是什么造就了完美游泳者的身体？
尽管各种体型的游泳运动员在这项运动中都取得了成功，但在国际水平上，大多数人看起来都相似，都拥有高大肌肉发达的身体——通常是躯干长、手臂长、腿短。这就引出了一个问题：如果你可以假设在实验室里建造出完美的游泳者身体，它会是什么样子？
尽管不可能创造出适合所有项目的完美身体，因为有很多不同的距离和泳姿，但研究表明，某些身体特征有助于培养最好的游泳运动员。
使游泳者在游泳池中具有明显优势的最明显的物理因素之一是身高。 这一点在许多国际优秀男游泳运动员身上都可以清楚地看到。Nathan Adrian身高 6 英尺 6 英寸（1.98m），Kliment Kolesnikov和Michael Andrew身高 6 英尺 5 英寸（1.96m）。
世界上许多顶级女性也拥有很高的身高，因为世界纪录保持者舍斯特伦 Sarah Sjostrom和莱德基 Katie Ledeckey的身高均为 6 英尺（1.83 米），而 100 名自由金牌得主Simone Manuel和Penny Oleksiak 则身高 5 英尺 11 英尺英寸和六英尺一英寸高。 事实上，2016 年里约奥运会决赛选手的平均身高是男性 6 英尺 2 英寸（1.884 米）和女性 5 英尺 9 英寸（1.755 米），这两者都大大高于人类的平均水平。
人体测量学可以简单地定义为对人体测量和人类之间发现的物理变化的研究。当应用于游泳时，一些运动员除了身高之外还具有某些身体变化，这使他们在游泳池中具有优势。例如，长臂展的游泳者有一个明显的优势，因为他们每次划水都能游得更远，拉更多的水。
事实上，前 100 名自由泳世界纪录保持者和前驻美国国家队教练Jonty Skinner所做的研究发现，“肢体长度和大小在赛事潜力中发挥着巨大的作用，而臂长和身高之间的关系给出了更好的运动员潜力的图片。具有高人体测量学分数的游泳者——也就是说，他们的手臂相对于他们的身高来说相对较长——往往在自由泳和仰泳的长轴泳姿中表现最好。”
还发现较短的腿对游泳者有利，因为它们有助于增加力量而不会产生大量阻力。其他有助于快速游泳的人体测量学特征是大手、大脚和大肺。大手和大脚就像天然的桨和鳍，而大肺则增加了自然的浮力和耐力。
每个游泳者在水中都有一个平衡点——被称为质心——它越靠近漂浮的中心（肺），身体就越容易水平漂浮而无需或很少用力。的运动员。 重心靠近肺部是许多优秀游泳运动员的躯干很长，通常呈三角形的主要原因之一。
拥有柔韧性，尤其是肩部和脚踝，对游泳者来说是一项巨大的资产，也是寻找完美游泳者身体的一项重大资产。拥有灵活的肩膀可以让游泳者旋转身体，同时在长轴泳姿中保持在水面上。在短距离的泳姿中，肩部灵活的游泳者能够将胸部下压更多，从而延长泳姿并提高泳姿效率。
良好的脚踝柔韧性对于打出有力的踢腿至关重要。灵活的脚踝增加了足部的表面积，从本质上使足部更像一个脚蹼，让您向后推更多的水，增加向前的推进力。灵活的脚踝还允许臀大肌和股四头肌施加更大的力量，这两个肌肉是身体最大的肌肉。
虽然自然的关节柔韧性通常是遗传遗传的特征，但可以通过拉伸变得更加柔韧。
过度伸展关节意味着它能够过度伸展超过直线。这也称为双关节。当肘部或膝盖是双关节时，它允许手臂或腿进一步向后弯曲。这种物理属性对游泳者来说是有利的，因为它允许他们在每次划水时捕获更多的水，并在每次踢水时踢出更多的水。
骨骼肌纤维有 两种一般类型：慢肌纤维和快肌纤维。慢肌的爆发力较低，但更适合耐力项目，包括长距离游泳，而快肌则更强大，用于短跑等强大的爆发性运动；但是，他们会更快地疲倦。
事实上，实际上有两种类型的快肌纤维：A 和 B。快肌 A 纤维可以用于有氧或无氧训练，而快肌 B 纤维则适用于无氧条件。
游泳者的肌肉纤维构成——特别是慢肌 (ST) 和快肌 (FT) 纤维的平衡——是游泳者潜力的决定性因素。拥有最多 FT-A 纤维的运动员被认为在游泳运动中具有最大的潜力。他们有潜力参加各种活动。Skinner 认为Mark Spitz和Tracy Caulkins都可能拥有异常大量的 FT-A 纤维，这可以解释它们的多功能性。
迈克尔菲尔普斯的身体比历史上任何其他游泳运动员的身体都更接近完美
如前所述，由于不同的项目和泳姿种类繁多，不可能拥有完美的游泳者身体。话虽如此，迈克尔菲尔普斯的身体比历史上任何其他游泳运动员的身体都更接近完美。
菲尔普斯有很多人体测量学的优势。他很高，身高 6 英尺 4 英寸，臂展 6 英尺 7 英寸，短而有力的腿与 6 英尺高的人相当。他的手和脚也很大，他的躯干大小与您期望在 6 英尺 8 英寸高的男人身上看到的一样大，这使他具有很高的自然浮力和肺活量。菲尔普斯还拥有出色的肩部和脚踝柔韧性，并且关节过度伸展。他前所未有的多才多艺表明他拥有异常多的 FT-A 肌肉纤维，因为历史上没有游泳运动员能够在单次奥运会上赢得八枚金牌。
尽管目前还有其他一些游泳运动员拥有非凡的天赋——比如拥有无与伦比的冲刺速度的Caeleb Dressel和拥有非人般耐力的 Ledecky——但历史上没有其他游泳运动员拥有像菲尔普斯那样专门用于游泳的身体。
虽然之前的特征都涵盖了理想游泳者的身体优势，但成为快速游泳者最重要的属性是精神力量。纪律、专注、自信和良好的职业道德可以说与拥有身体天赋一样重要。帕蒂·约翰逊的名言有很多道理：“一旦你有能力赢得金牌，剩下的 90% 都是精神上的。”
世界上最好的游泳运动员需要付出大量的努力才能将他们的自然能力转化为结果。如果没有不断寻找改进方法的成长心态，无论您多么有才华，您都无法充分发挥潜力。
那么如果你没有完美的游泳者身体怎么办？归根结底，你无法控制你所拥有的身体和你拥有的天赋。然而，通过努力和奉献，你可以最大限度地发挥你所拥有的天赋，并且仍然在这项运动中取得伟大的成就。
原文：
What Makes the Perfect Swimmer’s Body?
Although swimmers with a wide variety of body types have found success in the sport, most at the international level tend to look similar, sporting tall and muscular bodies – typically with long torsos, long arms and short legs. This begs the question: If you could hypothetically build the perfect swimmer’s body in a lab, what would it look like?
Although it is not possible to create one body that is perfect for all events, as there are so many different distances and strokes, research has shown that there are certain physical characteristics which are conducive to creating the best swimmers.
Height
One of the most obvious physical factors that give swimmers a distinct advantage in the pool is height. This can clearly be seen in many of the elite international male swimmers. Nathan Adrian stands at 6 feet 6 inches tall (1.98m), and Kliment Kolesnikov and Michael Andrew both stand at 6 foot 5 inches tall (1.96m).
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Photo Courtesy: SIPA USA
Many of the top women in the world also possess great height, as world record-holders Sarah Sjostrom and Katie Ledeckey are both six feet tall (1.83m), while 100 free gold medalists Simone Manuel and Penny Oleksiak stand at 5-foot-eleven-inches and six-foot-one-inch tall respectively. In fact, the average height of the 2016 Olympic finalists in Rio was 6 feet and two inches tall (1.884 m) for men and five feet nine inches (1.755 m) for women, both of which are substantially higher than the average human.
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World Record holder Sarah Sjostrom: Photo Courtesy: R-Sport / MIA Rossiya Segodnya
Anthropometry
Anthropometry can simply be defined as the study of human body measurements and the physical variations found among humans. When applied to swimming, some athletes possess certain physical variations besides height that give them an advantage in the pool. For instance, swimmers with long wingspans have a definite advantage, as they are able to reach farther and pull more water with every stroke.
In fact, research that was done by former 100 freestyle world record-holder and former resident USA National Team coach Jonty Skinner found that “limb length and size play a huge role in event potential, and the relationship between arm length and height gives a better picture of the athlete’s potential. Swimmers with a high anthropometry score—that is, their arms are relatively long in relation to their height—tend to do best in the long-axis strokes of freestyle and backstroke.”
Shorter legs have also been found to be advantageous for swimmers, as they help add more power without creating lots of drag. Other anthropometric traits which are conducive for fast swimming are large hands, feet and lungs. Large hands and feet act like natural paddles and fins, while large lungs increase natural buoyancy and endurance.
Center of Mass
Every swimmer has a balancing point in the water – known as the center of mass – and the closer it is to the center of flotation (the lungs), the easier it is for the body to float horizontally with little or no effort on the part of the athlete. Having the center of mass near the lungs is one of the main reasons why many elite swimmers have very long torsos often shaped like a triangle.
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In this picture, you can see Ryan Murphy’s long V-shaped torso. Photo Courtesy: JD Lasica
Flexibility
Having flexibility, especially in the shoulders and ankles, is a huge asset for swimmers and is a big asset in the search for the perfect swimmer’s body. Having flexible shoulders allows for swimmers to rotate their bodies while keeping their hold on the water in the long axis strokes. In the short access strokes, swimmers with flexible shoulders are able to press their chest down more, thus lengthening their strokes and making them more efficient.
Having good ankle flexibility is crucial for having a powerful kick. Flexible ankles increase the surface area of the foot, essentially making the foot act more like a flipper and allows you to push more water backward, increasing forward propulsion. Flexible ankles also allow for more force to be exerted by the gluteus maximus and quadriceps, which are two of the biggest muscles in the body.
Although natural joint flexibility is generally a trait that is inherited genetically, it is possible to become more flexible through stretching.
MPUnderWater
This image exhibits Michael Phelps’ extraordinary ankle flexibility
Hyperextension
Hyperextending a joint means that it is able to extend excessively beyond a straight line. This is also known as being double-jointed. When an elbow or knee is double jointed, it allows the arm or leg to bend further backward. This physical attribute is advantageous for swimmers because it allows them to catch more water with each stroke and to kick a greater volume of water with each kick.
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Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Fast Twitch vs Slow Twitch Muscle Fibers
3x Olympic Gold Medalist Tracy Caulkins
There are two general types of skeletal muscle fibers: slow-twitch and fast-twitch. Slow-twitch muscle is less explosive but is better for endurance events including distance swimming, whereas fast-twitch muscles are much more powerful and are used in powerful bursts of movement like in sprinting; however, they tire out much more quickly.
In fact, there are actually two types of fast-twitch fibers: A and B. Fast-twitch A fibers can be recruited to either aerobic or anaerobic training, while fast-twitch B fibers are geared toward anaerobic conditions.
The muscle fiber makeup of a swimmer – specifically the balance of slow-twitch (ST) and fast-twitch (FT) fibers – is a determining factor in the potential of a swimmer. The athletes with the greatest numbers of FT-A fibers are thought to have the greatest potential in the sport of swimming. They have a potential to swim a wide range of events. Skinner believes that both Mark Spitz and Tracy Caulkins probably had unusually large numbers of FT-A fibers, which would account for their versatility.
The Perfect Swimmer
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Michael Phelps’ body is closer to perfection than any other swimmer’s body in history: Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
As stated earlier, it is impossible to have the perfect swimmer’s body due to the high variety of different events and strokes. That having been said, Michael Phelps' body is closer to perfection than any other swimmer’s body in history.
Phelps has many anthropometric advantages. He is very tall, standing at 6 foot 4 inches, and he also has a 6-foot-7-inch wingspan and short powerful legs which are the size of someone who is 6 feet tall. He also has massive hands and feet, and his torso is the size of the one you would expect to see on a man who is 6 feet 8 inches tall, giving him both a high natural buoyancy and lung capacity. Phelps also possesses exemplary shoulder and ankle flexibility and has hyperextension in his joints. His unprecedented versatility indicates that he had an unusually high number of FT-A Muscle fibers, as no swimmer in history was able to win eight gold medals in a single Olympics.
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Caeleb Dressel exploding off of the starting blocks at 2017 NCAA Championships Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Although there are currently some other swimmers who possess exceptional natural talent – such as Caeleb Dressel with his unrivaled sprint speed and Ledecky with her inhuman endurance – no other swimmer in history has had a body as specialized for swimming as Phelps did.
Mental Strength
While the previous characteristics all covered the physical advantages of the ideal swimmer, the most important attribute for becoming a fast swimmer is mental strength. Discipline, focus, confidence, and a good work ethic are arguably just as important as having physical talent. There is a lot of truth to Pattie Johnson’s quote: “Once you’re physically capable of winning a gold medal, the rest is 90 percent mental.”
It took lots of hard work for the best swimmers in the world to translate their natural ability into results. Without having a growth mindset where you are constantly looking for ways to improve, you will not reach your full potential, no matter how talented you are.
So what do you do if you don’t have the perfect swimmer body? At the end of the day, you can not control the body that you are given and the natural talent you possess. However, with hard work and dedication, you can maximize what natural talent you do possess and still achieve great things in the sport.
All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.
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