Critique my stroke (video posted)

alright, i really want to thank everyone for their comments. it's really great to have this community to turn to for help. george: yeah, overreaching is definitely the biggest problem with my backstroke. i think i was overemphasizing this as some of my friends on the team were telling me that my backstroke was looking flat, so I think I was initiating more roll my overreaching. jonathon: I agree with the "slip" comment. my feel has improved dramatically over the last year, but it still doesn't feel right. my upper and lower body are off doing their own things. I'll try your drills shortly, probably wednesday. they sound rather taxing, and i'm sore as hell from an alumni basketball game at my high school yesterday, and i'm also trying to rest for my college's intramural swim meet this tuesday. i definitely need to improve my core. it sucks because the best part of my stroke used to be my sdk's, and now i struggle to keep up with the guys on fly/brst kick sets, even though i am about even with them on bk/fr. abs hurt. tomtopo: what's an "entry clearing problem"? you had me til there. my acceleration *is* too dramatic. linsday: yes, I felt like i was out of phase somehow. it may improve with better core strength. however, i've made a conscious effort over the last few days to keep my left elbow higher and at least those two elements (stroke and roll) are at least more in phase than they were. i do take 12-13 per length (SCY) but that surely has more to do with my XL hands and 13US feet than any good technique. george: armpit breathing??? please clarify knelson: yeah, especially since my free style has always been more FQ/catchup grant's stroke is what i aspire to. however, there's no way that my shoulders could handle that early a VF, at least for quite some time anyway. i agree that is the general direction i should be heading towards over time though. i'll be watching my kick. one bad habit i have is that i always six or eight-beat kick, and when i'm doing a longer set i tend to barely move my feet at all. so i've been trying to consciously kick harder to avoid sinking legs (my thighs are disproportionatly large for my body, so they aren't very buoyant.) i know what part of the video you're talking about, and yeah it does look like the amplitude's too large. anyway, i appreciate you all taking time to have a look. admittedly i have been swimming for the last year to get back into shape rather than concentrating on technique much. but the wedding is in 4 weeks so i doubt i could get into much better shape in that timeframe anyway. there seems to be a lot of areas i can work on in my stroke, so i'm looking forward to the time improvements that can be had.

alright, i really want to thank everyone for their comments. it's really great to have this community to turn to for help. george: yeah, overreaching is definitely the biggest problem with my backstroke. i think i was overemphasizing this as some of my friends on the team were telling me that my backstroke was looking flat, so I think I was initiating more roll my overreaching. jonathon: I agree with the "slip" comment. my feel has improved dramatically over the last year, but it still doesn't feel right. my upper and lower body are off doing their own things. I'll try your drills shortly, probably wednesday. they sound rather taxing, and i'm sore as hell from an alumni basketball game at my high school yesterday, and i'm also trying to rest for my college's intramural swim meet this tuesday. i definitely need to improve my core. it sucks because the best part of my stroke used to be my sdk's, and now i struggle to keep up with the guys on fly/brst kick sets, even though i am about even with them on bk/fr. abs hurt. tomtopo: what's an "entry clearing problem"? you had me til there. my acceleration *is* too dramatic. linsday: yes, I felt like i was out of phase somehow. it may improve with better core strength. however, i've made a conscious effort over the last few days to keep my left elbow higher and at least those two elements (stroke and roll) are at least more in phase than they were. i do take 12-13 per length (SCY) but that surely has more to do with my XL hands and 13US feet than any good technique. george: armpit breathing??? please clarify knelson: yeah, especially since my free style has always been more FQ/catchup grant's stroke is what i aspire to. however, there's no way that my shoulders could handle that early a VF, at least for quite some time anyway. i agree that is the general direction i should be heading towards over time though. i'll be watching my kick. one bad habit i have is that i always six or eight-beat kick, and when i'm doing a longer set i tend to barely move my feet at all. so i've been trying to consciously kick harder to avoid sinking legs (my thighs are disproportionatly large for my body, so they aren't very buoyant.) i know what part of the video you're talking about, and yeah it does look like the amplitude's too large. anyway, i appreciate you all taking time to have a look. admittedly i have been swimming for the last year to get back into shape rather than concentrating on technique much. but the wedding is in 4 weeks so i doubt i could get into much better shape in that timeframe anyway. there seems to be a lot of areas i can work on in my stroke, so i'm looking forward to the time improvements that can be had.