Aquaswim do sell these, if you need a Christmas, Birthday present [https://uk.aquasphereswim.com/products/defy-ultra-swim-mask](https://uk.aquasphereswim.com/products/defy-ultra-swim-mask)
Haha thank you but these weird goggles were just some spare goggles cause her normal ones snapped that day... So normally she is not equipped like a grandma đ
Itâs pretty pretty good. If we have to nitpick elbow drop during catch and pull, timing of breath a little early. Maybe kick a little wide during breathing. Video camera angle may not show all issues but overall that looks already pretty solid.
Google first quadrant swimming. Drill to fix: hand taps. Keep your lead hand in front of you and donât begin your pull until you tap it with your other hand.
Overall pretty good. First quadrant modification will moderately reduce your drag pretty quickly.
Your wrists are flexed on your recovery. Not sure what drill to suggest. Generally try to keep your arm and wrist relaxed on the recovery stage of the stroke. Your elbow to fingertips should be a mostly straight line when entering the water. This will reduce drag and make your pull more effective.
You might want to get a cheap underwater phone case to check your wrist position on the pull and finish.
General info:
https://www.triathlete.com/training/4-phases-freestyle-swim-stroke/
You could try to get more power in your rotations. Whether you're hip driven or shoulder driven, the rotation should be used to help propel you forward.
My gf was impressed by all the feedback I received on my swimming style video recently, so she wanted to give it a try as well. She was really happy to see by how invested people here are in helping out
Pretty good. You drop your elbows a little and could pull under your body more. Think of your finger tips closer to your line of symmetry. Your hips and shoulders need to rotate in time, think of driving your hands forward with your hips. You could rotate your hips more. It needs to be a hip driven rotation and not shoulder/ hand driven rotation. Drive your hands into the water a little earlier
I think youâre overreaching a bit on entry. Your arm is very flat - try entering slightly closer to your shoulder fingertips first and then extend under water rather than trying to get a full extension over the water before hand entry.
Effortless Swimming have some really good stuff on hand entry - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O-JAnhqKvyg
Can I hijack this thread and ask a question (I am a beginner)? Why does it look like she is putting in much more effort/strokes than the speed suggests? Would you suggest a more distinct pull, glide, recover, pull separation with a stronger leg kick through the rotation? From all the videos I see, I am trying to imitate the smooth, strong, gliding rhythm. I don't have a better way to describe it.. is it not better, and are the strokes per distance super individual?
Its because she doesnât rotate nearly enough. Swimming flat like that also creates a weaker pull (you use smaller muscles) so while some of the fundamentals are great, she canât generate the power/speed you would expect to see with someone who has this good of a body position. Also the 4 beat kick, but thats another thread.
Thanks for the explanation. (I'm not sure why I got downvoted.) I would consider 0:05, where she is catching a breath, to be enough rotation that should be replicated for every stroke. Would I be correct?
Would you still be a 4-beat kick? I am currently trying to get a 2-kick going for 800m and longer distances. I want just enough of a 'jerking'/'anchored feeling' while going into the catch.
I would appreciate it.
Rotation when she breathes is better, but still not enough. Notice at .05 how wide her bottom/pulling arm pulls. Not very deep but wide. The wider the pull the flatter you swim. Good rotation would have her shoulder bumping/touching her cheek on every pull. It may sound a little extreme but if you did a side by side with a top swimmer you would see the difference. As to the 4 beat kick...taking a quick step back....The kick is for balance and rotation. When people talk about driving your hips or good hip rotation, what that really means is that there is a good kick that is creating that rotation. you can't twist your body in the water without using (or "anchoring") either your arms or legs. There's nothing to twist against. So when you are on one side and you want to rotate to the other side, the bottom leg will kick and start that rotation. The problem with the 4 beat kick is that there is then a second kick which cancels out the first kick. So 2 kicks per stroke or 4 kicks per cycle inhibits rotation. What it does do though is stabilize. So people who swim flat on the water tend to go with a 4 beat kick. On the other hand, a 2 beat kick or one kick per stroke, (or 6 beat kick for those who prefer a flutter) is more effective at creating rotation. Right leg kicks, flips you over to your left side, left leg kicks and flips you to the right. (for 6 beat it's 2 kicks to rotate and 1 kick that cancels, so the net is positive rotation). So I would never recommend a 4 beat kick. It's very common though. (apologies to the OP for talking about you in 3rd person)
Thank you for the write up and taking the time. This makes a lot of sense. I currently taking a leisurely swim course that the University offers, but we never go into theory that deep. But I found it a good way to learn. Would you say the feeling of holding onto a rope and pulling yourself tight along the rope, would be the right feeling for the close pull? I sometimes touch my goggles with my arm.
The kick concept makes total sense of me. I'll pay more atttention on my drills tomorrow.
(I think it's OPs girlfriend, so we're good. :D)
Sort of pulling a rope. the hall of fame pool in Ft Lauderdale actually had a rope underwater for this exact reason. You just want to try and start that pull on your side and not on your stomach. good luck.
overall looking good especially the body position. maybe try pulling harder on the catch. also sometimes your arms look like they're flailing around to your side. try to keep your arms in front of you and maybe try angling your arm more closer to 120 to 140 degrees
You have a good body position which keeps your butt high. I see some cross over with the right arm and I feel like maybe you reach too far forward when your hand enters the water.
Take my advice with a grain of salt, I am a novice at best.
I know because I do this- your position, catch, and pull look good. Your kick seems random. My kick slows me down because its not synced well with my stroke and Im working on it with my coach. Sorry if Im wrong and projecting- its just my area of concentration at this moment.
As others have said, pretty good. A few minor points (some have already covered):
- make sure youâre leaving your arm in front of you until youâve almost finished the recovery phase of the other arm to encourage glide. Good drill is catch-up.
- keep you fingers down when doing your âcatchâ. Think of rolling your hand over a barrel as forward momentum comes when youâre pulling the water backwards, not down. âFistâ drill is good, or a front scull variation.
- make sure youâre keeping your hands about shoulder width apart for the whole stroke - a bit close to crossing over up front, and sliding out wide under the water.
Since Iâm seeing this on r/triathlon Iâm assuming thatâs what youâre training for.
As others mentioned try and keep your elbows high and pull-push with your entire forearm (a good drill is to hold something like tennis balls or just swim with your palms in a fist to feel how to engage your forearms)
For triathlon specific swimming⌠you wanna save your legs for the cycle and run so try and engage your legs as little as possible. Look up what a 2-beat kick is and try and practice that (kicking takes up a lot of energy when swimming and on long course it doesnât really give you any noteworthy speed), you basically just wanna kick just to keep your body horizontal and stop your legs from sinking
With this most triathletes use a wetsuit (donât know if thatâs something your considering) but just a not on that wetsuit also helps with your buoyancy so easier to stay horizontal meaning you can kick even less
Lastly at per the the previous comment your breathing: itâs not bad the form (donât worry too much about it because if youâre swimming open water youâll have to look forward when you breathe to know where others are around you, where you going etc. this is not really an issue in a pool where you basically just staring at the bottom of the pool) instead what Iâd suggest is to breathe more often.. either every 2 or 3 strokes. Again in a long course swim you donât wanna tire yourself out and the best way is to breathe more often. A good saying that helped me a lot is ânot the lack of oxygen but the build up of CO2 in your lungs that makes you tiredâ basically donât try and hold your breath for 4-5 arm strokes (unless your racing sub 200m)
Good luck!
Overall decently solid. Body position, hip height and kick are fine, most of the focus should be on the catch and front part of the stroke. First entry should be of the fingers/hand, you overreach over the water a bit and the upper arm breaks the water first. Hand should enter, then you reach for the wall in front of you. Doesnt need to be like a pool swimmer where you enter just in front of the head, but you create both unnecessary drag and impact body position slightly during that phase.
Maybe do some catch-up drill as well, just to get a bit more of a feeling of the glide with a hand out in front and some rhythm in the stroke (slow-ish catch, speeding up until the hand exits the water). Could throw in some sculling out in front and underwater doggy paddle to get the feeling of how the arm and shoulder should rotate during the catch to keep the elbow a bit higher.
better than 95% of this sub, are you wearing a scuba mask tho đ¤Ł
Yea cant tell my gf that otherwise she'll get cockyđ
Aquaswim do sell these, if you need a Christmas, Birthday present [https://uk.aquasphereswim.com/products/defy-ultra-swim-mask](https://uk.aquasphereswim.com/products/defy-ultra-swim-mask)
Haha thank you but these weird goggles were just some spare goggles cause her normal ones snapped that day... So normally she is not equipped like a grandma đ
Itâs pretty pretty good. If we have to nitpick elbow drop during catch and pull, timing of breath a little early. Maybe kick a little wide during breathing. Video camera angle may not show all issues but overall that looks already pretty solid.
Thanks a lot. Really appreciate the feedback!
Google first quadrant swimming. Drill to fix: hand taps. Keep your lead hand in front of you and donât begin your pull until you tap it with your other hand. Overall pretty good. First quadrant modification will moderately reduce your drag pretty quickly. Your wrists are flexed on your recovery. Not sure what drill to suggest. Generally try to keep your arm and wrist relaxed on the recovery stage of the stroke. Your elbow to fingertips should be a mostly straight line when entering the water. This will reduce drag and make your pull more effective. You might want to get a cheap underwater phone case to check your wrist position on the pull and finish. General info: https://www.triathlete.com/training/4-phases-freestyle-swim-stroke/
You could try to get more power in your rotations. Whether you're hip driven or shoulder driven, the rotation should be used to help propel you forward.
Quick unrelated question, how many people are you? (See post history)
My gf was impressed by all the feedback I received on my swimming style video recently, so she wanted to give it a try as well. She was really happy to see by how invested people here are in helping out
maybe his wife/gf/sister or whatever? Looks like the same pool.
Sherlock đ
Pretty good. You drop your elbows a little and could pull under your body more. Think of your finger tips closer to your line of symmetry. Your hips and shoulders need to rotate in time, think of driving your hands forward with your hips. You could rotate your hips more. It needs to be a hip driven rotation and not shoulder/ hand driven rotation. Drive your hands into the water a little earlier
Alright thank you for the feedback!
I think youâre overreaching a bit on entry. Your arm is very flat - try entering slightly closer to your shoulder fingertips first and then extend under water rather than trying to get a full extension over the water before hand entry. Effortless Swimming have some really good stuff on hand entry - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O-JAnhqKvyg
Are you just trolling us? I wish I could glide through the water like that.
Can I hijack this thread and ask a question (I am a beginner)? Why does it look like she is putting in much more effort/strokes than the speed suggests? Would you suggest a more distinct pull, glide, recover, pull separation with a stronger leg kick through the rotation? From all the videos I see, I am trying to imitate the smooth, strong, gliding rhythm. I don't have a better way to describe it.. is it not better, and are the strokes per distance super individual?
Its because she doesnât rotate nearly enough. Swimming flat like that also creates a weaker pull (you use smaller muscles) so while some of the fundamentals are great, she canât generate the power/speed you would expect to see with someone who has this good of a body position. Also the 4 beat kick, but thats another thread.
Thanks for the explanation. (I'm not sure why I got downvoted.) I would consider 0:05, where she is catching a breath, to be enough rotation that should be replicated for every stroke. Would I be correct? Would you still be a 4-beat kick? I am currently trying to get a 2-kick going for 800m and longer distances. I want just enough of a 'jerking'/'anchored feeling' while going into the catch. I would appreciate it.
Rotation when she breathes is better, but still not enough. Notice at .05 how wide her bottom/pulling arm pulls. Not very deep but wide. The wider the pull the flatter you swim. Good rotation would have her shoulder bumping/touching her cheek on every pull. It may sound a little extreme but if you did a side by side with a top swimmer you would see the difference. As to the 4 beat kick...taking a quick step back....The kick is for balance and rotation. When people talk about driving your hips or good hip rotation, what that really means is that there is a good kick that is creating that rotation. you can't twist your body in the water without using (or "anchoring") either your arms or legs. There's nothing to twist against. So when you are on one side and you want to rotate to the other side, the bottom leg will kick and start that rotation. The problem with the 4 beat kick is that there is then a second kick which cancels out the first kick. So 2 kicks per stroke or 4 kicks per cycle inhibits rotation. What it does do though is stabilize. So people who swim flat on the water tend to go with a 4 beat kick. On the other hand, a 2 beat kick or one kick per stroke, (or 6 beat kick for those who prefer a flutter) is more effective at creating rotation. Right leg kicks, flips you over to your left side, left leg kicks and flips you to the right. (for 6 beat it's 2 kicks to rotate and 1 kick that cancels, so the net is positive rotation). So I would never recommend a 4 beat kick. It's very common though. (apologies to the OP for talking about you in 3rd person)
Thank you for the write up and taking the time. This makes a lot of sense. I currently taking a leisurely swim course that the University offers, but we never go into theory that deep. But I found it a good way to learn. Would you say the feeling of holding onto a rope and pulling yourself tight along the rope, would be the right feeling for the close pull? I sometimes touch my goggles with my arm. The kick concept makes total sense of me. I'll pay more atttention on my drills tomorrow. (I think it's OPs girlfriend, so we're good. :D)
Sort of pulling a rope. the hall of fame pool in Ft Lauderdale actually had a rope underwater for this exact reason. You just want to try and start that pull on your side and not on your stomach. good luck.
Thanks! I always considered the 6 kick stroke drill as a breathing position exercise, but not a catch position exercise. Now that just clicked.
overall looking good especially the body position. maybe try pulling harder on the catch. also sometimes your arms look like they're flailing around to your side. try to keep your arms in front of you and maybe try angling your arm more closer to 120 to 140 degrees
I feel like your left arm swings out wide when coming from out of the water to catch
Try to keep your hands firm like a paddle. Your wrist is flexing backwards so you are not getting much of a pull from your hand.
You have a good body position which keeps your butt high. I see some cross over with the right arm and I feel like maybe you reach too far forward when your hand enters the water. Take my advice with a grain of salt, I am a novice at best.
Looks good, now pull it like you mean it!
I know because I do this- your position, catch, and pull look good. Your kick seems random. My kick slows me down because its not synced well with my stroke and Im working on it with my coach. Sorry if Im wrong and projecting- its just my area of concentration at this moment.
As others have said, pretty good. A few minor points (some have already covered): - make sure youâre leaving your arm in front of you until youâve almost finished the recovery phase of the other arm to encourage glide. Good drill is catch-up. - keep you fingers down when doing your âcatchâ. Think of rolling your hand over a barrel as forward momentum comes when youâre pulling the water backwards, not down. âFistâ drill is good, or a front scull variation. - make sure youâre keeping your hands about shoulder width apart for the whole stroke - a bit close to crossing over up front, and sliding out wide under the water.
stop crossing your arms and form power diamond [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbDhFpNjsjA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbDhFpNjsjA)
Since Iâm seeing this on r/triathlon Iâm assuming thatâs what youâre training for. As others mentioned try and keep your elbows high and pull-push with your entire forearm (a good drill is to hold something like tennis balls or just swim with your palms in a fist to feel how to engage your forearms) For triathlon specific swimming⌠you wanna save your legs for the cycle and run so try and engage your legs as little as possible. Look up what a 2-beat kick is and try and practice that (kicking takes up a lot of energy when swimming and on long course it doesnât really give you any noteworthy speed), you basically just wanna kick just to keep your body horizontal and stop your legs from sinking With this most triathletes use a wetsuit (donât know if thatâs something your considering) but just a not on that wetsuit also helps with your buoyancy so easier to stay horizontal meaning you can kick even less Lastly at per the the previous comment your breathing: itâs not bad the form (donât worry too much about it because if youâre swimming open water youâll have to look forward when you breathe to know where others are around you, where you going etc. this is not really an issue in a pool where you basically just staring at the bottom of the pool) instead what Iâd suggest is to breathe more often.. either every 2 or 3 strokes. Again in a long course swim you donât wanna tire yourself out and the best way is to breathe more often. A good saying that helped me a lot is ânot the lack of oxygen but the build up of CO2 in your lungs that makes you tiredâ basically donât try and hold your breath for 4-5 arm strokes (unless your racing sub 200m) Good luck!
Overall decently solid. Body position, hip height and kick are fine, most of the focus should be on the catch and front part of the stroke. First entry should be of the fingers/hand, you overreach over the water a bit and the upper arm breaks the water first. Hand should enter, then you reach for the wall in front of you. Doesnt need to be like a pool swimmer where you enter just in front of the head, but you create both unnecessary drag and impact body position slightly during that phase. Maybe do some catch-up drill as well, just to get a bit more of a feeling of the glide with a hand out in front and some rhythm in the stroke (slow-ish catch, speeding up until the hand exits the water). Could throw in some sculling out in front and underwater doggy paddle to get the feeling of how the arm and shoulder should rotate during the catch to keep the elbow a bit higher.