Sun Yang -- 孙杨 -- The Freestyle Mechanics

• Report rights infringement
• published: 03 Aug 2012
• views: 57507

孙杨: In general, 孙杨 exhibits the "half-catchup" style of stroke that has become more common in the last decade or so. This half-catchup style is also referred to as 'front quadrant" swimming. As for his kick, Yang demonstrates a variety of kick frequencies, alternating between a 2,4 and 6-beat kick during recent races, although he seems to settle into a 4-beat as the dominant rhythm through much off the middle of his races. Yang also demonstrates a pronounced "signature kick" during his stroke cycle, whereby a single kick in a cluster of kicks during a single arm pull is considerably larger than the others. He will occasionally do a "double-breath" that is, breathing on two consecutive arm pulls, although he primarily demonstrates right-side breathing. One of the more profound aspect of his swimming stroke is the extremely high position of his elbow at the end of his catch (aka "Early Vertical Forearm"). Another striking and beautiful aspects of his swimming is that Sun, like distance great Keiren Perkins, employs a wide mixture of kick rhythms. In one swim, you can witness Yang doing a 2, 4 and 6 beat kick. One of the more subtle aspects of his form is the occurence, timing, and striucture of his "signature kicks", that is, kicks within a cycle that stand out as being larger (in amplitude) and presumably more powerful than the other kicks in his cycle. (By Robertwb) Early Vertical Forearm A striking aspect of Yang's technique is his pronounced Early Vertical Forearm, or EVF (also demonstrated by many of the other athletes in this race). The EVF concept sees the upper arm remaining in a forward reaching position, while the forearm rotates about the elbow to a perpendicular with the suface of the water, hence achieving a "vertical" positioning. In an attempt to quantify this, lines have been drawn (Figure 2) to indicate the approximate horizontal place (the surface of the water) and the angle of the upper and lower arm. Based on these estimates, at this stage in tthe stroke, it appears that Yang has a bend of only 7° with an angle between the forarm and water surface of approximately 94°. For all intents and purposes, I think that it would be reasonable to suggest that Yang has achieved an absolutely textbook EVF -- or perhaps, and absolutely literal interpretation of the ideal. Early in the race, he kick is a bit more vigorous, with a 6-beat rhythm occuring frequently. If you look closely for the first few cycle of this video, you can count 3 kicks coinciding with the pull of each arm. Even though he is using a 6 beat kick, each of these 6 beats is not equal. When using a 6-beat, both the right and the left leg can be seen to show a distinct "signature" beat, or more powerful kick corresponding with what, for Yang, is the optimal timing (or at least good enough!). The interesting part here, is that these signature kicks occur very early in the pull phase, seemingly coinciding with the moment of his forearm reaching the absolute vertical, it is almost as if he is "kicking his way into the catch". When swimmers use a 2-beat kick, since there is only 1 kick per arm stroke, both kicks are the de-facto "signature" kicks. Many 4/6 beat kickers don't necesarily exhibit a signature kick, their kicks are essentially uniform, but some do, especially 4-beat kickers (who often have 1 "signature" beat per 2 arm strokes). Yangs pronounced signature kicks resemble a 2-beat kick, but with some additional small kicks added in. The timing difference between Yang's signature beat and that of a more typical 2-beat kicker is quite obvious. The swimmer in video 5 (at the bottom of the screen), demonstrates a 2-beat kick with the signature kicks timed with the finish of each arm pull. Finding His Own Freestyle Yang demonstrates many characteristics of top freestylers, the most striking of which is his quintessential high elbow position. He kicks vigorously enough to be in the segment of the elite population that is classified as "front quadrant" - he has such a pronounced half-catchup as to make Terry Laughlin proud indeed. But he has other subtleties that are notable as well. His use of a signature kick is clear, and a bit different than many 4/6 beat kickers, and the timing of his signature kick is far different than that of the overwhelming majority of 2-beat kickers. Are the oddities of his stroke an innovation or a liability? Hard to say, but one thing is for certain: he knows how to settle into a groove, a dynamic groove that is composed of rhythms within rhythms, but with a consistent back-beat that is his signature kick.