Looking for Comments on my Freestyle Stroke - video

Your head seems to be a little too low...like it's completely underwater. But I can't really see how you'd get it up more without your lower body sinking. Dan

Your head is actually not necessarily "too low". The problem instead, is that your right arm extends downwards towards the bottom of the pool. When this happens, your head follows your hand and thus is submerged when you extend your right arm. This causes a "head-bobbing" effect where you are constantly dipping and lifting your head and upper body. You're also crossing over during your hand entry on both sides- place the hand in front of the shoulder. Try to breathe bilaterally, as that will help eliminate some current and potential problems in your stroke. Your kick is actually pretty good. You really don't want to aim for "straight legs" while you are swimming. What you can do is work on kicking more from the hips to use the full power of your legs to help you through the water. Finally, you can work on developing the strength of your pull, specifically the early vertical forearm. Here is a drill you can try to work on this: https://vimeo.com/82897160 Best of luck!

Thank you all for the comments thus far....actually I lied, I'm 53. :) I took a couple of lesson right after the holidays and have been good about getting in the water 3 days/week. I always try to rack up 33 laps on my counter thru various combo's of (primarily) free and *** strokes with varying distances and rests between each set. I also tend to get 5 laps or so of my lap total swimming free with a pull buoy. I'm going to go over each of these comments several more times and really try to digest. Couple of quick comments based on my initial reaction and then in response to some observations made: - My initial response when I watched my video. A) I thought my arm movement above water was okay, but I did note that there is some disparity between my left and right. Specifically, my right arm (elbow) comes out of the water quite a bit higher than my left (elbow). B) At 47-55 second mark I was a little surprised to see my head that deep in the water. And C) my kick appears (to me) to be all over the place..no nice rhythm and definitely some bending at the knees. - My thoughts on comments thus far: "Your head seems to be a little too low...like it's completely underwater." I agree. I'm not sure how best to try to correct this. "Kick from the butt and try not to let the knee bend." Agree....I need to REALLY work on keeping my legs straighter and kicking from the hip. Bobinator/Steve: Yes, when my hands enter the water I feel like I'm first pushing down and then back. I will work on trying to keep both elbows up thru arm movement especially upon hand entering water and push water back rather than down (then back). And I agree I probably also need to lose the baggie swim trunks! ;) So, it appears I must work: 1) my arm position (high elbow throughout movement) - with practice especially with a pull buoy 2) kick from the hip and not bend leg - kick exercises w/ kickboard so I don't also have to think about arm movement(??) 3) body position - not sure how to address my head being too deep(?) Open to any/all additional comments. Again, thank you to those who've commented thus far.

I am in awe of your plantar flexion. Envious! Wish mine were as good. You are able to achieve almost 180 degrees. That is a huge natural advantage and if you work on your kick, it could become a great weapon. Having said that, you kick with your knees bent. You want to kick with a straighter leg. Kick from the butt and try not to let the knee bend. Your head position is good. You are looking down at the bottom of the pool. Your hips are sinking. This is going to cause a lot of drag. (One of the reasons you are getting winded so quickly). Try pushing down gently with your chest while maintaining the same good head position (eyes toward the bottom of the pool). Work on these first. Don't try to do too much. Once you have got your body position sorted out you can start to fine tune other areas like your low elbow position. You could try wearing a Speedo, too. Those shorts you are wearing are causing a lot of drag.

LOL, old geezer at 50. Didn't you know that 50 is the new 30?

Drills are extremely important with adult learners 9535 Also, this book has a large section which goes in to great detail on stroke technique. Its value, by far exceeds the 2003 publishing date.

You have a smooth and steady stroke; you definitely should consider swimming some races! Your left arm especially is not catching the water for a good pull. Instead of catching you are pushing down and unfortunately that gives you no forward propulsion. Try getting your elbow up as you do your over water recovery. Once you place your hand in the water keep your elbow up and try to push against the water in a straight back motion, not downward

Swimspire: Got it! That makes a lot of sense (head bopping) to me especially when I watch the video...appears I'm really driving my right arm down/deep...note to self: elbow up don't cross over. You hit upon my "kryptonite"...as in bilateral breathing! breathing to my right okay, but when I try to do it to the left body parts are flying all over the place! I will definitely try to find some videos on breathing both sides.

Congratulations on with your improvement and discipline. I'd like to try to illustrate Bobinator's arm stroke points: The red (right arm) and blue (left arm) plots what would be the ideal arm paths of catch and propulsion. Try to enter these as fixed points in water, slipping the fingers first, like in a tube, then once in position use the leverage to pull yourself through the water. Once done, the arm will exit the water elbow first. 9533 The feedback where the arm is pushing down and up, this is happening: 9534 This is wasting energy and causing drag by pushing yourself up after arm entry, and pulling everything down before release. Try to refine any propulsive force to push and pull yourself forward. Hope this is accurate and helps. Good luck

You have a nice steady kick and good rotation. But you are pushing far too much water down before you start to push it back. Start your catch earlier. I recommend looking up some swim drills to improve catch online. Good luck and keep swimming!