Swimming Help - Post your videos

Thanks for this offer, I would love to improve my form and if I can find someone to hold the camera I'll do it tonight.

Hello,

Here's a somewhat recent lap swim video recorded a couple months ago. I'm swimming at a moderate RPE.

http://youtu.be/sa7sEMJKi28

Things I think I need to work on:

1. Low stroke rate (overglider?)
2. Hips a bit low in water
3. Insufficient rotation?

Please help! Thanks!

I have a video or two that I'll post when I get around to it. It's from about 5 months ago and my form is so much better now that it's kinda surprising. I still have bad form, but I've come a long way. It might still be useful to get some feedback off of it, and maybe someone else could benefit from it, too.

Really, just seeing myself swim was pretty helpful. I wish I had more shots of it. The one I have is underwater swimming towards or away. Too many bubbles to see a whole lot.

Edit: crap, thought I youtubed the vids. Will have to find out where I stored them...

Edited by Danno77 2014-05-27 3:22 PM

Hey Roland,
You probably don't remember, but I met you a few years ago at a sprint in SoCal. Overall, your swim doesn't look too bad! I would say your rotation is good. Hips actually look pretty good. You can try to increase your rate, but I don't think that's going to change much. Honestly, there's nothing wrong with being a glider... I'm one as well. The only thing that I would really look at is how much your head moves around.

A few drills that might help:

Catch-up freestyle.
This is going to help your roll and your reach. Right now you are gliding quite a bit, but your hand is entering the water a bit close to your face, then gliding out before it starts the pull. By reaching a bit more before entering the water you will gain a bit of roll and be a bit more balanced. This should also help you keep your head from bouncing as much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2ZUMX0qQns

Finger tip drag
This is going to force your elbows to stay high and make you reach a bit more. This is probably one of my favorite drills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQQQ15NUazc

Focus a bit on following through all the way on your stroke, it looks like you get to about your hip on the stroke and then start removing your hand from the water. By following through a bit more, you will notice your glide will be more effective. The best drill I can come up with for that is to focus on following through so much that you "splash" the person behind you.

Start with that, then post another video in a couple weeks after you've had a chance to try that out.

Looks nice and relaxed...
2 comments of what stands out most to me
1) looks to me like your head is pushed down a bit...you ahve a bow wave but it seems to start at your neck/shoulders? Hard to tell from the head on/tail on video.
2) entry & extension look clean as far as the arms but you are losing connection from the core. Your body falls flat first and then you enter the water. Use your core muscle control to hold your "edge" while the recovery arm moves forward...don't let the body flatten while recovery arm is coming forward, then use the rotation of the body combined with the spear to deliver a bit more connection...more power with no effort that way. your rotation looks fine to me it just ends too early as the body falls flat then the arm enters.

Thanks for offering the help.

I would like some stroke instruction, but haven't been able to get video of me yet....hopefully soon.

However, my wife recently just took up the sport. Two weeks ago she completed her first sprint tri and now she's hooked. She started training in late March and before then had never swam across the pool before. I worked with her just a bit as we tried to get her ready to just finish. I think she's made great strides in only a few weeks of training, but I'm certain that there is a lot that she can work to improve since that initial hurdle has been overcome.

Here's a few videos we shot a couple weeks ago:

Side view:
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/9jp87hig3rt25a3/AADz9LRjgQUzCXmHOL0GyPjia

Straight on:
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/eioaua9x75kswck/AADF2RLvTpAnEUzK4JStAC2ga

Another straight on:
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/kbtausx85q67hy3/AABv963UY6uAjtKt20wxgW1ma

Interested in feedback. Keep in mind...she's brand new, so be gentle.

This is an awesome thread already. Thank you for offering your help, I think it's something that everyone can learn from. Are there any running gurus out there who'd be willing to coach a similar thread? I was actually thinking on my run last night about how I'd love to have someone look at my busted running form and tell me what the crap I'm doing wrong. I've been told I run like an ostrich

Thanks for the drill suggestions! I'll also try to get a side view recording soon so we can get a better picture of where my hands exit the water as I start the recovery phase. But you are correct. I think I start pulling up around my hips instead of splashing water behind me before recovery.

I actually incorporate the fingertip and catchup drill on a weekly basis so I will continue those.

Which sprint was that? Pacific Coast Triathlon?

Hi Suzanne!

You might be correct about comment #1. I think this may be due to me trying my best to relax my head?

Comment #2 is VERY interesting. Looks like I'm creating drag as my body falls flat during recovery. I understand what you're telling me about not letting my body flatten while recovery arm is coming forward. What drill do you suggest I add to remedy this?

Thanks,
Roland

I'll join in, here are some videos of me swimming. The first one is probably the most clear, it's from about 3 weeks ago. For some reason the pool has become very cloudy since then.

Quick summary/bio:

6'1" 195 lbs
age -42
Just started learning to swim freestyle 8 months ago
I am currently working with a coach
I have worked on my fitness so that now I can do up to 100m fairly consistently but I get worn out very quickly. My coach and I think two major factors cause this - lower body low in the water causing a lot of drag and wasting a lot of energy kicking ineffectively.
We haven't quite figured out why I am burying my head below the waterline and have a tendency to submarine.
I never get the feeling of "swimming downhill", rather I always feel like I'm "climbing a ladder"
My goal for this year is to be able to swim 500m continuously (the typical Sprint distance swim) regardless of pace or time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBAaj1q_W54
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYqva2Lnboo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_x5kUJsH98

If you are familiar with TI, the skating drill, followed by either spear switch or swing switch. Spear switch uses underwater recovery, so its much easier to hold the skate position as you switch. Swing switch uses over the water recovery and forces/helps you engage yoru core a bit to hold this position. Here is a post about it:
http://steelcityendurance.com/swimming/better-swim-drills-one-arm-e...

Thanks Suzanne! I actually tried the holding my "edge" technique by engaging my core and slightly thinking "delay rotation until you can spear forward" last night during my 100s last night. I saved an average to 1-2 seconds per 100 at the same effort level compared to the last time I did these types of 100s. However, I wasn't able to do this when I was swimming all out 100s (all except one which was the 2nd one of the set).

Anyway, I quickly skimmed your link and will go further into it later today. I'm pretty familiar with TI and used the drills there to self coach myself and bring my swimming to where it is now (which is ALOT better than where I was when I started swimming for triathlon in 2011).

I need to get my wife to take some video of me...

I do have one question that I've not been able to find an answer for:

What drills do I need to do to improve basic form? More importantly, how much of each drill should I do?

A little history: I've been in and around water pretty much my whole life (pools, lakes, rivers, The Pacific), and I am very comfortable in the water. However, 40 years of aquatic circumflatulation provides little, if any actual distance swimming experience. This is where I'm starting. I've been in the pool since February, and I have swam 1000yds in a single go. I know I drag my left side, badly. I also can not breathe to my left (I started working on this on Monday... I survived... barely). Right now I can only swim 2 days a week (I may be able to add a day once school is out) and I know that's going to limit my progress. All I've been doing is 600yd, 2x50 kick drills (no flippers), 600yd, 2x50 kick drill. Monday I did a 200yd warm up, then 8x25 breathing on the left, then a whole lot of bilateral (every 3rd stroke) until I had to leave...

I'll take all the help I can get. I apologize for the video quality and understand if you can't see it well enough to offer suggestions. Thank you in advance!

-Randy

Where's your video Randy?

Stand by...working on it. Thought I had it but failed. Trying to get it uploaded to Youtube now.

Ok, here's the video link. Thank you again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYxnoH23zQg

-Randy

Hi Randy,

I'm still working on my swim so I can't see what our other swim coaches detect but I do see your head coming out of the water too much when breathing. To remedy this, I suggest you breath with your mouth pointing towards your armpit. This will keep one goggle (in your case left) as much into the water. This should help you become a bit more streamlined (reducing drag and raising your hips).

~Roland

Giving myself one shameless bump. Hopefully my swim isn't so bad that I'm beyond help. Please feel free to offer any suggestions.

Hey guys, I'm traveling to a comp so I'll be out until monday. I'll go over the videos when I get back. Until then, it's buoy chasing time!

First thought is great job!!! Second thought is...stop doing all out 100s if you can't hold your improved skill. Only swim as fast as the new skill "sticks". The more you practice the more you can push the new feeling. Watch elite swimmers...no one rolls then spears flat in general. the core rotation is (almost) always timed with arm entry.

Keep up the great practice!

PS I'm teaching a course inside the TI academy right now for triathletes preparing for an Olympic or Half Iron swim!

Thanks! Please, tell me more about this course you're teaching. I have Vineman 70.3 coming up. Maybe you can give me some example workouts in the 2400 - 3000 yard range?

If it's useful information, my CSS is currently 1:45/100.

Here are a couple of videos I asked my girlfriend to take of me the other day. You'll probably ask yourself how I don't drown every time I get into the water with how bad my form is, but I somehow manage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9iV8cSFiHQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikkHE5oR1zQ