Bang goes that theory!
An academic from Canterbury Christ Church University has disproved the theory 'you need water to swim' on a prime time television show.
Dr. Ian Swaine, a Reader in Sport and Exercise Science in the Department of Sport Science, Tourism and Leisure, has invented, and built a whole-body, front-crawl, swimming training machine which can be used as a land-training aid for improving the strength and fitness of swimmers and triathletes.
Last month Dr. Swaine took his dry-land swimming training machine along to television studios to prove to Dr. Yan, from the BBC One program, 鈥楤ang goes the theory鈥�, that the water isn鈥檛 a necessity when swimming. And you can see the results this Monday (May 2) on BBC One at 7.30pm.
Dr. Swaine said:鈥滻t was a great opportunity for the swimming training machine to appear on national television.
鈥淚 am a former competitive swimmer and have been interested in developing dry-land swimming machine to test the mechanical efficiency of swimming, for years. It isn鈥檛 possible to get an accurate measure of this in the water, because the water 鈥榤oves away鈥� when the limbs apply forces. So, I realized that the only way to find out how efficient swimmers are is by creating a machine. This particular machine has had two prototypes built, over the last 15 years. It鈥檚 fantastic to finally be able to show it to people and prove my theory that dry-land training for swimming is not only possible, but also helpful in understanding how efficient swimmers are鈥�
The machine involves four resistance air-dynes, which are driven by the arms and legs, using pulley ropes. It also involves a freely-moving suspended 鈥榖ody cradle鈥� in which the swimmers lay down, allowing the body to roll, as it does in water. The swimmer places their hands into 鈥榟and paddles鈥� and their feet into 鈥榝oot plates鈥� to drive the air-dynes. The leg air-dynes are driven in the 鈥榙own鈥� and 鈥榰p鈥� phases of the kicking action for each leg in exactly the same way as in the water.
The power being generated at each air-dyne is monitored by 鈥榮ensors鈥� and fed into a computer where it is displayed as 鈥榠ndividual limb power output鈥� for the swimmer. Power output can then be used to calculate mechanical efficiency. Also, each air-dyne can be operated independently and therefore this machine is suitable for use by paraplegics or amputees.
The data collected so far using the machine has been used in research on the efficiency of swimmers and how they adapt to different training practices, some of which has been already been presented at various conferences. Last year Dr. Swaine presented work he has done using this unique machine in Oslo (Sweden), Indianapolis (USA) and Verona (Italy).
Provided by Canterbury Christ Church University
