I need tips :)

It would be really cool if you could post videos as I think the forum can provide a lot better insight that way. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be much help for you on breaststroke, backstroke or butterfly, but here are some initial thoughts and questions on freestyle: Body/hip position: ideally, your body should be high in the water and as flat as possible. Many swimmers tend to swim at an angle with their head high, their hips lower and their feet even lower. Anytime your body angle moves from being parallel to the top of the water, you're essentially putting on the brakes. One of the biggest keys to body position is your ... Head position: are you swimming with your head in a neutral position/eyes looking down at the bottom of the pool? Think of your head as a lever that can adjust your body position from flat to angled. For most swimmers (especially those of us who were coached to swim with our eyes forward), you almost have to consciously think about burying your head. Kick: what kind of "beat" are you doing? Many swimmers do a two-beat kick, meaning that for every arm stroke (think hand entering the water), they are matching that with a single kick. To go faster, you need to try to rev that up to a 6 beat kick. Rotation: Ideally, your body is rotating from the core from side to side with every arm stroke. A common problem slowing down many swimmers is that they swim "flat" in the water, whereas the fastest swimmers actually spend most of their stroke on their sides. There are a number of great drill books and videos out there. I'm sure there are some free ones, but I've tried those found at Total Immersion (www.totalimmersion.net) to be quite good at breaking down the fundamentals listed above and providing great drills that allow you to isolate specific parts of your stroke.

You're probably light-years ahead of me, if that's any encouragement! Personally, I have no tips for you since I just started swimming a month ago. :) brundage: those are awesome, just saved them to my swimming file. I need to work on, like, all of those.

Re: BR,if you are going 30.0 for 50 you should be much faster than 1:08 for 100.What is your stroke count.My stroke count in 100 is 7-8/length.You certainly want to be under 10.You need to make sure you are streamlined during each kick.Make sure your biceps squeeze your ears every stroke.On each stroke "ride the glide" just a tick(maybe 1/2 sec.) each stroke.Please post a video.

anthony, I believe everyone can improve you'll find many ideas in Swim Faster Faster sight unseen advice is difficult to offer and might not be helpful get someone to video you load the videos up on youtube post the links here ask for suggestions folks can provide you with specific advice Ande

My coach (as well as many people who watched my most recent 50) said that it looked like I was in slow motion swimming, my stroke was that of a cruise-moderate pace swimmer yet I got a 26ish time. What am I doing wrong? Bad news dude. You might be a 200er, or worse a distance guy. You are in High School right? Are you a freshman? Huge gains can still be made early in high school, because you are not done developing physically. Focus on technique. The biggest gains are to be had there, no matter the stroke. Once you provide videos, some real experts can step in and provide good advice. I can tell you that if you have not broken a minute yet in the 100 yd free, you need to work on your stroke every day. Especially with your slow mo style, you want to push as much water behind you as possible, with the least number of strokes, while cutting through the water. What is your yardage like? If you are dying on the back half of a 100, I have to think WTF? If you are not already swimming club, swim club. If you are already swimming club, bust your ass to move up to the next group. You shouldn't die on a 100. Your aerobic base should be strong enough that dying on a 100 is a 4 second difference between your first and second 50. If you just started club swimming this year, you could see a huge drop this season and another huge drop over the summer season. But you won't see the improvement until the end of the season. In season, you are going to be broken down, and not really feel like you are getting anywhere. Don't worry about that. Focus on practice. Are you increasing the number of fast 100s you can make before missing one? Are you moving up to faster lanes. Are you leading the lane? Are you doing 100% of the workout, and are you pushing yourself when you are tired? Are you holding your stroke together, even when you are tired? I wouldn't worry about your style being slow motion. Put in the work, and figure out what events you can be most competitive at. High school swimmers have much less control over their workout than do master's swimmers. Some of the advice you will get on how to train, you won't be able to use for 10 years. Just keep that in the back of your head. My first club coach was fond of saying "Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect." Yes, we wanted to drown him when he said it, but he was right. If you notice a little thing that you are doing wrong and you start to do it right in practice, then you will do it right in a race. This is why you don't breath inside the flags, you take dolphin kicks off of the walls, you do flip turns all the time, you don't glide into a flip turn, and you finish to the wall. These things add up, plus all the small things you notice with hand position and kick tempo for different distances and everything else. My stroke is slow motion style by the way. People told me it looked like I wasn't trying in high school. 20 years later, at my last swim meet, my wife told me to just give up on the 50 free because my turn over was so slow. The goal is to swim FAST, not to splash a lot. Focus on making your stroke the best it can be, not what someone else thinks looks right for a 50. NOTE Master's swimmers: I do not believe all my advice is appropriate for a Master's swimmer, but I do believe it is appropriate for a competitive high school swimmer.