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The US Swim Team's Secret Weapon, Science
Hugh Pickens writes "When American Swimmer Margaret Hoelzer goes for the gold tonight in the 200-meter backstroke, part of her success will be due to a new system developed by Tim Wei, a mechanical and aerospace engineer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, that uses fluid dynamics to study human movement allowing scientists and coaches to study how fast and hard a swimmer pushes the water as he moves through it. 'Wei uses a tracking technique called digital particle image velocimetry, commonly used to measure the flow of small particles around an airplane or small fish or crustaceans in water.' Wei filtered compressed air in a scuba tank through a porous hose to create bubbles about a tenth of a millimeter in diameter. When an athlete swims through a sheet of bubbles that rises from the pool floor, a camera captures their flow around the swimmer's body and the images show the direction and speed of the bubbles, which Wei then translates into the swimmer's thrust using software that he wrote."
"When American Swimmer Margaret Hoelzer goes for the gold tonight in the 200-meter backstroke..."
"...to study how fast and hard a swimmer pushes the water as he moves through it."
I'm Margaret Hoelzer, you insensitive sexist swimsuit-designing clods!
The other swimmers already explained it... Michael Phelps actually invented a time machine, and he's traveled back to our time to win races at the normal speed of people from his time.
and the science of drugs. I kid, I kid.
My humor is probably your flamebait
The science of drugs.
You can read: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,571891,00.html
If you read german, you might want to read an interview with Angel Heredia, the drugdealer of american athletes (well, not only the americans')
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,571031,00.html
Is it just me or do other people never see the first post?
I can see this reply, but what's it replying to? No idea....
No sig today...
After doing something for years and years, changing the way you do something, whether it's a swimming stroke or tennis or golf swing, isn't done instantly. It takes quite a bit of concerted effort and attention to change it. I'd be really interested in how and what the coach does to get the swimmers to change.
I've witnessed swimmers in college that have bad habits that they gained as youth and they can't seam to shake them.
So if I'm reading this correctly, they essentially created a measuring system for how much power a swimmer is generating in the water, serving the equivalent purpose of the power meter that is commonly used by cyclists?
So besides the swimwear, we're also manipulating the playing ground now?
We might as well freeze the swimming pool, give the swimmers some iceskates and let them set an even higher record!
When you shoot a mime, do you use a silencer?
It's not just better technique and the new suit. The pool is also designed to reduce waves to help lower times. A lot of the wave dissipation features described in the article have been used in tow tanks (where we tow model ships to measure their drag) for decades.
In this Washington Post article
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/humannature/default.aspx
Inflation was essential for swimming when I was 3.
The new shark skin suit is pretty impressive too...
:)
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/news/2008/august/news_15012.html
Now all we need is an Olympic event that uses internal combustion engines and we'd be set.
Operator, give me the number for 911!
oh please, are you implying she will win becuase they traced bubbles over her.
The US Swim Team's Secret Weapon: Michael Phelps.
Though that's not very secret. Sort of like Victoria's.
I dunno - if you've seen some of the female swimmers, then it's not hard to make that mistake.
..........FULL STOP.
Screw science. Their weapon is Intelligent Design!
swimming backstroke in high school, I always noticed that my underwater dolphin was faster than my on surface backstroke ...
I could go longer and faster underwater in backstroke than a team mate who would literally wipe the floor with me in backstroke, because his surface speed was much faster.
That and the coach would tell us "do butterfly kick underwater near the surface until you feel that you are slowing down, then come up and do crawl." when training for the front crawl (freestyle) events.
I've also seen Lenny Krayzelburg swim underwater in a 25 yard pool. The lung capacity on the olympic swimmers is something extraordinary.
I caught that too, and wondered if they had just inadvertently disclosed a cheating scandal at the Olympics.
Everyone is faster in the pool. I watched a race where even the 5th place finisher came in above the old world record time.
Just read this: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/sports/olympics/12records.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Over above whatever the swimmers are using, the pool itself is engineered to create faster times. Everything from the lane dividers, to the wall of the pool, to the extra meter of depth are meant to dissipate turbulence in the water and increase times.
I went to China for a visit this summer and there was this interesting Chinese Olympic history series playing on the TV.
Apparently after the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, the Chinese considered it to be a disappointing showing because many Chinese favorites did not get a Gold medal. So the Chinese government got some experts together and they came up with a new plan for how the athletes are trained in China. They first listed several sports the Chinese were good at traditionally, like table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, etc. They then established two research facilities for each sport. The purpose of these research facilities were to find more effective methods to train an athlete.
For example, the rowing team was sent to go train in Tibet because there it is at a high altitude. At high altitudes there is less oxygen so it trains the athletes' body to use oxygen more effectively.
While us nerds can't exactly participate in sports competitively we definitely have the skills to improve training and playing methods of a sport =D
I thought our *three* weapons were fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise.... I'll post again.
That's why you can only dolphin kick for 15 meters now.
In 25 yard pools during backstroke it was easier to dolphin kick and swim 8 yards with the last 2 dedicated to the turn.
As for swimming underwater: Most sprinters in the 50m freestyle don't take a breath during the race. In short course (25m pool) 50m races I maybe took one breath on the way back - depends how much air I released during my turn. If I swam at the right speed I could get about 75m before needing to come up and take another breath. But this was far from racing speed.
By doping, which is "bad", the athlete is increasing his ability to overcome the environment.
By using technology we're mitigating the effects of the environment on their performance. That's good?
The spirit of the Olympics is long gone.
No sig for you!!
And they used that secret weapon to blind all the opposition.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
New steroids & injection methods which can pass the drug tests are the biggest factor. Everything else is gravy. You think Natalie Coughlin looks like a colliflower by pushing around bubbles all day?
They will destroy the science and force everybody to declare that god is on our side, so we do not have to do anything.
Of course, if you are not American, I am sure that you hope for it.
It is engineered to reduce turbulence but no more than other top-level pools around the world. Pools with 10 lanes, slop gutters to eat waves, and greater then 2m depth are not unheard of. Besides, while plenty of world records are being beaten at these Olympics, plenty were also beaten before the Olympics...in the last year or two many world records have gone down at other events. Before each race NBC puts up a listing of the current world record for that event. Take a look--many are dated 2006 or 2007; some date back a few more years, but none are very old.
We happen to be in a period of dramatic change in swimming right now, and there are probably a number of reasons. If you want to point to just one, it is probably that there is a lot more money in the sport now. So Michael Phelps could afford, through endorsements and grants, to train at a full-time professional level since he was an early teen. This has huge implications for his technique, fitness, health, and mental toughness for competition.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Perhaps there's a coaching aspect to it but I think if someone stays at the top of their field for a long time, it says a lot about that person's abilities. I wonder if it's simply that the best swimmers or the best golfers or the best athletes do change, and are simply very good at shaking old habits and adapting to improved techniques when they become apparent. If they don't, they're not the best any more, and are often quickly forgotten as someone else comes through and pushes them out of the way.
And how much would this technology cost in Canadian dollars?
Cause we're in the market right now.
And win 8 medals in a row because you are the only guy who refuses to shave and have a different swimming style.
...being chased. By sharks. With lasers.
The high diving competitions are the result of releasing the shark and playing the video of the swimmer leaping out of the pool backwards.
Have gnu, will travel.
wow, you know it's a slow news day when you see an article about sports (swimming of all things!) on the front page of slashdot :p
I recently saw a similar article in ANSYS Advantage, an industry publication on FEA and CFD. It's geared towards their FLUENT platform and the Speedo brand, but there's still a decent amount of technical detail aside from the marketing language. PDF is here: http://www.ansys.com/magazine/issues/06-12-2008-ansys-advantage/01-sports.pdf
Sorry, but I figured I'd show pride for my school. Student of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute right here :-)
I can tell you guys from personal knowledge that this research is pretty damn cool.
There are mountains to cross for those that are willing.
Everyone is faster in the pool.
Yes, they probably didn't level it right and they are all getting a downhill advantage.
Science.
It works, bitches.
Leben Sie jetzt die Fragen.
I watched way more swimming than I should probably admit this Olympics. But I noted that all Americans performing used same tactic. Basically they swam not as fast as they could until their last pool length, where they really pushed their foot on the gas sort of. I think they do this because going fast like that works up oxygen deficit and you end up out of breath. If they swam this fast in the beginning they wouldn't keep it up, and they would even slow down. But by doing it on their last stretch they end up out of breath when they no longer need to swim since the race is over. It's a tactic that seems to have paid off very well, race after race.
She just came in a full second under Coventry, for the silver.
Now those Speedo swimsuits that shape the body... those have some obvious impact. Still, this is some cool work in fluid dynamics
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
How exactly is it a "secret weapon" when everybody knows that science is used in sports? If it were secret, why are we reading it here, wouldn't it be classified or something?
... and then they built the supercollider.
Science.
It works, Bitches.
Frink: Nice try floyd, but you were designed for scrubbing, and scrubbing is what you shall do.
A swimmer achieves thrust by "pushing against" the water in a way that changes its momentum. Thrust (force) equals delta momentum and momentum equals mass times velocity. To increase the thrust, grab more water (mass) in a given increment of time, or move it faster or both. One way to increase the mass is to use fins: not allowed. Another way is to increase the density (mass/volume) of water: use heavy water.
Definitely expensive, probably illegal, and would help all competitors equally. But if a particular host country wanted to see a lot of records set, well that country could dope the pool with lots of D2O.
Not saying anything. Just a thought.
Put out the call -
Christian Soldiers, you have a new mission:
Find out which school still has a science department and close it!
Discredit this person! Worshiping Gold Medals - the Devil is among us!
Donate! God needs your money now to fight this imminent threat!
new anally-mounted turbo-prop with the latest beta of what's been referred to as a 'cloaking device.' In related news this morning, Haliburton announced that they had been awarded a no-bid contract to supply the US Olympics Aquatics canteen with 100 kilos, each, of refried beans and extremely cheap tamales. Jalapenos, originally part of the same contract, were struck from the deal after what were termed, 'surprises', disrupted the ladies afternoon practice heats."
The Tour de France is widely considered as being stricken by generalized doping(it is true) and we had Angel Heredia tell the fine details of how Marion Jones did it."" It is know that you have some very nice stuff that is impossible to detect from urine/blood, like IGF. Injected under the skin where needed, it is practically a growth hormone. Side effects: those similar to acromeglay ("Pronounced brow protrusion, often with ocular distension; Pronounced lower jaw protrusion with attendant macroglossia and teeth gapping" from Wikipedia). Saying that the US Swim team manages producing the spectacular results because they have optimized their movements and have fancy "shark suits" sounds like trying to make us look at a tree in order to conceal a forest.
The Olympics should be for "non professional athletes" as it is supposed to be, but commercialization has affected every thing. How can one claim equal opportunities with all the pressure and money at hand. i.e professional athletes should go play somewhere else. I am even in favor of "Athletic Nudity" :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_(ancient_Greece)
Doping
America and Science? Of course, this wasn't the product of science - just god fearing Americans in prayer to beat the heathen countries of the world!