Underwater video from my coach

Ah don't be embarrassed, it's how we all learn together.

First things first. You're really reaching down towards the bottom of the pool. Your arms are almost straight. Take a look at the image down below compared to what's called a high elbow catch next to it. A high elbow catch will be more powerful and efficient.

#2- you're not getting enough reach. You should imagine that you're reaching for something way up on the top shelf, and your pull starts from there. Try to "grab" onto the water and pull yourself over it. One thing I've done is laid down on my bed and reached my arm forward and over the edge, then tried to pull my body over the edge. It seems like a silly exercise, but it got me into the feeling of really grabbing and pulling my body over something vs the feeling of windmilling your arms through the water.

#3- You're rolling, that's good, but you're wiggling too. Imagine you're a pig on a spit. There's a rod going from the center of the top of your head, down through your body, and out your feet. You should only be rotating around that rod.

Don't be discouraged. Watch lots and lots of videos on youtube of pro swimmers before you hit the pool. I used to swim next to an incredible girl who was a big college swimmer, and when I did I automatically felt my own form get better just by watching how she'd glide through the water

(jen.jpg)

Those are the exact same points I was going to point out.  Your arms aren't crossing too much in front of your body.  I've seen a lot worse.  You are making a windmill motion, but like he said above, you're not "grabbing" the water with your forearms.  I like to think of it like this:  imagine the men's parallel bars in gymnastics and they are submerged in the pool just below you.  Now imagine they're made out of ropes.  Now imagine you are floating above them and you have to pull on them to make progress across the pool.

also, look at your hand.  Your fingers are spread open.  Close your fingers more so that they become an oar instead of a flyswatter.

See if this helps you visualize what you are doing (the same thing I do when I swim.....but getting better).  Swimmers will tell you that they are not moving water or propelling themselves through the water, like you are probably trying to do from seeing the video.  They say, "the water doesn't move, you pull yourself through it".

So.....pretend you are laying on top of monkey bars and pulling yourself across them.  You actually anchor your hand (the weirdest ting to get through my head)....and then pull yourself toward it.  The kids watch me and laugh.....because I have this idea, they say, of my arms and legs being a motor that propels me like a boat motor would.  They like to say, "pretend you are swimming in molasses".....with the idea being that you can swim just as fast through that medium as you can through water......and they eve have a video of some dude swimming through molasses. LOL

"Put your hand in the water....bend your wrist and point your fingers to the bottom of the pool, and pull yourself across the monkey bars.", they said........it helped. 

Let me reiterate, "close your hand more"-- not completely like the photo.  There's a large gap between two of your fingers.

He would be my ex-coach.  I'm not as nice and diplomatic as others on this thread.  As zed pointed out, the elbow drop is so obvious that it's negligent of him as a coach to take your money and not point out basic things like that.  There's no excuse for it.

Originally posted by jennifer_runs Thanks for the tips everyone. I'm glad my videos helped someone else at least. I went to the pool today and I tried focussing on the high elbow and bent arm pull today. It definitely felt different but I wasn't any faster- and I could really feel it in my neck and shoulders. I was always told that my lats should feel it the most. Maybe I just need to build up more strength overall. Or maybe I am just one of those "can't be helped" people.

You definitely can improve a lot - you've definitely got low hanging fruit to pick up on the swim!

It does take time and training though, so don't expect any miracles. It can get discouraging when some folks post "wow, fixed my dropped elbow and swam 10sec/100 faster instantly!" but more often than not, those are overstated gains, often from one isolated set, since a 10sec/100 gain for all sets is a very big improvement, like a whole different category of swimmer. 

And while it's true you should be predominantly focusing on technique, technique, technique at your stage, it is definitely true that you won't see MOP speeds until you later get your swim muscular endurance up enough to pull harder and increase turnover. 

Nonsense. Keep at it and you will get it. I agree with the people above that you'd do well with some one on one time. When you do something different like the high elbow, it may feel "wrong" but it just feels that way because it's different than what you're used to. Try updating one aspect at a time and maybe post another video in a few weeks and we can see what kind of progress has been made.