New swimmer, suggestions welcome

Background - can hold my own in the Elite swim, get smoked in the run.  Just some thoughts.  Keep swimming no matter what, whether OWS or pool. 

Hips in general should naturally rise with increased speed in swimming.  I use caution with that statement though, as you do not want to pull too hard to 'bonk' yourself early on.  What I like to recommend to newer swimmers, is get in the water and visualize a dolphin.  Sounds stupid up front, but think about it for a second.  Go float, dive and mimic a dolphin.  The fluid shoulder (head) and hip (tail) action that occurs going through the water.  Have fun with it, and learn how to "move water".  There was a great US Swimmer by the name of Spitz (probably heard of him) that did training with dolphins for this very reason.  Most of your competitive strokes use this wave like technique....and honestly, it's kinda fun.

Swimming is in the beginning nearly entirely technique-based. It is in no way comparable to biking or running, where pretty much you just go, and keep doing more of it, and you will get better.

You are not going to get much better without lessons or coaching. Is there a master's swim group near you?

If you're in a boat where you simply can't afford it or it's not available near you, etc., invest in a book like Total Immersion, or look at the Learning to Swim series of articles here on BT, and FOLLOW THEM. If you can post a video of yourself swimming, all the better; we can make a lot of suggestions.

Not only is this the worst thing you could do but it is the worst advice you could be given.  Take all the training toys and put them in a bag and shove them under your car and run them over.  As a new swimmer you absolutely do not want to strap on a device that imposes an unnatural swimming position.  What happens when you take the buoy off?  Your legs sink again.  So, you have learned nothing and wasted your time.  If your goal is to learn how to pull, get a buoy.  If your goal is to get better at swimming, ditch the buoy.

I do have a coach. We train in the pool on mondays and do OWS Wednesdays and Sundays (Sundays are cancelled on race weekends).

I believe he actually teaches using a lot of the same methods from Total Immersion as well.

Hopefully I'll get a video in a day or so from last night. Last night was the first time I've felt improvement which is good so I'm excited to see the video if it's just in my head or not.

Humble, and honest.

Keep working with your coach, and by all means post the vid if you can. Many of us here are good swimmers and swim instructors (two are not necessarily related, heh) and I'm pretty sure we'd admit that we're not always going to see the whole picture ourselves, so more input from qualified people is usually quite helpful.

Keep workin' the good work with your swimming. Oh, and read this thread. Again. And again. Until you can spout it off as well as the author did.

Bigfuzzydoug's Ten Points to Swimming

Once you're fairly comfy with technique (it's a lifelong pursuit), you're looking at 4-5x week in the pool, hour or so, to really improve. 3-4x to maintain.

Good luck, and keep us posted.