Recently I got an E mail from a Rock Star Triathlete Member challenging me to put together videos of how you should swim, bike and run at the absolute peak of performance. Thus I have decided to take on this challenge =)
I believe that looking at video of elite athletes is a great way to learn. I think that when you look at kids today and why certain countries excel in particular sports, a lot of it is to do with exposure. Europe for example gets way more exposure to soccer on TV and in there over all culture compared to the US and as a result you see kids at the age of 16 in europe have more game and tactical awareness than kids in the US at the same age. But when you look at kids in the US playing american football at the age of 10 they can tell you what a play action fake is.
I believe exposure to athletes who perform at the top of there game is vital for taking your skills to there highest. This is also why I tell athletes who want to do group training sessions to swim with swimmers, cycle with cyclists and run with runners. The fact is that most of the triathletes out there have not done any of the 3 sports at a high level and thus training with triathletes can rub off bad habits weather you perceive it or not.
So who has best swim stroke you want to mimic? Grant Hackett is my favorite to look at. He is a 1500M specialist.
This particular video is of him under water which is the most important part to watch in my opinion. Notice how high he keeps his elbow high and how it allows him to grip the water early in his stroke. His hip position is also excellent and he drives his reach from the hips.
His arms also never cross his mid line making his storke efficient and is part of why he can swim a sub 15 minute 1500M.
Cycling is a bit harder to look at technique as it hard to really see how efficient one is on the pedals. However a top cyclist looks like poetry in motion when they get moving and that is why I have chosen, my favorite cyclist, Fabian Cancellara to look at. In this video his handeling skills on a TT bike are quite impressive he even hops a curb in his aero bars!
The main thing to note on the Cancellara video is that he is going over 30 MPH and that he stay in aero bars most of the time. His upper body hardly moves as well. He is putting all his energy into his pedal stroke. I have seen some of his power numbers before and in TT’s I have seen him average 512 watts!!!!!
To give you some comparison I can tell you I know a top pro triathlete who is the same size as Cancerlla and one of the top riders in triathlon and he holds 380 in a TT of the same distance.
Lastly there is the run. The most striking thing to me is how high the heel comes on the back swing when watching elite runners. The higher you can bring the heel underneath the hips the more snap you will get from the elasticity of your muscles. This is also know as the stretch shortening cycle.
This video features Leonard Komon Singelloop Utrecht when he got 10K world record. It also has a good comparison of top runner VS the non pros in beginning. The fastest runner in every race will have a more froward body lean than all the other runners. you can see that exemplified in this video when looking at the african runner compared to the others.
The more forward body lean in turn forces the runner to have higher turn over. Also note the arm position of the top runners in that the elbow bend is 90 degrees or less. Thus it easier to swinging the arm as the weight of whole arm is closer to the body. The arm swing is also basically going straight back and forward with little cross over the bodies mid line give good efficiency.
With lots of practice you just may look like one of these videos in the near future!
Feel free to leave all your comments below!
BY Kerry Sullivan