**VIDEO**Please critique my swim

Out of curiosity.....what's the length of that pool?

For only swimming 5ish month, your technique is astoundingly good. Is this an all out 100 for you, or a cruise pace? Also, the pool seems like it might not be a full 100? 4 laps took you 1:10, which is more than fast enough to break 30 mins, but only 14 strokes and your stroke didn't look "quite" that efficient.

The things I noticed from the top view - your right hand enters short, and doesn't reach out, it reaches down. You're missing some catch there, but you don't "snake" because your left arm appears to be a straight arm pull without much catch.

Your legs are a lot more active than I'd like to see for a distance swimmer, I'd rather see a much quieter kick pattern. Here's a good reference from our own tjfry:

 http://badig.com/2009/06/the-two-beat-kick/

I think with work on your reach and your catch, and reducing the activity of your legs a bit, you'll hit your goals and be fresher for the bike.

But again, nice stroke. Not a whole lot to pick on, actually. (Although I would like to see underwater head on and side shots to confirm the straight arm pull and the late catches.)

John

With your stroke, reach more in front of you and extend your arm more. Rotate some as you reach to pull more water. On the pull you are only using about 3/4 of your stroke. Finish more past your rear, so that your finger tips are down by your thigh.

Your legs drop as you bend at the waist some. Try pulling your naval up towards your spine. This should help your level in the water.

Not sure this was a lot of help, lol.

Agree with what John said above.  That and the credits and comments at the end of the video were most entertaining! 

Great advice from the above posts!!  You may also want to try twisting more, i was always told to imagine having a line across your shoulders and a ball has to roll from one shoulder to the other.

I disagree with the kick advice.  It is obviously comfortable and it isn't really that hard of a kick.  If it works for you I'd keep it.

A lot of things are hard to tell from an above water shot, but under the heading of "what would make you faster" the things I noticed are:

1.  Your kick is a tad low in the water from what I can see.  Watch a Phelps or Thorpinator video.  An underwater video would really help here.

2.  You seem to catch a bit late and do a little bit of pushing water down rather than back.  Dave Scott has a good video and some drills to help here.

There are probably other items that are hard to see from on top of the water.  More than anything else, though, you have just about entered the realm where gains come from volume and intensity.  Put in 10k/week for the next few months and I'll bet that 30 minute barrier comes down pretty readily.

Agreed. and glad you didn't ask us to critique HIS stroke! :D

John

Just for a bit of opposing info here, but Gary Hall, Sr (Olympian swimmer) had a series of posts a few months back where he specifically said that the last bit of your pull gives you minimal propulsion, and you were better served to get your arm out and back in the water sooner.  He encouraged something like 80 stroke counts, and there's no chance you can get near that number with a finish down at your thigh.

YMMV

Thank you all for the much needed info and links on improving my technique. I will be applying the advice one step at a time. I used a flip camera and the underwater housing is priced well, I will try to acquire one and get some underwater footage.

To answer some of the questions:
Pool is 20m and that's my about normal starting pace.

Thanks again!

David

just wanted to say 33 min for a 1.2 and you just started swimming...WOW!  great job.

BLESS YOU for posting this. No, really, thank YOU. :D

Now that I'm done slobbering ...

When your L arm enters the water, you drop your elbow ... and your R shoulder/head bobs up on the other side. It's as if you're pushing down (instead of pulling back) with your L arm to "pop" the other side up to breathe.

On the R side, it will help if you rotate your BODY more and your head less. This will put your head in the correct position to breathe and you won't need to "pop" that side up.

As for your kick, when it's good, it's good. But it's also variable. Sometimes, like when your head is popping up more than usual to breathe, yes, that puts your legs lower in the water, and then it looks like to compensate, you kick big. (Or you are subconsciously kicking big to push your head up, as well). Other times you're just kicking big regardless. But I'd say (totally wild guess) 50-80% of the time it's pretty good.

You might do some swim sets when you're being mindful/focusing on your kick. You could also try the bike-tube-doubled-around-the-ankles trick.

That'll make the guy in Lane 1 really stare.

And yes, I'm not ripping your stroke apart by any means. You look phenomenal. Oh, your stroke is pretty good too. At this point you're looking into needing to add volume, I'd say.

i haven't read everyones comments but it looks like you might be initially pushing the water down after your catch. When your hand enters the water tilt your wrist down , grab the water and pull it back. make sure your other hand is entering the water as your pulling hand finishes the pull (around you hips)

Overall great stroke ,there are a ton of things you are doing right...but there is always room for improvement for the rest of your swimming life.

Here are just two ideas:

The most important part of freestyle swimming is front to back balance. This allows you to streamline through the water and reduce drag even better. Your hips will be closer to the surface and typically the head is lower with the back of your head breaking the surface of the water. Look straight down at the bottom of the pool while you swim and focus on how that may help bring your hips up toward the surface a little. Your head should feel weightless, and it should take you no effort to let it simply lay just under the surface of the water. don't push it down, but don't lift it up and look forward either. (some will ask "what about sighting?" sighting is a separate skill to be practiced and does not influence normal head position when done well)

Check the head positions in this youtube video comparison of Phelps, Jones and one of TI's favorite instructors, Shinji.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ENDX_e7aRg

Another thing you can do to improve your balance and make you streamline better through the water is to develop more of a front quadrant swimming stroke. Your lead arm should wait and streamline out front while your other arm is recovering. You can initiate your body roll and anchor your forward arm int he water as the recovering arm is about to enter the water. Roll your body as if it's on a spit toward the recovery arm as it penetrates into the water and spears forward and down. As your body rolls, your anchoring arm should grab as much water as possible while your body moves past that arm.

This will do a bunch of good things for you...but in regard to balance, it will help keep more mass in front of your lungs, which are your center of buoyancy. Bringing more mass in front brings your center of gravity closer to your center of buoyancy which makes it much, much easier to balance in the water.

Notes: One poster suggested that the arm should enter as the other is by the hip..this is a windmill technique and for the most part will not help you swim any faster nor help your buoyancy. Another poster mentioned finishign the stroke further back...again, this part of your stroke adds little propulsion, so where you are currently exiting the water with your hand is fine...you can probably even de-emphasize that a little bit more.

Getting a head on shot would be a good addition to the new videos as well. thanks for posting, feel free to PM me if you have any questions.


Edited by AdventureBear 2010-10-17 6:46 PM

AdventureBear already mentioned it but it doesn't appear that your eyes are straight down. It looks as if you are looking forward. I think the head position change will accomplish many good things for your stroke.

Overall- you're an excellent swimmer- so anything added here is just minor refinement.  My $0.02 for distance swimming is to reach out a bit more and to pause just a moment (1/4 sec?) with your hand stretched out.  There's a moment right at the end of each pull that you are moving your fastest- so take advantage of that moment by being streamlined and gliding just a bit.  

The idea for distance swimming is to be as efficient as possible. 

Yep, I was about to say that!

I coach my clients to exit around hip level. They all find that they swim faster this way. I'm sure it's due to quicker turnover... but faster is faster.


To the OP, where your stroke is at... it's requiring slight adjustments. I'm the type of swim coach/instructor where I need to get in the water to see what is happening under the water.

Even with the filming, if you can't get underwater... at the least we need a head-on view and a view from the back as you swim away.

Since you don't have glaring issues with your stroke, it's going to be looking at the details to find the adjustments.

OK, so your overall "form" is just fine, while your kick timing is not entirely consistent, the majority of the time it is in the ballpark. In terms of reaching farther forward or pushing farther back, neither of these things is in my experience, beneficial, particularly to someone who has pretty good range - I think the emphasis on front-quadrant swimming is applicable for only a small portion of the swimming population.

The biggest thing that you need to do is to learn to relax. You are heavily muscled, and that tends to be an obstacle for this. Your arms always appear to be under tension, so, while I say the "form" looks good, it is too much "form" and not enough flow. If you are relaxed, and your kick timing is good (and it's close), then the form will flow with very little guidance by your muscles.

The issue of dropping your elbow, while valid (although there are very fast swimmers who drop their elbows as much as you do), is a highly advanced technique, and in my experience, it is: 1) a direct function of being more relaxed, you can not get good EVF (early vertical forearm) if you are stiffened up, and 2) this is, advanced, i.e., the difference between repeating 1:00 per 100 yards, versus 1:05/1:10 per hundred yards - not the difference between 1:30 - 1:10 per 100 yds.

regards,
r.b.

hard to tell from a above the water video and only from the side but it seems to me you:

1. you lose your balance when breathing
2. your don't reach much
3. you don't keep a high elbow starting the catch and pull
4. you don't finish your stroke
5. you could improve yuor balance