Yet another "Assess my Swim"

It's pretty hard to tell what's going on underwater from that video but it looks to me like you are leading your pull with your elbow.  Concentrate on keeping the elbow high and getting the early vertical forearm.  Your right arm has a very high and wide recovery out of the water, try to get your recovery more like your left arm (but even it could be a bit better...).  How hard are you working there - is that a hard effort or a pace that you could cruise at for a long time?

That pace is good for ~500yds or so and I'm only slightly slower for 1000yds.  Tempo pace - definitely not sprint pace.

I wish I had underwater video.  My 10 year old would freak if I toasted his Christmas present, though. ;-)

Thanks for the notes on the catch and recovery.

While I am no swim expert, one thing I was coached on at my Master's class (and it looks like you might be doing it also) is not not have a "windmill effect" on my stroke with my arms. You lose the whip of the hips (picture swinging a bat).

I was coached to hold my extended arm out longer until my back hand was around my head before going into the pull, that wy I could rotate my hips more, giving me more power on the stroke.

I sure hope that is easy to understand, it is harder putting it into words than showing someone!

I agree with the previous poster that your left arm is better than your right on the recovery & even your extension after your hand enters the water is pretty good. You've also got good shoulder rotation and your head position is also good.

To work on getting the elbows higher on the recovery, try the 'finger tip' drill - maybe 50 or 100 yds per workout, just enough to get yourself thinking about getting the elbows up.

In the video, you're taking about 18 strokes per length (pretty good!). Do a few sets where you try to go 17 strokes per length & really concentrate on 'grabbing' the water with each stroke & finishing the stroke down below your hips. Paddles (used lightly at first) can help improve this.

Your hips & legs seem a bit low, but it might just be the drag from your suit that's causing that. You can try looking down a bit more to see if you can raise your hips.

Again with the left arm-it looks like you are reaching and gliding more with that one (when it is out front)

I agree w/ Arend, your recovery is too high, especially your right arm. Recover first with a higher elbow, hands/fingers near the water line. Look at the difference between your left (which is somewhat better) and right arm. Notice how your left arm recovers with the elbow higher than the hand, but your right arm recovers with the hand wide and above the elbow. One drill to correct this is the 'finger tip' drill: swim a slow, easy freestyle. With each recovery focus on a high elbow and drag your fingertips across the surface of the water, starting near your hip all the way until your catch. Early on you can do this 'catch up' style, where you do not start your pull with one hand until the recovered hand touches it. Thus you are focusing on one arm at a time. As you get better with your recovery you can do this drill at a more regular pace, still slowing things down enough to focus on dragging the fingertips across the surface.

Also, I think James is referring to what I've heard termed 'front quadrant' technique. This is a slight modification of the standard 'windmill' freestyle in which the extended arm does not begin it's pull until the recovering arm is at the swimmer's ear. Thus, both arms spend a greater amount of time in the swimmer's front quadrant, hence the name. I've switched to this technique and find it does seem to improve power, especially in open water and rough conditions.

Overall, I'd like to see more extension and glide in your stroke. It may seem counter-intuitive but if you slow down and reduce your stroke count you should be able to improve the power in each arm stroke, and thus gain speed. I'm counting 18 strokes per length from your video. Focus on the following things and see if you can reduce your stroke count over time.

When I switched from competitive swimming to triathlon, one experienced triathlete gave me a good visual, comparing long distance OW freestyle to the speed skaters in the olympics (long course like Shani Davis, not the Apollo version). These skaters maximize the power of each push with a glide. Similarly in the water, with every pull in the water there should be a glide, and work that glide into the rhythm of your stroke. Start doing drills that greatly exaggerate the glide, kind of like pull-glide-1-2-pull-glide-1-2-pull-glide-1-2..... With each pull you should focus on getting the longest pull, solid catch on the water throughout, with acceleration through the 2nd half of the pull.

Extend your stroke more by exaggerating the roll of your shoulders. Yours shoulders remain pretty much square, perpendicular to your direction of motion. Again, slow down to do some drills where you exaggerate the drop and roll of your shoulders with each extension, rolling almost onto your side with each reach.

ETA: while writing this others offered similar suggestions! sorry for the duplication!




Edited by econway 2010-03-08 4:44 PM

Sorry can't offer swim advice but I just want to say that your son did a fantastic job filming you. Very little shake. Not bad at all for a child. Maybe you have a future filmmaker on your hands. )

 

 

Edited by Robin7 2010-03-08 5:26 PM

This user's post has been ignored.

Edited by PennState 2010-03-08 5:46 PM

I agree with what everyone else is saying about windmilling with your right arm as well as slowing down your stroke a little, and taking advantage of the glide.

I also agree with oldntrin about your legs and hips appearing to be a little low, but not necessarily it being caused by drag from your suit.  It's hard to tell from the video angle, but if that is the case, you are using a lot more energy than you need to.  When your body is in the right position, it's similar to what happens when you use a pull buoy or wear a wetsuit - It will feel almost like you're swimming downhill.

Otherwise, it looks like you're off to a good solid start.  Keep working on your technique, and you'll continue to improve.

Thanks for all the notes folks - much appreciated!  I certainly saw some of the same things you all did.  Nice to see I'm not nuts.

I am glad that there are several things that I can work on.  My worst fear was being told I had a picture perfect stroke - which would mean my upside is limited.  Hopefully correcting some of these items will help me crack the 1:20-25/100 I am sitting at right now.

lol Robin. yes he did do well, he walked 50 yards and didn't trip over either ladder railing.

and to echo everyone else. your right arm is definitely more of a whip motion. it enters the water ok but thats a very big motion. you rock over on your left side to breath which is probably where you developed the whip from. you might want to start bilateral breathing. though your strokes are not symetrical they are the same time distance apart...if you watch the video and count 1 one thousand 2 one thousand starting with the pull of the right arm until it re-enters the water. your right and left hands both enter the water every 2 counts. make since? your left arm is just more fluid and your right arm gets slung to keep the pace.

also your legs do look a little low and not very active. not a terrible thing but you barely even disturb the water behind you. maybe a little more effort out of your legs could drop your stroke count down by one possibly two per length. i haven't recorded my stroke but you swim how i picture myself swimming. i pull more than i kick, sometimes i splash just to make sure my legs are still moving haha.

my $.02

i'll probably record my stroke this weekend so i can get some feed back as well. overall you look good, just minor tweaks are needed. keep it up!

Actually, it looks like you have a nice 6 beat kick going on, nothing wrogn with that when doing fast 100s. But for a tri, you generally want to swim as efficiently as possible, and a 6 beat kick uses a lot of leg energy, while contributing little to your overall tri time.

My suggestions:
1) Practice swimming "wider" to prevent the crossover in front of your head. Each hand should enter the water directly in front of it's shoulder, other wise energy is sent in a sideways vector and not straight ahead.
2) Swim slower so you don't have to breath every 2 breaths. This will allow you to work on symmetry in your stroke and get your right arms recovery to look more like your left arm.
3) Practice a 2 beat kick which will not only save energy, but will really let you feel how side to side body rotation with an anchored hand is what moves you forward, and not busy legs.

I have links to some of my swims in my training logs if you want to see a 2 beat kick and symmetrical arm entry (I've been workign really hard on it).

Overall you do look very comforatble in the water.

I think your saddle may be a little high

That one is very doable and I am working on it already.  I definitely need to get wider so I can get an inside pull executed properly.  In a month or two I expect to have this one ironed out.



Funny enough my symmetry gets better as I push harder.  It is the slower speeds that I tend to do these things.  Still, though, something to work on.



This is the tough one.  I have been trying and trying to develop a two beat kick.  I can't get it right.  It doesn't feel smooth or comfortable.  Major frustration.  The kick I am using now is a pretty light kick.  Though it is faster than I would like, I'm actually not putting a whole lot of energy into it (thus no splash at all).  My body just feels comfortable with that cadence.  I'm going to revisit this, but some of the arm entry and pull issues are higher on my list.

This makes me think I need to get my camera to the pool deck!

Go wider with the shoulders and try to work on that bilateral breathing. If we have current in this race, you may be limited for air, with the reliance on one side.

Keep your elbow high.

Otherwise not bad.

PS - nice pool!

I do work on bilateral breathing, so I'm not really in trouble there.  I hope. ;-)

The pool is (honestly) mediocre.  The lap lane is usually empty, so that is a plus.  They keep the thing at temperatures that the geriatric set likes - i.e. way too hot.

Over in the Alabama thread there was talk of Saturday/Sunday bike rides at Oak Mountain.  Once it gets warm enough I intend on getting out there for some lake swimming, as well.  I'll bet the lake is pretty darn cold at the moment, though.

Edited by sand101 2010-03-10 12:27 PM