University of Richmond Athletics
Outside the Lanes: Stensby Style
10/26/2011 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Oct. 26, 2011 - Spider Swimming Science
This week's blog entry offers a glimpse into my mechanical engineering/swim enthusiast mind. I literally (to steal an oft-used word from one of my favorite TV shows "Parks and Recreation") couldn't sleep after writing due to the excitement of physics and swimming. This was part of a discussion that was presented to our Spider Swimmers this past week.
Conservation of Energy
My
first thought with physics in swimming has always been conservation of Energy.
Simply due to the name, one would want to conserve energy in everything that
they due. One form of the equation looks something like this:
E = T + V,
Where E is the total energy in the system, V is the potential energy in the system and T is the Kinetic Energy in the system. In laymen's terms, energy is either stored (potential) or due to motion (kinetic).
To simply describe potential energy, I like to think of it in terms of a battery or my favorite example (and childhood toy... although I never had one, so I just stole my brother's) a slingshot with a spit wad. When the rubber band of the slingshot is pulled back energy becomes stored in the band. Or is 21 century's analogy, when you plug your cellphone into the wall energy becomes stored in the battery?
Now what happens when the slingshot is released or you talk on the phone? The energy that was once stored in the slingshot is now transferred to the spit wad (or your favorite slingshot device). All of that stored energy becomes kinetic energy due to the object's motion. I'll let you draw the conclusion for the cellphone bit.
A consequence of this law is that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only be transformed from one form to another or transferred from one place to another. The total energy is either stored as potential energy or used as kinetic energy.
Now let's transfer this to the pool. The simplest form of potential energy in the pool is the energy that a swimmer has stored in his or her body. Where does this energy come from?
The biggest providers of our body's potential energy come from the food we eat and the amount of rest and recovery we provide our body. The more quality foods you eat, the more energy a swimmer has to perform. Certain foods add in recovery and provide our body with the energy we perform at our best. As a rule of thumb, think of the items around the edge of the grocery story that have few to none processed ingredients. We also need to provide our body enough water to help it recover and regain energy.
Likewise, the more rest and recovery you give your body, the more energy you have to perform your daily task. One common item that is overlooked in recovery is how we treat our body after a workout. This includes stretching, icing, massage, and most importantly getting a full night's sleep to help the recovery process. Our body needs these items to regain potential energy to be used at the next workout.
Other forms of potential energy can be found when a swimmer standing on a block or any time he or she gains tension in their body. When a swimmer stands on a block, they gain potential energy by the difference in height of the block compared to the pool. Tension in their body can be seen when they squat down to push off the wall or pull back on the blocks to ready for a start.
Once a swimmer hops into the pool and begins swimming, their potential energy becomes kinetic energy, (remember kinetic energy is energy of motion).
We can dive back into this later when it comes to taper time. Swimmers love to conserve energy during taper, and often get out of the daily tasks they would normally do... I know a few swimmers who have refused to mow their lawn during the championship season in fear that it would destroy their taper.
But does this explain the whole story? Keep an eye out for future editions of Spider Swimming Science.
