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!
Parents
Former Member
Can you explain this a bit more?
Your elbow is going too far back on your recovery. If you rotate more, your elbow will stay in the same plane as your torso, or in front of it, which should be an easier recovery. The increased rotation will also help lengthen your stroke.
You want to be more like this:
swim.isport.com/.../Swimming_CommonFreestyleMistakes_01_300x350.jpg
Also, any specific drills you recommend to focus on rotation? It's something that's been recommended to me before in practice -- I attend a weekly master's style swim workout populated mostly with triathletes -- but I (obviously) haven't gotten it yet.
Here is a drill progression. It is not fun without a strong kick.
With your arms at your side, kick with one shoulder up and one shoulder down and alternate shoulders.
With one arm leading (straight out in front of you) and one shoulder up with the arm at the side, kick 10 beats, take a stroke to switch sides and kick 10 beats.
Half speed catch up with exaggerated rotation to shoulder up position.
Catch up drill
Full normal stroke
"up" is straight up out of the water.
Since you cannot see yourself, when you are attempting to make a stroke correction, you exaggerate what you are trying to accomplish to achieve something between what you think you are doing (pointing your shoulder straight up) and what you are doing now (shoulder at 30 degrees).
Can you explain this a bit more?
Your elbow is going too far back on your recovery. If you rotate more, your elbow will stay in the same plane as your torso, or in front of it, which should be an easier recovery. The increased rotation will also help lengthen your stroke.
You want to be more like this:
swim.isport.com/.../Swimming_CommonFreestyleMistakes_01_300x350.jpg
Also, any specific drills you recommend to focus on rotation? It's something that's been recommended to me before in practice -- I attend a weekly master's style swim workout populated mostly with triathletes -- but I (obviously) haven't gotten it yet.
Here is a drill progression. It is not fun without a strong kick.
With your arms at your side, kick with one shoulder up and one shoulder down and alternate shoulders.
With one arm leading (straight out in front of you) and one shoulder up with the arm at the side, kick 10 beats, take a stroke to switch sides and kick 10 beats.
Half speed catch up with exaggerated rotation to shoulder up position.
Catch up drill
Full normal stroke
"up" is straight up out of the water.
Since you cannot see yourself, when you are attempting to make a stroke correction, you exaggerate what you are trying to accomplish to achieve something between what you think you are doing (pointing your shoulder straight up) and what you are doing now (shoulder at 30 degrees).
