Would like comments on Fly & ***

Two things real quick: first, be careful on your start. It looks like you did a couple of dolphin kicks there before your pull. If you didn't, it must have been the water and the camera angle, but it sure looked like it. You're only allowed one dolphin kick, and the downward part has to be done after you start your pull. Also, your start was not so good. You were sort of piked, so your feet and head entered the water at the same time. You want to enter the water through one hole, and you want that hole as small as possible. You also don't want to be sitting back when you get set. I noticed when I looked at your fly video that you are almost sitting down when you get set. All that does is waste time and energy getting your center of gravity over the front of the block. You want to be as close to falling off as you can without actually doing it. I used to do the same thing, and my coach had me look directly behind me with my chin tucked to my chest, and it helped a lot. Second, your recovery is way too slow. You need to accelerate your arms through the recovery. You accelerate through the insweep, but stop when your hands come together. That's a pretty classic mistake, but you can fix that pretty easily. On a related note, your insweep comes back way too far. Your hands are almost at the bottom of your chest, and you want them around your head. I try not to let them come any farther than my chin. Good job on the ***. That's a great time.

Funky - Agree with many of the posters here... Regarding your fly, there is an excellent Fly stroke technique article in this months USMS Swimmer magazine that would help with your head/body/recovery issues. Has a nice set of pictures showing bad (50-something make) versus good (20-something female) examples for all of these items.

On the fly ... lot's of wasted motion up and down. Try not to let you feet come out of the water on your kick. This should help out a bit. Don't over catch - the recovery should be really relaxed and you should feel like you are laying your arms into the water - DO NOT force it. Try to drag your chin along the surface of the water when you breathe. Good drill: one fly stroke with forehead out (instead of breathing) one fly stroke with eyes out (instead of breathing) one fly stroke with chin out (instead of breathing)

Just swam a short course meet this past weekend. I'm providing a couple of links to my 50 fly and 50 ***. If you can make anything out, I'd appreciate any critical feedback on either of them. I think my fly is still a little too "wavy." Don't know what to think about breaststroke as I'm still learning it. I swam the fly in :24.80 Jeez, 24.8 for 50 Fly? Who am I to offer advice. Nice swim. But because I can't resist. Fly: You're chopping your arms into the water on the recovery instead of settling the hands, elbows and arms into the water at the same time. Breathe forward not up when you breathe. Your head is popping upwards. ***: Wow, thank god it's Masters where there are lots of lanes per S&T judge. You need to shorten your pull and make it more of a sculling motion than a pull. Your hands should not even reach your shoulders on the pull and yours are going 3-4 inches past the shoulder. Nice swims

I only saw one dolphin kick on the breaststroke pulldowns and I fully endorse doing the kick at the commencement of the pulldown like you did. Don't change that unless and until you start getting DQ'd for it. I agree with others that you start your second pull (and almost kick) before surfacing and that is clearly against the rules. Try to work on being closer to the surface by the end of your breaststroke kick. On your start (especially in the butterfly race), it appears your feet are hitting the water around the same time as your hands (and before the rest of your body). You should work on your starts to try to enter entirely through the "same hole" made by your hands. No need to go to a track start if you're comfortable with a grab start. Some people even think grab starts are slightly faster. Your head is out-of-synch on the breaststroke. It's popping up too late, and that probably slows you down. Your head should be coming up on your outsweep. Yours comes up only after you have nearly completed your insweep. I think you're dropping your elbows too much on your insweep. Try to keep your arms more out in front of you. You're a faster butterflyer than me so I have no comments on that! Great swim!

Starting advice: In order to learn to have your body enter the water in one spot, our coaches would drill us by holding a pole or kickboard at a reasonable distance from the blocks. Our goal was to leap out over the object and avoid touching it with any part of our bodies. If you're working out alone try using a swim noodle floating. Best to work on starting in the deep end though as your over compensation may lead sto excessively deep starts to begin with. As to the track start vs. grab start, I prefer the grab, but there are many swimmers much better than I who use one or the other. Hope that helps. I have no other advice on the strokes that hasn't been given. Your fly time was faster than mine, and my successes were almost always start and turn-based rather than stroke-based.

Your head is out-of-synch on the breaststroke. It's popping up too late, and that probably slows you down. Your head should be coming up on your outsweep. Yours comes up only after you have nearly completed your insweep. Your head may be a little late,but I disagree with Midas.The head should come up during the insweep.At that point you are automatically generating some vertical forces so you can breathe without raising your head.

looks pretty good to me, but as mjgold noticed you snuck an extra dolphin kick in there on the breaststroke start. you're playing a dangerous game with the judges!

I agree with Allen - you had a lenient or sleepy stroke judge during your breaststroke race. I think your 2nd pull started before your head broke the surface. Good comments above although it is a lot to try to work on. My thought on your fly is that overall your timing and rhythm are good. You look like you are making a conscious effort bend your arms when they recover over the water. You seem to be trying to get your fingertips to point into the water. Instead I suggest you straighten your arms during the recovery. Let your arms+hands hit the water at shoulder width fully extended in front of you. Your pull will be longer, your recovery more relaxed, and it may flatten your stroke slightly. Just a comment on Youtube - I have been experimenting with videos on Youtube. I found better picture quality results when you render your video as WMV files with a 640x480 resolution. You'll see less pixelation in the Youtube video. One video I put up on Youtube this week is linked below. If you have a good internet connection Youtube will let you select "watch in high quality" and the picture is noticably better. (I wish it were me in the video). www.youtube.com/watch Add: that 24.8 is a very good 50 fly time!

Your head may be a little late,but I disagree with Midas.The head should come up during the insweep.At that point you are automatically generating some vertical forces so you can breathe without raising your head. Agreed. Your hands almost push your face out of the water to breath and lunge forward to begin the next arm stroke.