Stroke Advice Tips for Free & Fly ( Videos )

For your fly, it's very flat in the water. Try a little more dolphin action from your chest all the way to your toes. Your hips are barely even breaking the surface as you reach forward each stroke. Try getting your head down lower as you reach forward to help bring the hips up and continue the kick a little more powerful.

The thing that jumps out at me is it appears that you aren't finishing your pulls with any snap. Especially in fly, you need to accelerate the 2nd half of your pull, it's this 'snap' that helps the arm recovery. I agree with Mr Adams, you are a bit too flat.

Thanks both of you, Ill be sure to try to work on the hips and the snap...

On the free, nice arm recovery. My impression FWIW: try a little more head down, rotate hips, and stretch out on the catch phase, especially in a longer distance event.

When your hands enter the water you should think about them entering softly so that they will stay at the surface after they enter. I can't tell if your hands are dropping downwards after they enter. Good swimmers keep their hands high so that the length of their pull is a full stroke. If your hands drop down your stroke is then shorter. Imagine if you let your hands drop 18-inches down at the beginning of your freestyle stroke before you started to pull back. Your stroke would be much shorter. When your hands enter you should also relax your back muscles to allow your chest and head to drop down. I tell the swimmers I coach to imagine my hand between their should blades pushing them down when they relax their back. Your chest will drop and your hips will rise to the surface. The second post (James A. Adams) is referring to the fact that your head does not seem to drop very much. A common error is for swimmers to tighten their back muscles when their hands enter. This will prevent your chest and head from dropping down. Let gravity help you sink, then the buoyancy in your lungs will help push you back up. Your head should stay in line with your body - do not duck it below your body. Good luck!

Thanks a lot for the tips. But all these acronyms. What does FWIW mean? (F)or (W)hat (I)t's (W)orth

On the free, nice arm recovery. My impression FWIW: try a little more head down, rotate hips, and stretch out on the catch phase, especially in a longer distance event. Thanks a lot for the tips. But all these acronyms. What does FWIW mean?

On the free, nice arm recovery. My impression FWIW: try a little more head down, rotate hips, and stretch out on the catch phase, especially in a longer distance event. Thanks a lot for the tips. But all these acronyms. What does FWIW mean?

You're timing is off. You're breathing in the wrong point. I'd need to see the underwater views but it's easy to see that your head is entering after your hands. Good butterflyers are fully extended at the end of their stroke (legs fully extended as well as arms). So you're timing needs to get better. You certainly have the strength necessary and if you can correct the timing issue (tough one to correct) you'd be able to swim a 100 with a lot more efficiency (easier and faster times). Please look a the youtube video of Misty Hyman (just type in her name and underwater butterfly) her chest movement can be duplicated by doing underwater fly without a recovery (slowly so you can learn the timing). Also watch the underwater videos of Phelps at the Olympics, the extention is very noticeable from all the swimmers. Good luck, If you'd like more information please email me at tomtopo@netzero.com Good luck, Coach T.

Thanks for all the tips. They were all dead on and I can already see a difference. Also, with the fly, I really felt it when I pretended that someone was pushing down inbetween my shoulder-blades. I could tell that I had more power in the stroke, it was easier, i was able to get a more powerful kick and i could really feel my body go up and down in a snake like action instead of a log trying to sink. I also noticed that when I streched my freestyle stroke out infront, I could actually feel the water and finally understand the whole sculling this now. Putting my head down in the water helped a lot, I actually felt like I was swimming down hill, and I could see the lane lines suddenly fly by faster with less effort. Also, I tried the snap that was meantioned and in fly, it wore me the hell out, i think i need to get stronger. Also, I tried the snap with the freestyle and it seemed like only my left had any luck with getting and extra push from it. I always breath on my right side, do you think that would hinder the pull and push enough that it would be less noticble than the left side? For the rotating of the hips, I was always told to keep the hips pretty much flat in the water. Are you saying that I should rotate the hips more, or rotate more from the hips up so my shoulders rotate more??? And thank you again everyone, you guys were very helpful!