Swim Critique Video, thanks

Originally posted by chris948

I posted a while back with a video, still working on a lot of the same stuff it seems. Elbows are higher, legs are closer together but still need a more compact kick.

Still struggling with the left hand tilting upward on entry, I think this is my poorly executed attempt at "feel", also I think I'm not rolling enough to air, more like turning, which puts me in something resembling a C instead of straight, most obvious at around :42

Anything else? I'm disturbingly not good, about a 1:45 100m repeat swimmer, run out of breath very quickly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2BAdJYqpBQ

Originally posted by Blastman
A drill my coach gave me was to put my arms at the side and using only my legs to get to the other side. Head is down, chest is down, and legs are together and I use short small kicks to move.

Originally posted by zedzded
You need to post up a video from above. The main issue seems to be your arms, they are doing something whacky, it's hard to see without seeing a video from above the water and would help if it were slow motion, but it looks like your hand is entering the water too short, your hand/arm goes down, then up then straightens. It effectively acts as a brake. Just watch a few videos on youtube e.g watch the first few seconds of this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvM3JYC--hM

Note how the arm enters the water, the swimmer stretches his arm right out, long body, then he enters the catch and pull

I'd suggest using fins and swimming one arm only. Watch the arm as it enters the water, you'll notice what you're doing wrong and should be able to rectify it.


also

- you're not as face down as you could be, you need to be looking directly downwards, your legs are dropping as a result
- you're turning your head to breath, turn your body
- when your arm completes the catch and pull and exits the water, the hand should be brushing the hip, you are pulling yours out too early, losing power, a drill to fix this is to deliberately brush your hip with your fingers
- your arms are shoulder width apart, which is ok, but as you complete your pull, your hand is a good 3 inches from your body, it comes in to your body, again easy to rectify with the above drill
- legs are getting splayed when you kick, probably because you're twisting your head to breathe rather than your body
- feet need to point more, stretch your foot right down, imagine your leg and foot are fused together
- there's too much flex at the knee with your kick
- running out of breath - it looks like from the lack of bubbles you;re holding your breath, you should be slowly breathing out, then breathing in. Never holding your breath even when tumble turning and never breathing out when you turn your head to breath in. Always breathe out underwater
- hard to tell from the video, but it looks like your hands are flapping about quite a bit as well. Look at the video link I posted and watch how little flex there is with his wrists. I get the impression that although you have got a high vertical elbow, it's somehow ineffective. You're possibly going for the path of least resistance, getting your arms moving through the water "efficiently" and by efficient I mean moving through the water quickly, minimizing resistance. You don't want that. You want resistance. You want your arms to feel like they are moving through treacle. That resistance is generating power. Your arms will get tired, you'll start feeling your lats getting sore, this is good.

Originally posted by chris948

I posted a while back with a video, still working on a lot of the same stuff it seems. Elbows are higher, legs are closer together but still need a more compact kick.

Still struggling with the left hand tilting upward on entry, I think this is my poorly executed attempt at "feel", also I think I'm not rolling enough to air, more like turning, which puts me in something resembling a C instead of straight, most obvious at around :42

Anything else? I'm disturbingly not good, about a 1:45 100m repeat swimmer, run out of breath very quickly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2BAdJYqpBQ

Originally posted by chris948

thanks, I saw the head turning and bad arms but missed the right foot issues, it seems to be better in the first half (not exactly good) but obviously worse in the 2nd half of the video, by then I was pretty wasted, so coordination was leaving.

I can't do a 6 beat with any sort of rythm, just can't. Two beat is hard enough to get the right foot/left hand left foot/right hand coordination, obviously it's still a struggle.

I've been rolling more, which dramatically helps. How far down should my arm be "way ahead of your head"? I was taught early on it's basically like reaching far over my head, which is as parallel to the water as possible. I can't say I have anything to reference with entry.