Beginner video critique

I learned how to swim freestyle two summers ago and I love it! I'd appreciate any swimming tips and feedback. I'd like to improve my form with the aim of swimming faster triathlon distances (1.5 - 4 km). The video below is grainy and watermarked but I'm hoping there's enough there to give a general gist of my current stroke. http://youtu.be/H4_a263ytBw Thanks! I am going to make some triathlon specific comments because you want to swim as fast as possible using the least amount of energy and save the legs for the bike and run. Recovery - You are using too much energy to recover your arm over the water. Rotate your body more so your upper arm never crosses the plane of your torso. This should take less energy using larger more enduring muscles and be easier on your shoulder joint than what you are doing now. Do finger tip drag drill to figure out just how high your hand needs to be to clear the water. Concentrate on being as relaxed as possible through the recovery. Reach - reach further forward on your hand entry without hyper extending your shoulder. Do not lock out the elbow, but your arm should be otherwise straight. Finish - You are not completing your stroke. Rotate at hips and finish your stroke past your waist. Balance - You are dragging your hips and legs. The easiest way to correct this without a strong kick is to look down at the bottom of the pool, straighten your neck and press your chest towards the bottom of the pool. That should bring the hips up. Swimming in a pool, you really want your butt checks regularly breaking the surface of the water as you swim. Kick - You don't really want to, you are saving your legs for the bike and run, but you want to keep your legs high in the water to minimize drag. When you are sighting, try to get away with a frogman (goggles only out of the water) and kick to compensate for the poor body position. You also want to kick as you come into the finish to fill your legs with blood and warm them up for the transition. Breathing - breath to the side and try to avoid Tarzan swimming. It is easiest to get clean air to the side (instead of eating a wave or someones kick to the front). With a good amount of chop, Tarzan will be unavoidable, so it is worth practicing to get your shoulders used to it, and to learn to arch your body to minimize drag. One thing you should really focus on in the pool is your stroke count per length. If we are the same speed, but you are taking 20 strokes and I am taking 15, I am going to be less tired getting out of the water. Stroke count is a very good indicator of stroke improvements. Swimmers play golf, where we count our strokes and add it to our time and try to decrease that number. A length is pretty common, but it would make sense for you to keep track of 4 or 8 lengths of the pool. Pick a distance and use it as a benchmark to see how your stroke is improving. Joining a masters team will be helpful. Regular training, coaching, better swimmers to watch and ask questions of and someone else coming up with workout ideas. I can't see what you are doing underwater, but it is pretty simple at the beginning. You want your palm to face straight back as soon as possible, your finger tips point straight down and you pull in a straight line, straight back.

I learned how to swim freestyle two summers ago and I love it! I'd appreciate any swimming tips and feedback. I'd like to improve my form with the aim of swimming faster triathlon distances (1.5 - 4 km). The video below is grainy and watermarked but I'm hoping there's enough there to give a general gist of my current stroke. http://youtu.be/H4_a263ytBw Thanks! I am going to make some triathlon specific comments because you want to swim as fast as possible using the least amount of energy and save the legs for the bike and run. Recovery - You are using too much energy to recover your arm over the water. Rotate your body more so your upper arm never crosses the plane of your torso. This should take less energy using larger more enduring muscles and be easier on your shoulder joint than what you are doing now. Do finger tip drag drill to figure out just how high your hand needs to be to clear the water. Concentrate on being as relaxed as possible through the recovery. Reach - reach further forward on your hand entry without hyper extending your shoulder. Do not lock out the elbow, but your arm should be otherwise straight. Finish - You are not completing your stroke. Rotate at hips and finish your stroke past your waist. Balance - You are dragging your hips and legs. The easiest way to correct this without a strong kick is to look down at the bottom of the pool, straighten your neck and press your chest towards the bottom of the pool. That should bring the hips up. Swimming in a pool, you really want your butt checks regularly breaking the surface of the water as you swim. Kick - You don't really want to, you are saving your legs for the bike and run, but you want to keep your legs high in the water to minimize drag. When you are sighting, try to get away with a frogman (goggles only out of the water) and kick to compensate for the poor body position. You also want to kick as you come into the finish to fill your legs with blood and warm them up for the transition. Breathing - breath to the side and try to avoid Tarzan swimming. It is easiest to get clean air to the side (instead of eating a wave or someones kick to the front). With a good amount of chop, Tarzan will be unavoidable, so it is worth practicing to get your shoulders used to it, and to learn to arch your body to minimize drag. One thing you should really focus on in the pool is your stroke count per length. If we are the same speed, but you are taking 20 strokes and I am taking 15, I am going to be less tired getting out of the water. Stroke count is a very good indicator of stroke improvements. Swimmers play golf, where we count our strokes and add it to our time and try to decrease that number. A length is pretty common, but it would make sense for you to keep track of 4 or 8 lengths of the pool. Pick a distance and use it as a benchmark to see how your stroke is improving. Joining a masters team will be helpful. Regular training, coaching, better swimmers to watch and ask questions of and someone else coming up with workout ideas. I can't see what you are doing underwater, but it is pretty simple at the beginning. You want your palm to face straight back as soon as possible, your finger tips point straight down and you pull in a straight line, straight back.