The French team, on paper, were easily the superior team. But the motivational intangibles helped the Americans pull off the upset, with Lezak dropping a split that still boggles the mind. What was it that was driving those epic performances? What got you fired up to get up on the blocks and throw down?
Want to set your motivation levels ablaze this season? Competition can bring out the best in us. In , at the Beijing Olympics, Jason Lezak showed just how far competition and motivation can take us. He writes all things high-performance swimming, and his articles were read over 3 million times last year. He's also kinda tall and can be found on Twitter.
Relays are one of the best parts about our sport. If you ordered the swimmers fastest to slowest then — assuming you actually win — no one would ever be behind at all. So I think slowest-to-fastest is a dominant strategy.
It maximizes the amount of time the swimmers are trailing. February 9, at pm. I think there is something to be said for the incentive and drafting argument. However, I believe the driving factor is in the risk hypothesis proposed. Athletes never perform at a constant level, their performance is a measure of probabilistic risk vs outcomes. Look at the best ball situation in golf. Would you rather have your best player go first or last?
In this situation the risk of a negative outcome is reduced the difference between going from second to first is greater than the reduction of second to third measured by glory, and even more so when looking at fourth to third and fourth to fifth.
There is evidence in this when you consider that you almost never see the first swimmer lose steam but it is more common to see the final swimmer fade down the stretch due to fatigue.
November 23, at pm. January 5, at pm. I swim, and almost everything said in the article is true to my experience. Especially about the anchor swimmer having to be the top under achiever. August 2, at pm. Of course, all these very insightful comments are really about teams with a legitimate chance to win, or at least place high, in the race.
Suppose you coach one of the lower-ranked teams, just barely making the final. June 21, at pm. December 11, at pm. I feel that it comes down to the psychological battle that is underlying in any race situation. There has become a standard format for events slower first and faster last, if you were swimming a race and the person you were against was exceptionally better and well and truly beating you this could effect the psychology of your race.
Think of it as four separate races, each racer is in order of speed they will know that the person they will be racing against should be traveling at a similar speed. Being completely out matched can play a demoralising role on the loser in turn effecting their performance and this will effect the teams performance. However in saying this switching up the order could be an offensive strategy for a psychologically strong team.
June 28, at pm. Jonathan Weinstein. Five years late to this party: I think loss aversion is worth mentioning. It feels much worse to get the silver after leading most of the race than it does if you move up from a lower position. For once, this psychological consideration might actually be aligned with the analytic considerations others have mentioned.
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Create a free website or blog at WordPress. Ben Eastaugh and Chris Sternal-Johnson. Subscribe to feed. Cheap Talk A blog about economics, politics and the random interests of forty-something professors. Its obvious right? Ok but before you read on, say the answer to yourself. Exercises: What happens in a running-backwards relay race?
In a swimming relay with 4 teammates why is it conventional strategy to put the slowest swimmer third? Like this: Like Loading Left, Right, Then Left Again. Tags art art of office politics banana seeds blog books boston california chicago coffee computers crime current events decision-making economics education evolution family financial crisis food and wine friends funny game theory incentives iPhone kludge language law marriage maths movies music obama politics psychology publishing sandeep has bad taste sanitation sport statistics suicide teaching terrorism the web tomatoes travel TV vapor mill war winter writing.
Email Subscription Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Join 2, other followers. February 2, at pm Bryce. February 3, at am Chris.
February 3, at am Thijs. February 3, at am Dave. Here is my take as a former college swimmer. Now, suppose that your best swimmer is not your best flat-starter. Why should they go last? February 3, at am Dan Rosemberry. February 3, at am Andy. February 3, at am Alicia. February 3, at am Malcolm. February 3, at am Brandon. February 3, at pm dph. February 3, at pm David Pinto. February 3, at pm wom.
In this latter case, the best relay combination according to final times was female-male-female-male, corresponding to the backstroke-breaststroke-butterfly-freestyle order The relative dispersion indicated by the coefficient of variation CV of the relay leg performances was not only greater for female than for male swimmers, but also for the heats compared to the final round CV 6.
Figure 2. Table 1. However, the freestyle leg showed the greatest influence on the total relay time for the preliminary heats, whereas the breaststroke leg had the greatest influence for the final round.
In this event, the first female swimmer position as well as the consecutive position of two female swimmers within the relay team order had a significant impact on the finals but not on the heats. Table 2. The present research was undertaken to determine the most successful order of the team members in mixed relay events according to their best swimming performances and gender.
Previous studies have examined the performance and pacing differences between individual and relay swimming events, but no available work has provided insights on how teams should arrange their mixed relay teams, despite that these are new Olympic, World, and European Championships events. After the compilation of the complete mixed relay events held in 50 m pool World Swimming Championships since , the main findings of the present study reveal non-significant differences between gender strategy position on the medley relays, but significant differences according to gender in the freestyle relays, with the most suitable combination being male-male-female-female in the teams analyzed.
Traditionally, teams tend to locate their fastest swimmers in the first and last relay legs McGibbon et al. However, our data indicate that the gender variable seems to alter team order strategies at least in freestyle , as when the two fastest swimmers males are located on the first two relay legs, this seems to provide a greater advantage for teams.
Indeed, we found a strong relationship between the individual swimming capacity season best and the relay leg order, and half of the participating teams arranged their swimmers from the fastest to the slowest Figure 1.
This strategy could allow teams to build a large enough lead early in the race to allow the slowest athletes to maintain the leading position McGibbon et al. However, little evidence has been found in the literature on relay-team order, and decisions are probably based on the experience of coaches and the characteristics of their swimmers.
In medley relays, despite no statistical differences, the fastest times were reported by teams that arranged the relay order as female backstroke , male breaststroke , female butterfly , and male freestyle. This would provide teams a male swimmer on the breaststroke leg, where not only the gender gap Of course, in the overall results, the dispersion of relay leg times was greater for the heats compared to the final round.
Clearly, teams selected their fastest line up in the finals, whereas they probably reserved some of their fastest swimmers in the heats. A typical improvement from heats to the finals by the same swimmers within a competition could be around 1.
The regression analysis in the present research indicated that, in mixed freestyle relays, performance in the second and third relay leg theoretically the slowest had a statistical effect on the final relay performance.
For each additional second in the second or third relay leg, the total relay time decreased 1. This is a worthwhile finding given that the fastest swimmers are usually placed in the first relay leg, and it suggests that the range of performance within the relay team should be narrower McGibbon et al. In addition, the position of the first female swimmer strongly affected the total relay performance with better relay times for teams who place their female swimmers on the last relay legs.
This could be explained by the lower predisposition of women athletes during competition to be more overambitious than males Deaner et al. This strategy of placing female swimmers on the last legs of the mixed freestyle relay could provide time gains of practical importance, as observed in previous research with relay-team strategies Ward-Smith and Radford, In the medley relays, all four relay legs backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle presented a statistical effect on the total relay performances.
However, differences appeared according to the preliminary or final rounds. In the preliminary heats, the freestyle leg presented the greatest influence on the relay time 1. However, in finals, the breaststroke leg showed the strongest influence on the relay time and the position of the first female also affected total performance.
The total race time increased by 1. Changes from heats to final performance within a given competition are presumably not influenced by changes in fitness or techniques, so they may be explained by pacing or tactical decisions Pyne et al.
In preliminary heats, relay teams compete for the final position not the final time as they aim to enter the final round the eight fastest teams regardless of their finishing times , so it is important in the last relay leg freestyle to touch the finish wall before the opponents do. This is analogous to the importance of the last race splits on mass start disciplines, where athletes compete for the final position and not time Rodriguez and Veiga, ; Menting et al.
However, in the finals, teams probably compete for the best possible time Abbiss and Laursen, in addition to the best possible position, so the slowest leg breaststroke is critical for relay performance. In this case, female swimmers who are placed in the last legs of the relay can represent crucial advantages for the final time Table 2.
Previous data on individual medley events Saavedra et al. In addition to the relay team order, the consecutive position or not of the female swimmer within the relay team order had a statistical effect on the medley relays during final rounds Table 2. Changeover times comprise the time period from the incoming swimmers touching the wall to the ongoing swimmers leaving the starting block.
In mixed relays, the approaching velocity of male swimmers would be considerably faster than females and vice versa Ribeiro et al. This could make the outgoing swimmers more difficult to adjust the timing of starting movements when the position of females or males within the relay order would not be consecutive.
Indeed, the timing of the starting movements would depend on the gender of the incoming swimmer. This could be especially relevant for mixed relays as changeover times are more important for the final performance in women relays compared to men Saavedra et al.
However, further research would be needed to confirm this hypothesis. The present study is limited in terms of the number of events analyzed. This is due to the recent incorporation of these events in different competitions included by the FINA. The upcoming Olympic Games to be held in Japan will increase the data available for the best world-class mixed relays.
According to the observed results during European and World Swimming Championships, freestyle and medley mixed relay events appear to present specific strategies in comparison to traditional male- or female-only relay line-ups. Successful teams typically place their fastest swimmers in the first relay legs and, especially on the freestyle relay, male swimmers precede their female counterparts on the relay line-up.
This strategy allows female swimmers to perform in a leading race position, which results in an important impact on the total relay performance.
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