How to remove pause (or jerkiness) when swimming free style?
Former Member
Hi,
When I am swimming freestyle, my left arm seems to pause briefly before entering he water (the right arm works ok because that's my breathing side). I am not sure how exactly I developped this problem because I didn't swim like this when I was younger. It could be that I did too many catch up or delay entry drills several years ago...
However, I don't quite feel the pause during swimming and that's why I can't quite correct it. Any tips or drills that I can use to "cure" this?
Thanks in advance!
-asgard
rtodd, the snorkel works great with the Popov drill that I do to try to correct a very similar problem. essentially with the Popov drill, you're trying to move your arms at exactly the same time so that wherever they are, the other one is exactly 180 degrees the other place.
start out w/ one arm in straight in front and one arm back at your side. move slowly to the middle point, and then accelerate that front arm toward your waist while you accelerate your back arm into the water. repeat immediately.
try working on this in LCM to really get into the flow. i'd recommend doing a few 50s and 100s intermingled with each other (ie a few cycles of 2x50 1x100). you can do with and without the snorkel, and if you do use the snorkel, run at least one w/o. after that, do one more cycle regular freestyle, concentrating on keeping those arms moving and keeping that 180 degree thing going.
i started working on this in July last year and it was engrained in my stroke by the time I hit worlds.
One of the swimmers that I coach has a similar problem. Yesterday, I decided that the problem may be from rolling her hips too late. I think she is moving her hips after her hand hits the water. The hip roll should occur before the hand hits.
I haven't fixed the swimmer's problem yet, but we'll work on it.
I support the use of the swimmers snorkel (I use the Finis model) and find that 10x100 warm ups with the snorkle w/ a concentration on excellant stroke technique has been a positive influence on my efficiency. Good luck
Just quit pausing... If you feel it or someone sees it you are pausing. I would suggest you start exagerating the pause. I often have had swimmers do stop motions where they pause it soon stops happening.
