Please critique

I might try to some fist drill to get a better feel for grabbing water. It looks to me like you're having trouble anchoring your arms so there isn't much connection across your whole body.

I thought that you are supposed to get your hand in just before the elbow is fully extended. I've read that if the elbow is fully extended on entry that is when you get a slap. Maybe I need to be closer to full extension on entry? Also, in the most recent casual swim clips (head on and side) are you still seeing an uneven recovery? I definitely see what you are talking about on the clip where I'm trying to go fast. That was specifically why I recorded a "sprint", so I could see if that would happen. I do bilateral breathing occassionally and also do a few laps with a Finis snorkel. I'll try to do the bilateral breathing more often. Do you suggest every 3rd, or should I just do one length breathing to one side, one length to the other. Yes, just before the elbow is fully extended, so as to ensure a smooth entry. However, if you submerge your hand too early, you create a push. Those thumbnails I captured were from your most recent videos. Granted, I pulled them from the first few strokes you did on a length, and part of that was because your other strokes were not as badly exaggerated. However, the majority of that decision is that the view isn't as clear as you get further out. Overall, though, I think you need to be more mindful of the effect of your breathing on your strokes. The reason why I was able to catch it in the first few strokes of your length is because that is the time when you are thinking least about your positioning. But, because you now know that this is an issue, you need to be ever-vigilant on it. For, as soon as you become tired or let your guard down, the quirk will return. That is why I recommend that you start getting used to bilateral breathing. By forcing yourself to become re-acclimated with your complete stroke, you create the opportunity to rework your stroke dynamics from the ground up. You'll drink a lot of water on your right side for some time until you get used to positioning your arm properly for the recovery and turning your head that far, and you'll probably notice a positive difference in your left arm right away. Every three strokes is the standard. However, you can pick whatever number you want (beyond 1). Just be mindful, though, that only odd numbers create a bilateral breathing opportunity. --Sean

Notice elbow dropping on 2nd, 3rd and 4th videos. It occurs as you extend before you get to the catch. When I see this I tell my students they are pushing water in the wrong direction. I also noticed your right arm hitting the water when your hand enters again I prefer a clean entry. I also do not like your kick you have the legs too far apart. I like to see the big toes almost touching.

Underwater view swimming towards the camera. I see your palm with fingers pointing upwards pushing against the water and the elbow dropping at the same time as you extend.

Seems to me that you are pulling more straight down than under. you need to catch the faster moving water immediately surrounding your body, while at the same time keeping your body occupying the smallest amount of surface area. thus, the way i normally advise is to keep your hand only about a hand's length away from your body during the pull, with your thumbnail tracing along the vertical mid-line of your body. also, in the thumbnails i've attached, you can see some of the effect of your two overarm recovery styles. your right arm enters the water way too early and crossing past the body's vertical mid-line. meanwhile, your left arm at the same point hasn't even touched the water let alone entered it. this is because you neglect your right arm overarm recovery and over-exaggerate your left arm overarm recovery to facilitate breathing. --Sean

I am still of the impression that you are over rotating. It is as if you rotate a complete 180 degrees when you take your strokes.

USS Swimmer Magazine, Sept/October has some nice stuff on Freestyle Makeover. A couple of things I did not like about her new stroke, just a little early stage elbow dropping, and I do not like the fingers in the up position on the extention this leads to elbow dropping.

Well guys, I did a casual 25m in 16 strokes today, the best I've ever done I believe. And it was not one of those glide glide glide until I come to a complete stop type deals either. I did not have anyone recording me, so I'm not sure which areas exactly I improved on, but I must have been doing something better. Things I concentrated on; 1. Fully extending. I found this easier when doing # 2 below. 2. Keeping my wrist and fingers ever so slighly flexed on arm extension. I think someone mentioned this before, but by doing this the water wasn't pushing my arm into a bent position. 3. Keeping my forearm relatively pronated on extension. What I mean is that my forearm is pronated relative to my rotated body, so that it's orientation is just as it would be if I was flat/not rotated. In my mind this might be the single most important thing I did, because I really felt the catch and propulsion much better. Also it seems to control overrotation. 4. Catching a little lower in the water. In other words, my extended hand was deeper in the water than before. 5. Hand entry farther on recovery. This is the change which I'm really curious to see on film. It felt good, but someone might comment that I'm slapping water or something. 6. Forcing myself to swim downhill. One interesting thing that came to my mind while I was experimenting. Previously I had thought of swimming downhill in terms of balance. While this is true, today I thought I would try to pull myself downhill as well. I remembered the comments on my forearm not being perpendicular enough to the pool bottom and that I was creating more lift, so I worked on overcompensating by trying to descend. I'll keep working on it and try to get new film in a few days. Thanks again for the help.

OK, so I've been watching this video over and over: www.youtube.com/watch Lindsey, you mention that in that top frame, you see the palm of turuky's hand, and i'm pretty sure i know why. when turuky submerges his hand into the water, he -- as we have already mentioned -- pushes the water a bit. i counted time on the strokes from when the hand enters to when the hand begins its pull. 1 complete second. it seems to me that what turuky is doing is not so much consciously pushing the water after all, but simply riding the wave a bit. he's zipping his hand forward through the water, and -- like any good aerofoil -- it catches air, so to speak. as the hand catches lift from the resistance it meets up front, it causes the hand to move skyward. thus, we see his palm. at the end of that extension forward, then he begins his catch, starting from an upward hand position. so, my advice to turuky: your pull should continue under your body using your hand and forearm as an oar. at the point where your hand-forearm oar bisects your body into its top and bottom halves, you will find that following through with your push requires that your forearm break form to allow your hand to continue on the same path. When your hand reaches the thigh, you will find that the hand can no longer follow along the path. you've simply run out of arm (arm A, we'll say). to get your hand back to your side, you have to push the water to the outside and behind you. At that point where your hand pushes the water to the outside, that is when you rock your body a bit. the shoulder on the same side as the hand pushing outward should rock upward. the shoulder on the other arm (arm B) will, thus naturally rock a bit downward. if you've ever reached under a bed to get something deep underneath, you know that you can get that little bit more out of your arm by dropping your shoulder. that's the idea with arm B. when your hand on arm A reaches the end of its path and needs to push to the outside, that is when your other hand-forearm oar on arm B should dive into the water. as the one hand on arm A pushes to the outside as that shoulder lifts a bit, the other shoulder on arm B should dip just enough to allow the hand of arm B to thrust forward underwater just that little bit more before starting the catch. it should be the smallest fraction of a second, not a full second count, and arm B's drive forward in such a manner should be powered by the finish of the hand on arm A. As soon as the hand on arm A finishes to the outside, the hand-forearm oar on arm B should start pulling. A quick recap: the hand on arm B entered the water in the form of the hand-forearm oar and did not break position as it reached that last bit forward or as it started its catch. it won't begin to break position until it must at the point where the oar bisects your body. thus, the palm will never be seen, as that would require breaking form on the hand-forearm oar. i hope that's helpful and not too confusing. --Sean

Sounds like you have made excellent progress! I'm looking forward to seeing how the changes appear on the next video! I got a short clip of my fly when I was taping my friend yesterday, was very frustrated to see an old problem with my kick had reemerged! :( Old habits are really really hard to kill! Oh well, at least I caught it before practicing it even further. Thank goodness for video!