I learned freestyle a year ago and recently hit a major personal milestone of sub 1:30 for an all out 100m sprint (SCM). Very happy about this :-D. Here is my stroke video.
www.dropbox.com/.../Oct-8-2018-free-all-angles.mp4
Three months ago, my all out times were 1:39.6 (100m) and 0:21 (25m). Now they're 1:29.8(100m) and 0:20.2 (25m). So clearly I'm making more progress aerobically than stroke technique-wise. I'm guessing/assuming 25m all-out speed depends on technique.
All-out 100m: 1:29.8 (spl: 24)
All-out 25m: 0:20.2 (spl: 20)
css-pace: 1:40 (I can do 10x100 with 20 second gap). My spl ranges from 21-22 for these 100s.
I do mostly 50s and 100s (trying to pay attention to stroke count). The only drill I currenty do is single-arm free style (8x25 on each side). Since I started this drill a month ago, it has improved my DPS a lot. I swim 6 days a week (12km).
My next target is 1:20 for 100m :)
I would love to hear your feedback on what I should focus on next.
Probably, the primary reason your feet are coming out of the water so much is because your upper body is submerged enough to cause you to be out-of-balance. When streamline kicking, like in your video, the back part of your head (some coaches call it the monkey bump) should be slightly breaking the surface of the water and your shoulders should at the surface as well.
Paul
Paul - Thanks for this tip about my head. I had a coaching session recently and he also pointed out my head is too low in the water and moving too much. I changed my head position and it helped with the kick speed and also my swimming speed. In the last two months I went from kick sprint (25m) time of 31s to 24.2s. Of this, 2 seconds came from the change to the head position. The rest came from (1) practice (2) no breathing and (2) kicking harder during the last 10m, though I feel like dying, lol.
www.dropbox.com/.../Dec 21-2018-Kick.mp4
This is the video of my current kick. Initially I improved at the rate of 1-2s per week but in the last 3 weeks I've stagnated at ~ 24sec. I really want to get below 20sec. How do I do that? Is something wrong with my kick technique or am I not kicking fast enough?
You should decide what is more important: kicking faster or swimming faster? Your swimming is being held back by your two beat kick. No amount of kicking and kick sets will help you swim faster if you stay with the two beat kick technique.
Paul
I imagine they're not mutually exclusive? But definetely swimming faster is my primary goal. I've started doing drills like 4 (or 6) kicks 1 stoke, where I try to I kick continously. This has been helping my swimming speed. For example I'm 0.5-1 sec faster with this continous kick compared to my previous 2-beat kick for 25m. At this point I dont know if my continous kick is a 4-beat or 6-beat kick. May be it doesn't matter. I'll keep practicing these drills for now and report back later. But I would certainly like to know what other drills I can do to better integrate a continous kick into my stroke.
Probably, the primary reason your feet are coming out of the water so much is because your upper body is submerged enough to cause you to be out-of-balance. When streamline kicking, like in your video, the back part of your head (some coaches call it the monkey bump) should be slightly breaking the surface of the water and your shoulders should at the surface as well.
Paul
Paul - Thanks for this tip about my head. I had a coaching session recently and he also pointed out my head is too low in the water and moving too much. I changed my head position and it helped with the kick speed and also my swimming speed. In the last two months I went from kick sprint (25m) time of 31s to 24.2s. Of this, 2 seconds came from the change to the head position. The rest came from (1) practice (2) no breathing and (2) kicking harder during the last 10m, though I feel like dying, lol.
www.dropbox.com/.../Dec 21-2018-Kick.mp4
This is the video of my current kick. Initially I improved at the rate of 1-2s per week but in the last 3 weeks I've stagnated at ~ 24sec. I really want to get below 20sec. How do I do that? Is something wrong with my kick technique or am I not kicking fast enough?
You should decide what is more important: kicking faster or swimming faster? Your swimming is being held back by your two beat kick. No amount of kicking and kick sets will help you swim faster if you stay with the two beat kick technique.
Paul
I imagine they're not mutually exclusive? But definetely swimming faster is my primary goal. I've started doing drills like 4 (or 6) kicks 1 stoke, where I try to I kick continously. This has been helping my swimming speed. For example I'm 0.5-1 sec faster with this continous kick compared to my previous 2-beat kick for 25m. At this point I dont know if my continous kick is a 4-beat or 6-beat kick. May be it doesn't matter. I'll keep practicing these drills for now and report back later. But I would certainly like to know what other drills I can do to better integrate a continous kick into my stroke.
