Critique my stroke (video posted)

Very good video. Over reaching on entry for backstoke, body fishtailing. Front crawl body again fishtailing but not as bad as on backstroke. You crossover slightly on entry but move it over before you get to the catch. Occassionaly dropping the elbow but not everystroke. I did not save the download so only saw it a couple of times. When I tried to save it it requested payment so I did not download it into my dartfish program. Anyone who wants the file should save it right off the bat.

thanks for those tips George. Since I only got 1 response I figure it would probably be good to just post the video on youtube. Hopefully this will add more discussion.

Thanks for the youtube link www.youtube.com/watch May I suggest you remove the other two links. I will now put it into my Dartswim program and have a good look at it.

Since I only got 1 response I figure it would probably be good to just post the video on youtube. Hopefully this will add more discussion. I tried viewing the video with Windows Media Player and Quicktime Pro Player and in both cases it told me that I had to download additional codec components. On top of the large filesize that was more than I was willing to get into to comment on a stroke video. It would be nice if we could figure out what encoding is necessary to get the high quality video mode on youtube, I've seen some youtube videos where they were offered in higher quality and they were pretty good. Youtube help on this was pretty useless last time I looked. Edit: Hmm, I see that yours has the high quality option, what resolution and video format did you upload? In high quality mode the video on youtube is perfectly suitable for stroke analysis. Actually even the low quality mode is ok if you click the button near the lower right corner that shows the video at actual resolution instead of stretching it to fill the window, which makes it all blurry. On your backstroke you cross over on hand entry. Your right arm pull is also more straight arm than your left. I'm no backstroke expert but I think your left pull is closer to what you want it to look like.

Lindsay the youtube file is very good. Yes a little long but pretty good. I like each clip to be about 10 or 15 seconds much easier to down load and put into Dartswim.

ok i made it youtube only. Lindsay, the larger versions were encoded in XVID. It's a pretty common codec, and may be useful to get it as it's probably the most common encoder used for videos available online nowadays.

You've got a classic dropped-elbow - you lay on your arm during the first quadrant, move toward the midline to quickly, have a lot of air behind your hand (entry clearing problem), and seem to accelerate too quickly. Lot's of room for improvement (I'd be excited if I were you). Good luck! Coach T.

Hmmmm... You're a good swimmer. You know, I never thought I'd end up giving free technical analysis over the computer, but I have a hard time ignoring a swimmer who wants help. One of the reasons I didn't coach was because of the kids who didn't want to be there, they have very little respect, so why waste my time, right? This is different, the people that post video here really want to improve, and so I'm more motivated to share what I've learned. I watched your video a few times, and there are some elements I like... but, what would help you best to improve? The main area seems to be your core stability. Your timing and "feel" seems to be acceptable, but you're body is "slipping" because your core isn't maintaining the position. This might not be something you can improve by thinking about it... I have posted some core exercises on the "Fun and Fast" thread in the work-out section, or just click the link in my signature. Basically, you need to strengthen your core, and learn to use your "body line" to help with forward propulsion. Any motion outside of that line, up, down, right left, is wasted energy. The most effective way to improve core stability is through dryland exercises. However, there are some water drills that can help... Try swimming 6x50 with fins on 2:00, head up freestyle with dolphin kick, and try and keep the head looking straight forward through the whole 50 and follow that with a (relatively) straight body line(This is not easy) Do this 3xweek for 3-4 months, and then take some more video. Good luck!

I don't know if I'm right about this, or whether it's a useful comment, but it seems like your pull and your roll are a little out of phase. Usually when watching an elite swimmer everything seems to smoothly integrate together with a smooth flow. When I watch your roll and pull I see two things going on at the same time instead of one integrated motion. This is probably related to Jonathan's comments about the core, but I don't know if it is because you lack core strength or if you just haven't integrated your stroke together. Or perhaps I'm being thrown off by the fact that you swim with a timing that is a little further toward the catchup end of the spectrum than I'm used to seeing. The thing that really gets me is that usually when I see people with stroke components that don't appear to be integrated they have a really poor dps/spl, but unless that's a short pool you seem to have a pretty good spl count. Dropped elbows also usually cause high spl. I guess we need a better analyst than I to explain this! :dunno: Best to think of my comments as me learning analysis rather than something you should take too seriously.

Keep your elbows higher. Imagine wrapping your arm over a big barrel. Latch on and throw the barrel back. (Elbows stay high. Forearm stays vertical.) As Tom said...a vertical forearm is important! It will give you the ideal leverage... and result in more power from each stroke. Otherwise it looked really good. You have room for some big improvements by using a higher elbow.