Freestyle stroke

Flipper, Here are some pointers that have helped me: - Think about anchoring your hands in the water and pulling your body forward, rather than pushing the water back. The previous description of Grant Hackett pulling himself forward on cables is a great mental picture. What's the difference? I believe if you think about pushing water backwards, you'll pull too hard and too fast with your arms and you will shove the water back without necessarily harnessing it to forward momentum. - Try swimming some of your sets with your hands balled in fists, aka "fist drills." This will really teach you to use your whole forearm as a paddle. (Bonus: when you open up your hands, you'll feel like you have ping-pong paddles attached to them.) Combine this and the previous point, you want to slow you arm stroke down just a little to ensure you have a good grip. - Think about initiating your body roll from your hips, not your arms. Ideally, if you have a firm grip on the water, you can use your arms like propeller blades to translate your body roll into forward momentum. This hooks your stroke up to the more powerful core body trunk muscles, and takes some of the work load off of your arms and shoulders. This all sounds more complex than it really is. Think about how a golfer or a baseball batter translates body rotation into more power in his/her swing. One way to feel this is to do a pull set with a kickboard instead of a pull buoy between your thighs. If you can feel the board pushing on the water, your rotation is good. - You know you really have the hip driven body roll gooding good when you find yourself getting stronger and your teammates getting weaker in long pulling sets. Why? They are using just their arms and shoulders while you use you whole abdomen and chest as well, really everything except your legs. Matt

Flipper, Here are some pointers that have helped me: - Think about anchoring your hands in the water and pulling your body forward, rather than pushing the water back. The previous description of Grant Hackett pulling himself forward on cables is a great mental picture. What's the difference? I believe if you think about pushing water backwards, you'll pull too hard and too fast with your arms and you will shove the water back without necessarily harnessing it to forward momentum. - Try swimming some of your sets with your hands balled in fists, aka "fist drills." This will really teach you to use your whole forearm as a paddle. (Bonus: when you open up your hands, you'll feel like you have ping-pong paddles attached to them.) Combine this and the previous point, you want to slow you arm stroke down just a little to ensure you have a good grip. - Think about initiating your body roll from your hips, not your arms. Ideally, if you have a firm grip on the water, you can use your arms like propeller blades to translate your body roll into forward momentum. This hooks your stroke up to the more powerful core body trunk muscles, and takes some of the work load off of your arms and shoulders. This all sounds more complex than it really is. Think about how a golfer or a baseball batter translates body rotation into more power in his/her swing. One way to feel this is to do a pull set with a kickboard instead of a pull buoy between your thighs. If you can feel the board pushing on the water, your rotation is good. - You know you really have the hip driven body roll gooding good when you find yourself getting stronger and your teammates getting weaker in long pulling sets. Why? They are using just their arms and shoulders while you use you whole abdomen and chest as well, really everything except your legs. Matt