Freestyle- Constructive criticism requested, please!

you pull your hands pretty wide out to the sides when you pull back. Your observation was spot-on, habu! Here are the videos: www.youtube.com/watch www.youtube.com/watch My only concern would be how changing my stroke would affect my shoulders. Would pulling more under my body put more of a strain on them? Given my past medical issues, I need to avoid that; especially since I swim so much freestyle in training. For butterfly, I have worked on pulling more under my body, but I don't train or compete in enough fly for it to become a problem. Comments from the Peanut Gallery? By the way, no fair on commenting on the gaping neckline in my suit. :afraid: I am not wearing my beloved aging Speedo Endurance, as it took a dump when our pool chemical balance went south. :badday: And, when I tried to get a decent deal on suits, I had to settle on some Sporti close-outs, as Speedo (and Tyr) were out of my size. A word to the ladies out there: If you're built like me, the top half of Sporti suits fit lousy! :bitching:

Bilateral breathing is OK for some people and a good skill to have,but there are almost no elite swimmers using it.I don't think there is any utility in 5 or 7 breathing except for variety in a workout.If one wants to work on breath control doing more SDK off the turn would be more useful.

I thought elite swimmers usually breathe in races one-sided but do train bilateral

...you pull your hands pretty wide out to the sides when you pull back. If you pull closer to your body, you should be able to engage your core muscles more and get a more powerful pull. With your hands pulling that far out to your sides, you're not engaging all the muscles you can, or engaging them in the optimal fashion. As far as I'm concerned, you generally want your hands in the general vicinity of an imaginary line that goes through your shoulders and goes down towards your feet at the catch and start of the pull, then sweep in towards your center line. That will engage a lot of the muscles from your abs up to the little muscles in your arms and shoulders and also help you develop a healthy roll. :afraid: I tried it today; no can do over any distance. And, when I asked my coach/training partner about it, he reminded me of a previous discussion we had about the path of my hands and why I should NOT change it. Based on what he knows about my previous injury/surgery (thoracic outlet syndrome/ first rib resection), he felt that I should keep my pull wide, utilizing more of my upper back muscles, rather than shoulder muscles. When I tried it today, it validated what he had previously told me; it puts the strain on the wrong part of my previously carved-up anatomy. Same goes for fly, however, I feel like I can maintain closer hands on the pull for the relatively small amount I train fly, compared to freestyle.

Stroke rate has alot to do with the breathing pattern. As swimmers get older, taller, bigger, their stroke rates start to come down and they usually need to abondon every three and go to breathing to one side to get enough air. I'm sure they do assigned sets breathing every 3,5,7,9. It balances the stroke. When you get to open water it really pays to be comfortable on both sides.

Sorry, I may have been a bit abrupt.I have heard too many "old school" coaches who wanted to "toughen" their swimmers with the 3,5,7 drill and I got a button pushed.Knowing how to breath bilaterally is certainly a valuable tool. No sweat. I should have been more clear also. But my typing skills are rudimentary at best. So I tend to shorten my thoughts. You are correct that 5 & 7 strokes in competition is probably never used except in the short sprints, 50's. And that in the elite class, Olympics, National etc., they generally breath every 2 strokes. But they have worked long and hard (with the talent to go with) to perfect their strokes. But I do see the 2-3-2 or 1-3-1 or 2-2-3-2-2 technique used quite often in the age group meets when I referee. As I consider myself an aspiring age grouper(pun intended) I'm going to try it at the next meet and see how it goes. Other wise I found that by only breathing to my left makes me do the swimmer lunge. At this point, just experimenting with stuff after getting back into the sport some 37 years later can't hurt. I think I've got my turns down after I creamed my ankles at the 50 during the 2012 State meet at UIC last April in the 100 Free. A video that I saw that I do about once a month. http://youtu.be/AF5jO8sgkbE And one with Bob Bowman. http://youtu.be/KB4fJxMWX3U

Just watched the women's 4 x 200freestyle relay again from 2012 Olympics. And the 3rd leg was swum by ShannonVreeland and she did bilateral breathing the whole way. Not the norm for the big guns but many do still do the 3 count here and there. http://youtu.be/gALADAnOAhI