Home General Training Discussions

My swim video (be kind!)

ok, read this before you view it...I learned to swim a little over 2 years ago.

I am not fast or good and certainly not fast AND good.

What should I work on first? 

In previous lessons, I feel like I get too many things to work on at once.

I want to try an approach where I work on my BIGGEST weakness...get it fixed...then move to the next biggest...etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WtC_TltKNM

P.S.  I swim 1.2 miles in 47 minutes

Comments

  • Hey Don - I'll take the first stab at this. I'll give you a few ideas and let you go from there. You are correct about trying to work on too many things at once. Pick 1-2 and start there. The first thing I noticed was your right arm recovery when you breathe. It is very straight and reaches high in the sky every time you breathe. This rotates you all the way onto your right side and you lose some power from the left arm pull. Next, your entry is downward rather than forward. Try to reach toward the wall with every entry and extend your hand just below the surface (about 4-6 inches). It doesn't matter where your hand enters the water as long as you enter and reach for the wall. Use rotation to reach farther. Right now you are reaching down and when you begin the actual pull your arm is 1/3 the way through the pull so you're losing part of the pull by not catching the water out in front of you. Also, by extending out in front, the opposite hand will extend backwards farther and finish better. If you catch out front you can also get your elbows up quicker.I counted your strokes at 22 per length. Try these few things and try to reduce the stroke per length to 16-20. A few little things to think about are pointing your toes. I'm not concerned about your lack of kick but the foot flexion is creating drag. Also, your stroke rate seems slow. My 2 cents
  • Hello Don a few first comments

    You raise too much your head while breathing, making your arm too high and your elbow is totally straight, there's a drill which you can do, your left Google, in this case, should not be on the surface, try to keep it below the surface, with this you could get a better movement in the surface with your arm. Also bilateral breathing a should help you to get that balance
    At your gliding Your arm goes to low so your catch is not that efficient, if you do some catchups drill you could nail it very fast.

    Try to bend your knees a little more, your legs looks stiff.

    By the way really cool that you have the pool for yourself
  • Don,

    Overall, looks pretty good. Your body position is decent, with your legs close to the surface . . . until you breathe.  You're over-rotating to the R, lifting both eyes (maybe even your L ear) out of the water to breathe.  This sinks your legs.  Watch 1:45-2:05 and see your heels near the surface, then sink a good foot below the water when you breath.  You have to kick more to re-gain balance.  Why?  Simple. You're holding your breath. Watch 1:45-2:05 again and look for bubbles. You start to exhale through your nose about 1 inch before your head exits the water.  That means you finish your exhalation above the water, then start to breathe, spending way too much time out of the water, wrecking havoc on your balance and rotation. Instead, calmly start exhaling through your mouth as soon as you're done inhaling. Then you'll be ready to inhale with only one eye out of the water the millisecond your mouth reaches the surface.  This is a pretty easy fix that will help with both your balance and rotation.

    BTW, I like your 2-beat kick from the hip (not the knees).  Work on ankle flexion, as Jay mentioned. 

    As Jay also noted, you reach/catch way too low, especially your R hand.  Look at your R hand at 2:12.  It's gotta be 2 feet below the water.  It should be about 4-6' below the surface. That easy fix will instantly add a few inches to your stroke length and shave several seconds off your 100 times.  But . . . when you adjust your reach upward, you must also raise your elbow and keep it above the hand/wrist.  Go to Swimsmooth.com for details about the high-elbow catch.

    Once you have those pretty fixes knocked off, re-video to confirm, then move on to developing the catch/pull and increasing your stroke rate.

    Just my $0.02.




     

  • Don, as another adult onset swimmer, I'm no expert.  The only thing I would add is that from my experience over 3 years and from everything I've read, breathing every 4 strokes is probably not enough.  Oxygen debt/CO2 buildup will ultimately force you to swim slower than you can breathing every R or L stroke.  Some people favor bilateral breathing, but most folks seem to feel that in a race setting that you will be able to sustain a better pace with a breath every R or L stroke (every 2 strokes).  I have this season learned to breathe to my left (former only R side breather), but I did this for two reasons:  1) my coach told me I had an unbalance stroke and encouraged me to learn the other side to create more balance (and surprisingly, I'm a little faster breathing to the left!) and 2) to allow breathing away from waves or sun in a race.  

    So, my only addition would be to maybe transition to bilateral breathing (every 3rd) or practice both sides equally.  I now swim every 25 alternating sides.  Other folks do 10-20 strokes one way and then the other....makes no difference, just easier for my small mind to handle this method.  

    I agree with the low catch/hand drifting down observation, but I fight this every stinking day too, so since I live in a glass house I will not throw that stone!  Catch-up drill should help with it, but I find that if I just pay attention I can fix it (which then causes some other form degradation of course!).  

    Thanks for sharing your video.  I plan to do the same soon.  JL

  • Thanks for sharing, Don. Working on my stroke, too and it is nice to see what other people are doing and fixing. Great comments too which I will use next time I am in the pool.
  • Don, You've gotten some good advice already.  One thing I would suggest is to make the most use of the swim e-book in the wiki and the video's that coach Rich has provided.  Take the material in the wiki and drill, drill, drill until you get them down.  Work on them 1 or 2 at a time and improve your body position first.  Then propulsion.  Your ankle in-flexibility, ie not pointing your toes is a huge source of drag for you right now.  My old high school swim coach had us sit on the floor with out feet pointed straight back under us.  Start by kneeling with your feet pointing back and sit back, butt on heels.  This stretch may not be very comfortable for you in the beginning, so go slow, use a foam roller or something between your heels/butt until you get better flexibility.

    Lots of great material in the wiki on this.  Good luck

Sign In or Register to comment.