Underwater Swim Videos - Chris Oubre
Here are a few videos taken of me at my last pool session. My "camera person" was in a hurry so I only got a 100 m warm-up before we started filling, and I'll admit I felt I little award with the camera. I've never taken video of my swim before. This was eye opening. I can see how wide my kick is. I'm not sure what drill I should do to work on it, Please critique away. I left my pride at the door. If possible let me know how I can correct whatever it is that you see.
Some quick background. My IM swim PR is 1:48. My HIM swim PR is 0:44
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUCdzch0NmA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Gqm_2NZgo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb1CT38urOo
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The WSM's and fish will surely chime in with some great advice but I see a couple of things that I also saw in my own videos.
1. Slow stroke rate. After you kick off the wall and settle in I'm counting around a 60SPM. This is more of glide stroke and will really hurt you especially in open water with chop. The slower stroke rate also causes your hips to drop and initiates the scissor kick to counter balance the drop. You probably don't even feel like you are doing this I know I never did until I saw it on video. Increasing your stroke rate with a tempo trainer over time will help lift your hips in the water and smooth out that scissor kick.
Some reading here:
http://www.swimsmooth.com/slowsr.html
2. Crossing over. Looks like your left arm is crossing over the center line (23 seconds in on video 5). This will also cause some balance issues and will generally slow you down as your are not moving straight down the pool but rather snaking down the pool.
Some reading here:
6. Crossover - How Do I Remove It?
Crossing over the centre line at the front of the stroke is bad for your swimming: it will disrupt your catch and cause you to fish-tail, increasing your drag. The standard solution from coaches seems to be "Think about placing the hands in the water wider and despite it feeling wide you'll actually be entering much straighter". We've lost count of how many times we've heard swim coaches say this.
Cross-over!
We disagree fundamentally with the 'just enter wider' approach. Doing so will cause a swimmer to become much flatter, removing that all important body roll. There is also a tendency to start entering very wide, so creating the opposite technique problem!
A far better approach is to get each hand entering directly forward in front of its shoulder by developing your Swimming Posture - i.e. swimming with shoulders back and chest forward. We call this 'Swimming Proud'! Once this has been achieved the hand will naturally enter and reach with good alignment.
Thanks for sharing. It's kinda like hearing yourself singing for the first time. When I first saw video of me swimming, it was: "who the hell is that and what is he doing?" So, kudos.
No swim coach here, but I've listened to a lot of them. Strongly recommend watching Coach R's video critiques of others, to hear his points of focus, especially on those with body position issues and those who appear to do some of the things you do in these videos.
Based on your times and the 25+ strokes you took for a length of the pool, it's still mostly technique and body position for you. You should be looking for 17-20 strokes or so. Your hips and feet are low, outside the narrow tube you want to be in. There are lots of horizontal position drillls out there that focus on you getting to a natural position with you pressing the T (your lungs) down, hips and feet up, head neutral, and you holding that natural position throughout, only rotating side to side, not bobbing up and down. Kick board and pull bouy aren't the answers. Drills, perhaps with fins, should help a lot. Check Coach's ebook, Total Immersion or Google for current thoughts on horizontal position drills.
Right now, your upper body is fighting your lower body for bouyancy. Looks like you're holding your breath, with a quick exhale out of your nose right as your head exits the water. Because you have to wait for the end of the exhale, this delays the next breath and keeps your head up longer than it should. Result: hip drop. I find breathing out of my mouth as soon as I get a breath works welll, so I'm ready to breathe the moment one goggle exits.
Then, your arms reach out and start a mostly-straight arm pull by pushing down on the water with a stroke that frequently looks like a windmill. Pushing down on the water way up front instantly lifts the head and drops the hips. You want those lead fingers grabbing the ladder, or going over the barrel, with straight writs and high elbow, before pulling back, not down. If you stand in the kitchen and grab the sink with a straight arm like you're starting a pull, you will feel your weak shoulder and bicep muscles doing the work. Do the same, but with a high, bent elbow, and you should feel the powerful pecks and lats take over the work. So, it also creates a stronger pull (something to work on after you get position solved).
To counter all the flotation up front, you've got a massive bent-knee kick. Kicking is a terrible means of propulsion and takes way too much O2. But you have to kick just to get your feet and hips up, to counter the popping up in the front quadrant. In other words, you're spending a lot of energy just getting you lower body to move UP, energy that could be better used to go forward. And your kick is so big and wide that it goes way outside the tube, creating a large object you have to drag through the water. Kick should be a little flick that only supports rotation.
The great news? This is low-hanging fruit that, once improved, should pay big dividends.
Just my $0.02. Hope it helps even a little.
A question on the cross over: I feel confused about where my left arm should go when I rotate to breath. And what path it should take when I pull it back.
I do have a wetronome. I had it set to 57. I haven't done the swim test to find the right pace. I was going off of the swim smooth chart. I'll bump myself up to the upper end of the white region. My last race rehearsal had a pace of 2:11/100y.
Right now I do 50% drills 50% swim for my workouts. I can work on breathing out sooner. I'm not sure what I should do differently in my drills. I'll get someone to video me drilling.
A question on pulling back instead of down. I understand the high elbow recovery. I then extend fully underwater. When I start my pull do I go high elbow again?
Thanks for all the replies!!!
Try this link it might give you a little help with the crossover. http://www.fullcommitment.net/CarlsbadMasters/PageManager/Swim Clinic Swim Smooth Articles.html
High elbow refers to the catch, not recovery. Common misconception. A lot of people drop their lead shoulder as they rotate and reach. Once that shoulder drops (and moves away from the chin), then the lead elbow usually falls below the lead hand. The result is often a lead plam that's facing the water (hand brake), fingers even coming out of the water with some swimmers. No way to get a good pull from that position. I didn't see low elbow with you; instead, you tend to start your pull with straight arm, pushing water down initially, not breaking your elbow until later in the game. Instead, begin dropping the fingers over the barrel as you extend your hand, keeping the elbow above the wrist. As you go over the barrel and break your elbow, your hand and forearm are now positioned to pull lots of water straight back. Here's a better explanation than I could ever give: http://www.swimsmooth.com/catch.html