SwimSwam Pulse: 64% Prefer to Anchor Relays With Fastest Leg

SwimSwam Pulse is a recurring feature tracking and analyzing the results of our periodic A3 Performance Polls. You can cast your vote in our newest poll on the SwimSwam homepage, about halfway down the page on the right side, or you can find the poll embedded at the bottom of this post.

Our most recent poll asked SwimSwam readers to pick the optimal order for freestyle relays:

RESULTS

Question: What is the optimal free relay order?

• Anchor – fastest swimmer last – 60.4%
• Shotgun – fastest swimmer first – 39.6%

Almost two-thirds of SwimSwam voters said it’s better to put your fastest swimmer last on a relay, with just under 40% preferring the ‘shotgun’ approach.

The question itself speaks quite a bit to differences at the various levels of swimming around the world. At the elite levels, the ‘shotgun’ approach is extremely common – arguably the most established gameplan. When the margins between elite and super-elite swimmers are tenths of a second, getting out to a lead and taking advantage of clean water for your later relay legs can make all the difference. That’s why we see mixed free relays swim a man-man-woman-woman order without exception at the world level. The strategy is also supported by memories of Caeleb Dressel leading off a 200 free relay for Florida, and the lead he built securing a win despite the rest of the relay being made up mostly of IMers, not true 50 freestylers.

But at the high school and club levels, the margins between the top swimmers and the average swimmer are expanded. Few of us who have swum or coached at the high school level don’t have a memory (painful or exuberant) of some blue-chip swimmer running down an opposing relay on the anchor leg. When the anchor leg can be a bigger mismatch, putting your best swimmer in position to do something special can be a very viable strategy.

And, of course, these decisions are almost never made in a vacuum. In a high school format, you may have to work around event combinations – a 500 freestyler going back-to-back with the 200 free relay might be better off going third or fourth on the relay to maximize recovery time. (Check out our new poll to weigh in on high school event doubles).

Sometimes, your best swimmer has an amazing flat start – and a mediocre relay start. Dressel has pretty consistently proven that his flat start is so otherworldly-good that his relay start really isn’t that much faster. In that case, it makes sense for him to lead off and give someone else the advantage of a flying relay exchange.

Other times, an individual swimmer just feeds on the energy of a relay anchor. Call it the “clutch” element, call it lazer focus, call it a great finishing ability – some swimmers are just plain good at getting their hand on the wall first. Simone Manuel is a good example of an elite-level swimmer who just feels natural in that anchor role.

And, of course, the decision is easier if you have two star sprinters and can either bookend your relay with top talents or double-down on the shotgun approach with two dominant legs right off the bat.

Below, vote in our new A3 Performance Poll, which asks voters to pick the toughest of four relatively-common back-to-back event pairings in the high school event schedule:

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ABOUT A3 PERFORMANCE

The A3 Performance Poll is courtesy of A3 Performance, a SwimSwam partner