Hello,
I recently took up swimming (October) @ age 43 and have never done much else than splash around in a pool.
I trained myself using Total Immersion (I have been looking at the forums here and I suspsect I just threw a hand grenade into this thread :) )
As with other skills I have learned, I feel one has to develop their own form and style - so I am not following TI by the book....
Anyway, this is the first time I have seen myself swimming and I see some errors:
a. rolling too far to breath or simply turning my head to breathe
b. head position
c. legs uselessly kicking around..
video of me swimming:
link.
any pointers on how to
a. work my kick into my stroke better.
b. work on body roll.
Anyway, I have to say I LOVE swimming. to me its like mediation, excercise, pilates, dance, and flying all in one.
I wish i had discovered it sooner, but better late then never.
Anyway, I welcome your feedback.
Mcarm, I'm not nearly as experienced as most of the swimmers here, but I can tell you I've improved tremendously over the past 9 months or so. There's been much trial and error and a lot of money spent on videos :laugh2:. Let me see if I can give you some ideas that helped me.
1. Breathing. I agree with what has been pointed out about your breathing. Practice strokes where you turn your head with the body uproll but not all the way, i.e. you are not breathing but rather catching a glance of how close you really are to the surface and how much farther you would have to go to get air. Practice that while keeping the head horizontal, i.e parallel to the bottom of the pool (not looking up). Then, practice some strokes where you still don't breath but turn a little more until you feel your mouth and only one goggle out of the water. This gives you a chance to practice keeping the head horizontal and knowing how far to turn, without swallowing a mouthful of water. It really helped me orient myself better when breathing, especially to my weak (right) side.
2. Recovery. Your left arm recovery is very flat. I would practice the arm, hand, and fingertip drag drills. I know they teach this in TI. These drag drills really give you an idea of body position/rotation and arm position, which helps you even out the stroke (as well as getting the elbows higher on recovery).
3. Catch. The arms are slipping in the water, i.e. I'm pretty sure I'm seeing the forearm dragging behind the elbow on the pull. That tells me that the forearm is not pointing to the bottom of the pool and so it is not being used as an effective paddle. This is something that will take some time to improve. Here's what I would advise, though. When you extend your arm, try to rotate your upper arm internally (left arm clockwise, right arm counterclockwise). Try to do this without also rotating the hand, i.e keeping the hand parallel to the bottom. This gets your elbow pointing to the side or upward. Then when you flex your elbow to initiate the catch, the forearm and hand will pivot downward.
A neat little dryland drill I read about really helped me. Stand facing a wall (close). Take one hand, put the palm against the wall at shoulder width, then slide the arm upward in a straight line (keeping slight pressure on the palm). As you get to full extension, rotate your body a little to get that extra reach AND start to internally rotate your upper arm. The wall will keep your hand from rotating with the upper arm. Then, keeping the elbow fixed at the same height (pivot point), slide the palm downward while pushing against the wall until the forearm is at a 90 degree angle to the wall. This helps to replicate the feel of the proper arm extension and front end of the catch. Once you have that paddle in place, you use the lats to pull with power.
4. Timing. I noticed that sometimes, especially during breaths, your pull arm is already way behind the shoulders at the point where your body is flat. What I mean is that during the second half of your rotation (uproll), you have no more water to hold onto. This uproll should be a significant part of your propulsion. At the point where you are flat your elbow should be at approximately shoulder level. So your initial downroll includes the catch and a little of the pull, and your uproll should include a large portion of the pull. I found this youtube video which I think has some pretty good 3D animations of Ian Thorpe showing this. ;
www.youtube.com/watch
Best of luck, sorry if this is too long winded.
Mcarm, I'm not nearly as experienced as most of the swimmers here, but I can tell you I've improved tremendously over the past 9 months or so. There's been much trial and error and a lot of money spent on videos :laugh2:. Let me see if I can give you some ideas that helped me.
1. Breathing. I agree with what has been pointed out about your breathing. Practice strokes where you turn your head with the body uproll but not all the way, i.e. you are not breathing but rather catching a glance of how close you really are to the surface and how much farther you would have to go to get air. Practice that while keeping the head horizontal, i.e parallel to the bottom of the pool (not looking up). Then, practice some strokes where you still don't breath but turn a little more until you feel your mouth and only one goggle out of the water. This gives you a chance to practice keeping the head horizontal and knowing how far to turn, without swallowing a mouthful of water. It really helped me orient myself better when breathing, especially to my weak (right) side.
2. Recovery. Your left arm recovery is very flat. I would practice the arm, hand, and fingertip drag drills. I know they teach this in TI. These drag drills really give you an idea of body position/rotation and arm position, which helps you even out the stroke (as well as getting the elbows higher on recovery).
3. Catch. The arms are slipping in the water, i.e. I'm pretty sure I'm seeing the forearm dragging behind the elbow on the pull. That tells me that the forearm is not pointing to the bottom of the pool and so it is not being used as an effective paddle. This is something that will take some time to improve. Here's what I would advise, though. When you extend your arm, try to rotate your upper arm internally (left arm clockwise, right arm counterclockwise). Try to do this without also rotating the hand, i.e keeping the hand parallel to the bottom. This gets your elbow pointing to the side or upward. Then when you flex your elbow to initiate the catch, the forearm and hand will pivot downward.
A neat little dryland drill I read about really helped me. Stand facing a wall (close). Take one hand, put the palm against the wall at shoulder width, then slide the arm upward in a straight line (keeping slight pressure on the palm). As you get to full extension, rotate your body a little to get that extra reach AND start to internally rotate your upper arm. The wall will keep your hand from rotating with the upper arm. Then, keeping the elbow fixed at the same height (pivot point), slide the palm downward while pushing against the wall until the forearm is at a 90 degree angle to the wall. This helps to replicate the feel of the proper arm extension and front end of the catch. Once you have that paddle in place, you use the lats to pull with power.
4. Timing. I noticed that sometimes, especially during breaths, your pull arm is already way behind the shoulders at the point where your body is flat. What I mean is that during the second half of your rotation (uproll), you have no more water to hold onto. This uproll should be a significant part of your propulsion. At the point where you are flat your elbow should be at approximately shoulder level. So your initial downroll includes the catch and a little of the pull, and your uproll should include a large portion of the pull. I found this youtube video which I think has some pretty good 3D animations of Ian Thorpe showing this. ;
www.youtube.com/watch
Best of luck, sorry if this is too long winded.
