Backstroke Swim Technique - Maggie MacNeil

Maggie MacNeil recently broke the world record in the 50 Short Course Meter Backstroke. While known for her Butterfly swim technique she has the capacity to be an Olympic Champion in backstroke as well. She is arguably the fastest dolphin kicker that makes for an outstanding advantage in Short Course. However she does have room for improvement on the pulling motion. Coach Gary analyzes Maggie using our Smart Paddle and Velocity Meter technology to find out exactly how much Maggie’s mistakes in the pull are costing her.

[Lacehairwigs]

This was awesome. Even the top athletes need improvements

[heightdevil]

You guys should do longer term studies on this stuff with regards to how much effort it takes for these athletes to sustain their new form.

[robohippy]

Well, I went back and forth to see if there was a mechanical difference between her back stroke dolphin kick and her fly kick. First impression is that with the fly, there is a bit more hip flex than there is with the back stroke. This would be similar to what happens differently between the back stroke and freestyle flutter kick. If there is more hip flex on the fly dolphin kick, then that would, to me, explain why the advantage that Lochte when doing his underwater kicks after the turn was mechanical and not for any other reason.

One thing that she does here, and I have never seen any comments about it on any back stroke video, is that on the finish of the pull, she rotates her palms over and the 'finish' energy goes down to the bottom of the pool, and not back to the wall. In freestyle, any coach would correct this as in 'fingers pointing to the bottom of the pool for the entire stroke/pull'. To me, the finish should end up with palm flat against the thigh rather than down to the bottom of the pool.

[vincenttrinquesse]

Always such a great content and explanation! I’d like to reach out to Coach Gary Hall Sr. about a swim camp for my two kids. Would it be possible to have a few minutes of your time for a couple of questions before I enroll my teens? Thanks

[HankTTN]

Hello, I’m Hank. I’m an ex-collegiate swimmer and I have a proposition if you’re interested. I’ve spent some time building deep learning models for various applications such as swimming and sports. The model I’m working on tracks the swimmer and their motion, and records the angles of each limb at every frame, stroke timing, count, etc and it can be visualized in real time.

The advancements made in technology for swimming are far below those in other sports- made me really happy when I saw your work because it’s phenomenal. However, the issue derives mainly from data scarcity as I’m sure you encounter. I’m interested in applying my learning model with your training data to see if we can build a technology that eliminates expensive hardware and rough estimation. I’ve trained the model with various pro swimmers so when a new video is presented, it visualizes the differences and highlights areas of improvement. Thanks again,

Hank

[nikshill]

what people don't notice is her "bizarre looking" feet. they are like built in fins. watch the video and study the feet.

[Blairo.]

I can do a 25m pool under water in 14s