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Olympians, coaches endorse a Tallahassee man's computer system for stroke analysis.
By ALICIA CALDWELL
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 27, 2000
TALLAHASSEE -- Sharpening the sword.
That's how Olympian Brendon Dedekind describes what he is doing to hone his 50-meter freestyle stroke to compete in Sydney next month.
Dedekind, who will represent South Africa, and Olympians from a dozen countries in all, have come to biomechanist Rod Havriluk looking for an edge.
Havriluk, president of Swimming Technology Research, created a computerized system to measure stroke velocity and efficiency as a doctoral student at Indiana in the 1980s. Havriluk has devoted his professional life to helping science augment coaching in the sport. Some swimmers gladly strap on Havriluk's half-ounce sensors and hook up to his poolside laptop computer via 60-foot wires. In a 10-yard swim, they generate graphs and numbers that point to technical deficiencies.
Dedekind, who completed his Florida State career last year and who competed in the 1996 Atlanta Games, said his recent work with Havriluk has made him aware of a slight stall between his stroke's pulling and pushing phases.
"It tells you little things," said Dedekind, 24, ranked fifth in the world in the 50 free with a best time of 22.21 seconds. "It helps you to fine-tune your stroke a little more, especially in my event, where every hundredth counts."
Havriluk, 49, says he has conducted more than 10,000 analyses on swimmers, often retesting athletes over time to compare changes in force exerted. Each test costs $19.
On a recent day at the Bobby E. Leach Recreation Center on the FSU campus, Havriluk conducted tests on a group of young swimmers from Saudi Arabia.
As the swimmers finished their test runs, they stood dripping on the pool deck as Havriluk explained the force curves displayed on the computer screen.
"What we want to see is a steady increase in force," he told one girl. "You're doing a nice job in topping out. What we're going to look at is why you don't increase consistently. Believe me, you're ahead of most 9-year-olds in the way you push the water."
Before she left, Havriluk gave her a printout of her data.
"Even some of the top competitors will have force losses, and they will not, generally speaking, be aware of it," Havriluk said. "Swimming is so complicated, they can't perceive everything that's going on in their strokes."
Not everyone has faith in Havriluk's method.
St. Petersburg masters coach George Bole, whose swimmers have won numerous national titles, said he was not familiar with Havriluk's system but he routinely stays away from such things.
"I've been doing this for 50 years," he said. "I've tried nearly every sort of gimmick in time. I just believe in fewer and fewer gimmicks."
Others have been more impressed with the possibilities.
James "Doc" Counsilman, the legendary coach who in his 32 years at Indiana won consecutive NCAA titles from 1968-73, believed technology would play a part in swimming's future.
"A particular hope of his was that technology would be used to analyze strokes," said his wife, Marge. She said her husband, who retired in 1990, is in poor health at a Bloomington, Ind., nursing home.
Counsilman, Havriluk said, was one of his toughest mentors and biggest boosters as he developed the system at Indiana. When Havriluk presented his doctoral dissertation, Counsilman "hammered me," Havriluk said. "He was the most demanding. Asked me the most questions. When it was all over, he said, "Don't take any of this as criticism. I'm really impressed with what you've done.' " Growing up in New Jersey, Havriluk began swimming at age 7. He went on to swim for Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., specializing in the backstroke. During college, he began coaching youth teams, which he continues to do today at the Area Tallahassee Aquatic Club.
Six years after graduating, Havriluk enrolled at Florida State in the chemistry program and was an assistant swim coach. That's when he discovered the movement science program.
"Once I got into it, I was fascinated by how I could be a much better coach by understanding the science of performance," he said.
Then it was on to Indiana, and his system was born.
The system is one tool Joe Goeken says he uses to coach Olympian Gustavo Borges, who lives in Jacksonville and swims for Brazil. Borges won the silver medal in the 100 free at the 1992 Olympics and bronze in the 100 and silver in the 200 in 1996. Borges, who is 27 and 6 feet 7, 220 pounds, has shown a steady increase in strength over the past two years.
"It's very helpful," Goeken said. "There's no one thing that has all the answers, but it's a tool that I've used pretty regularly over the years."
It's a tool Sarah Mrazek, 17, has started to use. The data showed her something her coaches had talked to her about: an inefficient glide between strokes. "I didn't realize how much slower it was making me," said Mrazek, a junior at Leon High. "It shows you the little things that can make a difference."
Two weeks ago, she swam the 200 breaststroke at the Olympic trials in Indianapolis. Seeded 112th based on previous times, Mrazek finished 54th among 106 competitors.
"I was really thinking about the force graph, where the force was in my pull," she said. "I dropped a lot of places. It was definitely a good learning experience."
Neil Harper, men's and women's coach at Florida State, said Havriluk's system represents the best technology available. He has used it in coaching Dedekind and other Olympians, and said it can point out the smallest mechanical imperfections. "This is the only thing of its kind that I know of," Harper said. "It's a cutting-edge tool."
WHEN: Sept. 15-Oct. 1.
WHERE: Sydney, Australia.
NUMBER OF ATHLETES: 10,200.
NUMBER OF SPORTS: 28.