Critique my stroke (video posted)

Here's a great video of Grant Hackett showing incredible EVF: www.youtube.com/watch Another thing I noticed no one else has commented on is you could probably reduce the amplitude of your kick somewhat. This might be a reaction to your fishtailing. You are trying to compensate a little by opening your kick to balance the side-to-side movement.

Here's a good video showing Ian Thorpe's Early Vertical Forearm/EVF: www.youtube.com/watch I don't know if it is the perspective or if his right and left arm are different. Actually, although the video quality is poor if you watch this: www.youtube.com/watch you can see that it is a matter of viewing angle, his arm pulls look asymetric but it is just a matter of which side the camera is on. Which I guess serves as a caution when analyzing videos taken from below and to the side.

Phdude Cross over strokes on occasion. I don't like the way you breathe in. It seems you are armpit breathing, which closes the airway.

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. Same here. A stroke like that is very rare, and I wonder how much strain it puts on your shoulders. I think Hackett has had some shoulder problems. This is something I'm planning on working on over the summer. My coach told me last week this is something I specifically need to do. He more or less said I can workout as hard as I want, but unless I can improve this part of my stroke there's a limit to how much faster I can swim. I'll always be fighting this technical deficiency.

Armpit breathing is to keep the chin tucked in almost touching your chest, almost looking back where you have been when you breathe in. I would rather see some one looking to the wall. This way the air passes thru much easier.

A small thing, if it is not an optical illusion created by the filming....... On the free, from the underwater shots, mostly after the push-off dolphin kicks (at about 35 secs on the video) and again at 43 secs, you present your whole face to the front which offers a lot of resistance. On push-offs, your head should be between your shoulders and not lifted up. Your whole body, including your head, needs to be streamlined, like a pencil. In general, you should be looking slightly more down towards the pool bottom and not so straight ahead. This helps with the sinking legs problem too. Ian.

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.

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. Phdude, 12-13 per 25y is pretty high for someone your size. I would really work some DPS (distance per stroke) and catch-up drills to help you get a better feel for a powerful, gliding stroke. I'm still a work in progress and I'm at 8-9 strokes per 25y when I do DPS drills. Really work those drills and try and stay as long as possible with a smooth powerful stroke. Paul

12-13 per 25y is pretty high for someone your size. I think you're wrong about this, Paul. I usually take 13 strokes per 25 at aerobic pace in workouts. Not saying that's great, but anything under 12 is pretty impressive in my book.

I think you're wrong about this, Paul. I usually take 13 strokes per 25 at aerobic pace in workouts. Not saying that's great, but anything under 12 is pretty impressive in my book. I guess I should have clarified. If it's 12-13 doing DPS drill then that number is too high, 12-13 for a normal medium pace is not bad as you said but, from what I can gather with his comments on XL hands and sz13 feet, he sounds like he's about my size and I'm at 10-11 per length at a medium pace on SCY. Paul