Hi fellas,
I used to swim quite a lot when I was a kid, but that stopped 10 years ago. Now, I've hit the pool once again and I feel that after 100m, I'm already exhausted. I'm good at everything else: I play lots of basketball, some tennis, I hit the gym regularly, etc, so stamina should not be an issue. Perhaps it takes a while for my body to get used to swimming, I don't know. In the meantime, I thought maybe it's a technique issue, so I've uploaded two videos:
Front crawl: P9090025 - YouTube
Butterfly: P9090026 - YouTube
The one I really care about right now is the front crawl. I'm trying to get my bronze medallion and bronze cross, and the requirement is 600m in 18 minutes. I can do that at an abysmal 16 minutes. I need to get it down to at least 10 minutes.
I'll appreciate every constructive criticism.
Thanks
I would drop your head a bit more. You are pulling with a straight arm. You want to catch the water with a higher elbow. You are not finishing the stroke as good as you could (your had is coming out a bit early) and your hand is coming out a bit far from your body. If you rotate a bit more your hand will actually pull through and finish under your body and not the side of the body. You need a higher elbow on your recovery. When you push off see if you can squeeze your head with your upper arms to streamine better.
You have the makings of a good swimmer. You are breathing to both sides and your body stays in pretty good alignment. Loose the board shorts and execute flip turns (maybe you just were not showing for the demo).
The butterly you are not dropping your chest down below your arms during entry. Your hands are entering first and below your chest. That's a no no. YOu actually want to lay your arms on the surface of the water in fron of you and go right into a high elbow catch. You want to breathe early and then return the head to a neutral position ASAP. Your head should actually lead your hands on entry. Try one arm fly first with one arm at your side then graduate to one arm outstretched. Swim doing two left two right and two full.
You did a real important step by filming. Watch your stroke and watch Phelp's stroke (there's tons on youtube) and see how they differ.
I would drop your head a bit more. You are pulling with a straight arm. You want to catch the water with a higher elbow. You are not finishing the stroke as good as you could (your had is coming out a bit early) and your hand is coming out a bit far from your body. If you rotate a bit more your hand will actually pull through and finish under your body and not the side of the body. You need a higher elbow on your recovery. When you push off see if you can squeeze your head with your upper arms to streamine better.
You have the makings of a good swimmer. You are breathing to both sides and your body stays in pretty good alignment. Loose the board shorts and execute flip turns (maybe you just were not showing for the demo).
The butterly you are not dropping your chest down below your arms during entry. Your hands are entering first and below your chest. That's a no no. YOu actually want to lay your arms on the surface of the water in fron of you and go right into a high elbow catch. You want to breathe early and then return the head to a neutral position ASAP. Your head should actually lead your hands on entry. Try one arm fly first with one arm at your side then graduate to one arm outstretched. Swim doing two left two right and two full.
You did a real important step by filming. Watch your stroke and watch Phelp's stroke (there's tons on youtube) and see how they differ.
