How to Achieve and Practice Good Swim Form

I have horrible freestyle swim form. And when I'm doing it, I have no idea that is how it really looks.   On dryland I am able to move my arms and hands into the correct "S" shape positions but when I get in the water, it all, apparently, goes to wrong. My arms do not come under my body in that "S" configuration, rather they stay out side beyond my sides.  I do not even realize that I am swimming that way.  Furthermore, even when I am trying to be aware of good form and practice good form, in reality, in the water, for some reason, I am not achieving much of a correction. My typical 100 yd time is 1:45 and I can get it below 1:30 for limited distances.

I am interested in practicing good swim form but I am at a loss as to how to sense when I am out of form and how to correct it. What can I do if anything? Are there dryland things that I can do to help with form? I enjoy swimming and swim 4 to 5 times per week. sometimes even 6 times per week. Maybe I should just forget about it and keep on swimming?

What to do?

Parents
  • I'm  not an expert on freestyle, but I'm pretty sure the S shape is from and old paradigm that posited hand force was primarily generated by lift force, like a propeller instead of drag forces, like a paddle. Now we are back to viewing propulsion as mostly drag related. From this point of view the most important thing is probably early vertical forearm. You can Google drills to achieve that. What's the best thing to do would be to get a coach to at least look at your form and offer suggestions. Failing that you could post a video here and people could make suggestions. It's hard to know what you're doing right or wrong without seeing it. 

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  • I'm  not an expert on freestyle, but I'm pretty sure the S shape is from and old paradigm that posited hand force was primarily generated by lift force, like a propeller instead of drag forces, like a paddle. Now we are back to viewing propulsion as mostly drag related. From this point of view the most important thing is probably early vertical forearm. You can Google drills to achieve that. What's the best thing to do would be to get a coach to at least look at your form and offer suggestions. Failing that you could post a video here and people could make suggestions. It's hard to know what you're doing right or wrong without seeing it. 

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