Please critique

The attached frame illustrates the problem, with your right arm more than your left arm you pull your elbow backwards until it is over your body and bent at 90 degrees and then bring it straight forward over your body. Turuky, hmm, i know i am late to the game, but it seems to me that a major problem is breathing. in the pic that Lindsay has attached to this critique, I think he is just catching you taking a breath. I think you and your son over-rotate your bodies when you breathe so that you can catch a little more air before going in. to top it off, you and your son are unilateral breathers. that's why your right arm slings back so far. practice bilateral breathing, and stop using breathing as a vacation. start thinking of breathing as something you slyly slip between strokes without creating an adverse effect on the timing and form of those strokes. as for other issues, your son definitely pulls too far outside, but it seems that you are pulling straight down. you both should be pulling down your vertical mid-line. Yes, you need fingertip drill work and a further reach, and yes you also need to work on putting more push into your pull and using your hand and forearm as an oar to effect such. as for kicking, i think you, and your son particularly, put too much of the burden of your kicks on the knee to toe action and not enough on the hip to knee motion. in other words, you guys need to use more of your legs when you kick. (please note, though, that doesn't mean that you should dig deep with your kicks, as kicks that dig deeper than your body depth will do nothing but slow you down.) last, i agree with copeland that if your son is currently being coached on a swim team that you should be sure to work with the coach and not in competition with his efforts. mixed messages to your child will not improve his stroke. it will just split into two strokes that he demonstrates at different times depending on the audience. --Sean

The attached frame illustrates the problem, with your right arm more than your left arm you pull your elbow backwards until it is over your body and bent at 90 degrees and then bring it straight forward over your body. Turuky, hmm, i know i am late to the game, but it seems to me that a major problem is breathing. in the pic that Lindsay has attached to this critique, I think he is just catching you taking a breath. I think you and your son over-rotate your bodies when you breathe so that you can catch a little more air before going in. to top it off, you and your son are unilateral breathers. that's why your right arm slings back so far. practice bilateral breathing, and stop using breathing as a vacation. start thinking of breathing as something you slyly slip between strokes without creating an adverse effect on the timing and form of those strokes. as for other issues, your son definitely pulls too far outside, but it seems that you are pulling straight down. you both should be pulling down your vertical mid-line. Yes, you need fingertip drill work and a further reach, and yes you also need to work on putting more push into your pull and using your hand and forearm as an oar to effect such. as for kicking, i think you, and your son particularly, put too much of the burden of your kicks on the knee to toe action and not enough on the hip to knee motion. in other words, you guys need to use more of your legs when you kick. (please note, though, that doesn't mean that you should dig deep with your kicks, as kicks that dig deeper than your body depth will do nothing but slow you down.) last, i agree with copeland that if your son is currently being coached on a swim team that you should be sure to work with the coach and not in competition with his efforts. mixed messages to your child will not improve his stroke. it will just split into two strokes that he demonstrates at different times depending on the audience. --Sean