, the more they’ll defer to mystery rather than pedantry.
But one can disparage commentators for mouthing antiquated platitudes and expecting viewers to swallow them, much less care.
In the recent Commonwealth Games trials in Brisbane, Nicole Livingstone claimed women distance freestylers had all now switched to “a rolling six-beat kick” in place of a two beat kick. (The inference was that the two-beat kick is now obsolete).
Unfortunately for her, but instructively for the viewer, the very final on screen at that moment was the blue ribbon women’s distance event, the 800 freestyle.
Pan below the water line and you see the leading three contenders (Jessica Ashwood, Laura Crockart and Alanna Bowles) splashing it out in – oh no – good old two-beat. At least Livingstone was honest enough to admit her claim was bogus, which is more than can be said about the faux progressive coaches she may be getting advice from.
Making matters more embarrassing for commentators and slavishly orthodox coaches was that Bowles, just 16, swam a world junior record in finishing second to Ashwood.
And an ideological blow of many times that magnitude was delivered in the men’s 1500m, where the winner and junior world record smasher, Mack Horton, was also doing two-beat. His breach was the more heretic because men are far less likely to be natural two-beaters than women.
This is where I get to vent my spleen and tell the reader that coaching in Australia is so choked by myopic orthodoxy that most coaches will attempt to snuff out any hint of a two-beat kick as soon as it rears it’s head in junior squad. Yes, a kind of infanticide of a kicking species. And this is done chiefly for marketing reasons, to satisfy parental notions of a ‘classical’ freestyle ideal (high pointy elbows and flutter kick).
All that silly nonsense about Ian Thorpe’s foot size only reinforced such palaver. This is why we haven’t had any women distance champions for quite a while and our men are only now beginning to emerge gingerly from the long shadows of Perkins and Hackett.
At the risk of confusing readers, I’ll describe the difference between the kicks as briefly as I can.
A six beat kick is basically when you see legs kicking without any noticeable pause. It is what almost all sprinters use. It gets it’s name from the six downward kicking strikes in one complete arm stroke cycle (eg. from when your right arm enters the water until it enters again).
A two-beat obviously has just two downward strikes per stroke cycle, or one strike per alternate arm entry. In casual terms, you see very little kicking action in ‘two-beaters’, but the kicks you do see strike down deeply and seem to hang there a moment (they don’t have much else to do).
Believe it or not, very few swimmers can do more than one of these kicking styles comfortably. Switching from one to the other presents such a massive disturbance to the chain of balancing interactions from toes to fingertips that it can be like trying a new sport.
Do you want to hear about other less common, but equally valid kicking variants like ‘four-beat cross-over’ and ‘asymmetrical three and five beats’?
I thought not. But they exist and world records are occasionally set employing them.
Next time you watch a major distance race (women’s 800m or men’s 1500m) check the underwater pans for the kick. The vast majority of distance swimmers have always done two-beat and always will, simply because it is a more economical way to swim.
The legs have so much meat in them (compared to the arms) and yield so little propulsion that they are less efficient to operate vigorously for such a long period.
Sprinting, on the other hand, operates on an ‘all hands on deck’ propulsive principle. Kick as hard as you like because the wall is never too far away – grit your teeth and bear the pain.
There is always one exception to prove the rule, and that is the American six-beater, Katie Ledecky. Because she has dominated women’s distance freestyle since she won the 800m in the London Olympics, the pedants simply assumed all would follow suit.
But Ledecky is a rare ‘motor savant’ who probably would have risen to such stature regardless of her kick pattern – or perhaps sport.
But there is no proof either way – and this is what wise commentators should keep in mind next time they begin to spruik the merits of a swimmer’s stroke.
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