Post your swim video

I agree Lindsay. I've noticed the same thing about lifting my head. I don't feel it while I'm swimming, but it's pretty evident in the video. Really, the entire way I breathe doesn't look as smooth as it could be. If it looks like I'm wasting energy and not efficient, odds are I problem could improve.

Kirk very nice swim.

You sure do lift your head. My coach says that I do the same thing, like I'm sighting in an OW race. (Hey, coach: Do you mean that I look like Kirk here?) Maybe concentrate on keeping one eye under water when you breathe? Also you lift your head out of the turns (another thing I hear myself, and which is hard not to do when you practice in a crowded pool). You would get out farther past the flags without any more effort or less air if you kept your ears right between your arms until that first pull.

As you are swimming from left to right, after the camera zooms in a little it looks like you are lifting your head as though to look forward before each breath. It might not be a flaw at all but it seems to detract from the smoothness of your stroke, possibly eating a little energy. Or maybe not. Just something to think about and maybe experiment with sometime. Given how fast you are I don't know what likelihood there is of anyone spotting a major stroke flaw from this sort of footage. You need to have glaring stroke faults like mine for people to immediately spot them in above-water video!

Thanks for the comments George.

The head lift is okay with me but like it slightly lower. Your butt is up nice and high and the legs seem to be in good position also. I don't think you are finishing the stroke well. It seems you should carry the finish a little farther down to the high thigh. It seems you are exiting right at your hip. When your hands exit you are taking a lot of water with you. Your left hand to me seems to be slamming into the water on the entry. I like a clean entry and clean exits. I like a little more shoulder roll which will give you a higher elbow. Yes the head position after you turn does not make streamline. May I add the swim was generally good

At the end of practice last night we did 25m walk backs from the blocks and the coach took video. I clipped out my swims. The first fly swim isn't very good because we didn't do any fly in the workout and my goggles filled up which threw me off, I think the second one is a bit better. By the third fly I was getting a little tired. The "dives" (really falls) are still pathetic and no underwater sdk to speak of but I think my stroke has improved. In particular the recovery doesn't look as forced as in the last video. Comments? youtube.com/watch the quality comes out awful on youtube, the new youtube player doesn't seem to have the "show at actual resolution" feature anymore. I clipped out a couple of the swims and encoded them with QuickTime for better quality: www.youtube.com/watch Hard to tell exactly without seeing what it looks like underwater, but it looks to me like you're getting slightly vertical and pushing more water than you want to be. I think a big part of it is your knees. Try to keep those knees from dropping and bending on your kick. Your recovery looks smoother than the first video. That's good.

At the end of practice last night we did 25m walk backs from the blocks and the coach took video. I clipped out my swims. The first fly swim isn't very good because we didn't do any fly in the workout and my goggles filled up which threw me off, I think the second one is a bit better. By the third fly I was getting a little tired. The "dives" (really falls) are still pathetic and no underwater sdk to speak of but I think my stroke has improved. In particular the recovery doesn't look as forced as in the last video. Comments? youtube.com/watch the quality comes out awful on youtube, the new youtube player doesn't seem to have the "show at actual resolution" feature anymore. I clipped out a couple of the swims and encoded them with QuickTime for better quality: www.youtube.com/watch Edit: Here's what it looked like at a meet in April: youtube.com/watch Here's what it looked like in practice in January: youtube.com/watch

Thanks Mike. As I rewatch I can see that in the final fly segment the recovery is looking a little more forced again, probably a combination of fatigue and that Donna was beating me and I was trying to speed up! When I get back from vacation I'll try to get some underwater video to see what is happening with the knees. Tomorrow I leave this year's SwimTrek adventure so may not be back to the boards regularly for a couple weeks. Comments are still very welcome but I may be slow to respond!

My 200 Butterfly www.youtube.com/watch