Critique my stroke (video posted)

phdude, The air bubbles that are shown when your hand enters the water reduces drag (the kind your hand produces is good drag). Clear your hand by entering it a ting sooner. You'll know you're doing it when the bubbles are significantly reduced. You've been given a lot of good information so develop a list in priority order and improve upon them with some effective drills. Good luck. Coach T.

Here's a good video showing Ian Thorpe's Early Vertical Forearm/EVF: www.youtube.com/watch Lindsay, thanks for this link... Ian Thorpe does it too, the EVF-EDF Impressive.... I've added this link to the EDF presentation You know, I have to admit... watching underwater video of top swimmers on this forum has been incredibly useful, and I've really come to appreciate that.

Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch ok so I just got in my Olympus Stylus 1030 SW this Saturday, so I jumped in today for 10 minutes to get some video in. Here it is. for freestyle, it seems as if you are pulling your arms straight back almost to your thigh, but then pulling your arms free from the water, slinging your arms sidearm over the water, and leaning on your side for every breath. you also seem to favor one side for breathing over the other. 1. complete your pulls all the way to the tip of your trunks 2. when your fingertips reach your thigh, your elbow will be near the surface. begin your recovery by lifting your elbow, not pulling free your hand. 3. don't sling your arms sidearm; instead keep your fingertips close to the water as the elbow does most of the work of transporting your arm to the start position. 4. if you are reaching your arms as far forward as you can, your reaching shoulder will drop a bit. this will cause your recovery shoulder to pop above the surface a bit. that should be enough for you to breath by turning your head without lifting your shoulder anymore. 5. when you alternatively breath on both sides evenly, it ensures that no one side develops distinctive moves of its own, such as over-rotation of the body. 6. as you pull, bend your elbow more so that your thumb nail travels the linea alba. as has been mentioned, keeping your trunk (or core) mostly stable is critical to maintaining your streamline, thereby conserving energy. by reducing your sidearming and over-rotations, you'll have a smoother and more efficient stroke. also, close your fingers when you pull (unless you feel that you are so very disciplined that you can keep your fingers ever so slightly spaced apart without faltering). for backstroke, you are bringing your arms all the way back to beyond the center of your head, and then pulling underwater with elbows barely bent. 1. bring your right arm back only as far as 11 'o' clock, and your left arm only so far back as 1 'o'clock. 2. as your arm enters the water in the 'o' clock position, gracefully rotate your body a bit to make you narrower in the water as you begin your pull. 3. if your elbows are not bent enough for the pull, you create too much of a plowing effect. if they are too bent, you can't get enough water to pull. pick a spot somewhere in the middle range to pull. rocking the shoulders as above will help you keep a narrower streamline, so long as you can do so without displacing too much water every time you rock. overreaching causes your arm to have to do additional work while not receiving any directional benefit. pulling water toward your feet makes your body go forward, but hands past the 'o' clock positions can only first pull outward before pulling toward your feet; wasted energy. for flutter kick, your hips roll from side to side depending upon which arm is pulling, and your legs splash a lot while you kick, especially for the leg that is closest to the surface during a roll. 1. whether for backstroke or freestyle, your legs should be roughly independent of your upper body. whether for free or back, your shoulders are going to dip and bob a bit, but that does not mean your hips have to roll side to side. every time you roll, your legs are turning sideways, relegating one leg to deep water and the other to too shallow water, all the while making your whole body destabilize, thereby wrecking any hopes for a constant streamline. 2. it's easy to make a big splash; displacing air is no trick. unfortunately, it doesn't make you go anywhere. try to keep your feet just below the surface at all times. this doesn't mean that you will be splash-free, because, if you are doing it right, your feet will kick so hard just below the surface that the kicks will, simply from the force of the kicks, create a splashing effect above the water. also, as you swim, imagine that you are being pulled by the center of your forehead by a tow cable while you ride along a zip line extended from one end of the pool to the other. don't travel off the zip line. don't let your arms cross the tow cable. move as gracefully through the water as a monorail. remember every stroke has a bit of streamline position (that position you are in when your head is tucked, hands are together in front of you, and legs are together), because streamline position makes scientific sense, from a physics perspective, when you are trying to maximize output with minimal input. if someone were to take a frame-by-frame set of pictures of your free or back, fusing those pictures into one picture should leave you with, roughly, a silhouette of streamline position. if fusing all the frame-by-frames of your free, or of your back, would create the silhouette of something more resembling a blob, you've got troubles. --Sean

I just bought an Olympus Stylus 1030 SW to add to my collection of 5 Cameras how has yours been holding up? Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch ok so I just got in my Olympus Stylus 1030 SW this Saturday, so I jumped in today for 10 minutes to get some video in. Here it is.

I've been thinking about getting that or a similar camera and would be interested to hear whether you would recommend it or have any comments about your experience with it.

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. Add the string &fmt=18 to any Youtube video address and the HQ version is loaded.:wine:

Chuckie bought it for me, she said it was my mothers day present. It is $379.00 at Best Buy and they had a deal on an Epson printer for $9.95. I bought a 2g card for $42.00. I looked it over and it is well constructed. Good for 10 meters deep. The 850w was $279.00, the 750w was 249.00 I will take a lot of underwater pics and let you know.

but you're body is "slipping" because your core isn't maintaining the position. This is what i think about too. Your strengh works even on going up and down and not only for advance (sorry for my english). For this reason, your head is all underwater and there is too much wather advanced resistence. Try this drill: strong (very frequent not big) kick with your arms upon your head. Pull, using abdominal, your ass down the wather and your shoulder upon it. Look in front of you (not down as u do now) and make a stroke (cycle, 2 strokes) per 8 shots (kick). good luck

You have just destroyed the TI theory. This is what i think about too. Your strengh works even on going up and down and not only for advance (sorry for my english). For this reason, your head is all underwater and there is too much wather advanced resistence. Try this drill: strong (very frequent not big) kick with your arms upon your head. Pull, using abdominal, your ass down the wather and your shoulder upon it. Look in front of you (not down as u do now) and make a stroke (cycle, 2 strokes) per 8 shots (kick). good luck