How Do the Best Swimmers Get Off the Block Fast? Keys to a Speedy Start
A fraction of a second can change everything. If you’ve been swimming long enough, you’ve heard it time and time again. Most often, we apply this mentality in the water, looking to hone in on any technical improvement to our stroke. It’s a worthy cause, likely to lead to major improvements. There’s another area of the race that provides an advantage but garners less attention: how fast we enter the water.
The difference between a great start and a bad one is only fractions of a second. That’s not a lot, especially in comparison to major time drops that can come from stroke changes. But in a sport where every hundredth counts, a quick entry provides a key advantage. How fast you enter the water could win or lose the race, especially in shorter races.
So how can you improve your start? We took a look at some of the swimming world’s fastest athletes off the block to determine the secrets behind their starts.
Leveraging the Lower Body
One of the key aspects of a great start is generating power with your legs, which is crucial to leaping out past opponents. From a young age, swimmers are taught to emphasize both their back leg and their front leg in their start, pushing off forcefully from an athletic position to go as far as possible.
After studying many of the fastest swimmers off the block, a common theme emerged: these swimmers almost always were the most “explosive.” The athletes often soared farther out than their opponents on their start. A prime example of this explosiveness can be found in Torri Huske, the fastest off of the block in the 50 free at U.S Nationals this year. Huske was the quickest off the block, with a reaction time of just 0.62. But also watch Huske’s trajectory. The Stanford star uses the force created by her push from both legs to soar above the water. Because of her ability to maximize her time moving forward in the air, in comparison to her competitors, Huske isn’t just the quickest to hit the water, she also gets the farthest.
Brazilian sprinter Gui Caribe is another great example of power mixed with speed. Caribe’s incredibly strong propulsion from his lower body leads to a stellar reaction, allowing him to beat the field into the water. Watch as he builds an early lead in the 100 free at Worlds.
These swimmers show us that power and reaction time aren’t mutually exclusive when it comes to the start. By utilizing both, swimmers can give themselves an early advantage in any race.
Still Like A Statue
Athleticism and strength are key to the ability to start quickly. But these factors aren’t everything. To get off the block faster than the competition, the starting motion must be as smooth and technically sound as possible. Reaching the water in a tight streamline with the entire body moving forward is the ultimate goal, and any minor flaws can result in a slower start.
One of the most prevalent errors that can be seen in athletes who start slower, is often a tendency to lean too far back before the start. Some swimmers like to lean back heavily before their start, attempting to generate more explosiveness by “winding up” before leaving the block. However, too much of this motion can lead to extra time under tension, actually causing a slower start. You also create more distance to travel, having to dive from a farther back position.
The men’s 50 freestyle at World Championships was a great example of this. We can start by looking at Cam McEvoy in Lane Four, the fastest off the block and the eventual winner of the race. McEvoy starts from a crouched position, hands just above the starting block. Then, when asked to take his mark, McEvoy’s grip tightens while body remains pointed forward. There isn’t much additional movement aside from grabbing the block. Meanwhile, take a look at his competitors next to him in Lanes Five and Six, Jack Alexy and Egor Kornev, respectively. They adopt an approach that works for them.
Legendary Swedish sprinter Sarah Sjostrom is also fantastic at this method. Watch her 50 butterfly world title from two years ago as she simply bends down at the “take your mark” signal, leaning heavily forwards at the beep without any shift backwards. This allows her to rocket off the blocks, the second fastest in the heat (behind, of course, Huske).
By reducing the amount you “wind up” before a start, you can save energy, and most importantly time, before entering the water.
Shooting Into Streamline
Entering the water as fast as possible relies heavily on the strength and technique of the lower body, but it isn’t everything. A swimmer’s ability to reach streamline efficiently with their arms ensures speed, through reducing additional movement that could slow a start down.
Getting the arms off the block quickly is obviously crucial to a quick start. But upon watching some of the best, and worst starts across professional swimming this year, there was a common theme. It was more likely for additional arm movement to cost a swimmer valuable milliseconds, than for a swimmer to gain time off of a quick arm movement.
Huske, once again, exemplifies this. Huske’s start from her 50 free at world championships showed perfect, smooth arm movement, as she glided into the water. All of the motion with her arms was purposeful and aerodynamic, allowing her to reach the pool in 0.62 of a second, fastest in the heat. Huske’s start contrasts greatly with Milou Van Wijk’s start in Lane Five, tied for the slowest of the heat. Van Wijk brings her arms up, pauses slightly in the air, and then thrusts them into streamline, pausing her arm movement while mid-air. This slows her reaction, due to the arm movement not being a fluid motion.
The additional movement doesn’t always just cost speed; sometimes it can force additional strokes. The men’s 50 breast at Worlds this year showcases this. The heat’s fastest start belonged to neutral athlete Kirill Prigoda, whose smooth arm motion off the block helps him glide into the water quickly. It leads to the fastest start of any swimmer in the field, getting off in 0.6 of a second. On the other hand, German swimmer Melvin Imoudu pauses his arms briefly in a bent position before bringing them into streamline. This slows his process, leading to a reaction time of 0.73. But if you watch closely, it also forces him to take an additional stroke in comparison to Prigoda, a big difference in a 50. The additional arm movement doesn’t just affect speed of the block, it can be detrimental to stroke efficiency as well.
The most straightforward, technically sound arm movements are the ones that will lead to success in the water.
