HOW CHAMPIONS DO IT

Researched, produced, and prepared by Brent S. Rushall, Ph.D., R.Psy.

LEISEL JONES AT 70 m OF HER WORLD RECORD 200 m BREASTSTROKE RACE AT THE AUSTRALIAN 2006 COMMONWEALTH GAMES TRIALS

Each frame is .1 seconds apart. Leisel Jones' time for this event was 2:20.54, a new world record.

The frontal perspective Leisel Jones' stroke verifies what has been seen from previous lateral analyses included in this section of the Swimming Science Journal.

This stroke analysis includes a moving sequence in real time, a moving sequence where each frame is displayed for .5 of a second, and still frames.

The following image sequence is in real time. It will play through 10 times and then stop. To repeat the sequence, click the browser's "refresh" or "reload" button.

The following image sequence shows each frame for half a second. It will play through 10 times and then stop. To repeat the sequence, click the browser's "refresh" or "reload" button.

At the end of the following narrative, each frame is illustrated in detail in a sequential collage.

Notable Features

Leisel Jones is likely to improve further on her world records because she only needs to execute the total stroke cycle in a shorter time (meaning her actions will entail greater accelerations). Any attempt to isolate a part of this movement and emphasize it (e.g., speeding the arm spread to initiate the stroke, or move the hands faster around the turn at the end of the stroke) would cause the summation of forces to be disrupted, which would cause the swimmer to slow rather than go faster.

Leisel Jones

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