I was taught by one of my coaches that you can either put both feet to the front of the block (together), or do kind of like a track start position when diving. Another coach told me that the feet together was faster, and another told me the opposite.

I find that doing the track start like dive is naturally easier, but other swimmers don't. It's almost 50/50 on my team.

What kind of start do you prefer? And is there any benefit to either one?

The two-footed start is very old school. Generally, swimmers have much faster reaction times with the track start. The overwhelming evidence in favor of the track start is that blocks are being made with a slant to them, and even know with an angled push-off at the back, much like you'd see in track. Any coach who's gone through any sort of continuing education in the past 10 years would be teaching you to do a track start.

If he's still teaching that, I'd be awfully skeptical of anything that he says, as swimming has changed A LOT in the last 15 years. I learned the two-footed start also as a kid, but now it's all about the track start. There can be a reasonable argument made for doing the 2-footed start if you are very young and have some trouble with balance and jumping, but generally it's best to go with the track start.

(Nov 11, 2009 10:14pm)SwimCoachTools Wrote:  The two-footed start is very old school. Generally, swimmers have much faster reaction times with the track start. The overwhelming evidence in favor of the track start is that blocks are being made with a slant to them, and even know with an angled push-off at the back, much like you'd see in track. Any coach who's gone through any sort of continuing education in the past 10 years would be teaching you to do a track start.

If he's still teaching that, I'd be awfully skeptical of anything that he says, as swimming has changed A LOT in the last 15 years. I learned the two-footed start also as a kid, but now it's all about the track start. There can be a reasonable argument made for doing the 2-footed start if you are very young and have some trouble with balance and jumping, but generally it's best to go with the track start.

Nah, my head coach is teaching my track start. Assistant isn't

Thanks a lot for the information, it's very useful.

As further evidence, I was at a college meet this weekend, and there was 1 girl I noticed doing the two-footed start. Her reaction time was something like a .96. A good reaction time is between .68 and .73. That should seal the deal.

I love the new blocks that time reactions :-P

Wrote an article discussing the track start more in depth, in case anyone was interested.

http://swimcoachtools.com/BradenKTrackStart.aspx

(Nov 28, 2009 1:41am)SwimCoachTools Wrote:  Wrote an article discussing the track start more in depth, in case anyone was interested.

http://swimcoachtools.com/BradenKTrackStart.aspx

Great article, thanks

Track start on 50s and 100s. 2 foot on 200+.

Swimming Xpert, your start shouldn't change based on distance, since the start only matters until the first turn one way or the other. If you made a distinction between course, I could buy it. Still seems silly, but maybe.

Hey Zash, check out this new start that's been popping up.

http://theswimmerscircle.com/blog/2010/0...wunderlin/

My coach didn't buy the track start thing, and this was around 2004-2005. Some old habits die hard, I guess.

(Jul 8, 2010 4:00am)YourSwimBook.com Wrote:  My coach didn't buy the track start thing, and this was around 2004-2005. Some old habits die hard, I guess.

Over time, he may consider adjusting. You never know You can always recommend it to him or try it out yourself.