Hello, Here is a short clip of me swimming. It was shot using a Pentax Optio M10 camera. The 10M mov file was then uploaded to Youtube. The quality doesn't seem to be very good.
So, any advice on whatever you can tell about the swim and/or advice on how to upload/shoot better videos is much appreciated and thanked in advance.
www.youtube.com/watch
The overall impression I get from your swim is that you are trying to remain flat in the water and just cranking your arms. You really need to rotate your body more. Do this and I think you'll find you'll be able to cut several strokes off per length.
Your stroke count in both video's is about 20. This is way too high even for sprinting. Work on extending your stroke with more body roll. Try a video of slow swimming. this can be more revealing. Just to keep it in perspective an elite swimmer can go 10-12 strokes holding a pace quicker than your's for a 500 or 1000.
Overall I think you have a great starting point. There is not alot terribly wrong here that I can see.
I would agree with some of the comments above. It appears that you're not getting as much "purchase" on the pull phase of your stroke, as if your arms are moving through the water but not catching onto the water. More body rotation will help. Doing some catch-up drills slowly while concentrating on making the water feel more "solid" could help as well.
My :2cents:
Former Member
A very splashy swim, I see water splashing everywhere. When your hands exit at the finish I see water splahing. As your arms are in the recovery stage I see water flying,. When you hands enter too much splash. The wave action created by your stroke is very heavy.
Former Member
Steve - I have a bit of advice for the video part.
I suggest the following:
Edit the video footage in Windows Movie Maker or similar. "Make a movie" (also known as rendering) in WMV format at the best resolution available in your software. Render at 800x600 or better if possible. You can choose AVI or mpeg formats if you prefer but always send Youtube the highest quality file possible. The files are bigger but have a better image.
When you send lower resolution video - the compression routines used by Youtube tend to pixelate (turn into blocks) the water, especially with splashes. That's why the picture is blocky at the surface of the water in your video.
If your video is of sufficient quality and the viewer has a broadband internet connection Youtube will activate a "Watch in high quality" option (lower right of the video screen) which will show a much better picture.
A couple of other suggestions:
1. Use a tripod or monopod if possible
2. Don't walk with the camera. No one can hold it steady.
3. Shoot from up high if possible. I find poolside not very useful unless you are at the end of the pool and you want to capture the straight-on view for stroke quality.
4. Move the camera 1/3 as fast as you think you should when you are zooming or moving from one scene to another (such as the electronic scoreboard).
The video below is no work of art (it is just some high school race footage) but the picture quality is pretty good with just a regular Sony camcorder edited in Sony Vegas Studio.
www.youtube.com/watch
Former Member
Watched the second video, you are fishtailing no streamline. This is a major fault and yes you do have potential.
Thanks again everyone. I will post another video in a week or so that hopefully shows the results of your advice.
My left shoulder seems to hurt after attempting to roll a lot.
a) would crossing over the centerline cause that?
b) is there a connection between crossover and roll?
c) fishtail - cause by crossing?
Coach T posted this treasure trove of clips at the end of this post:
forums.usms.org/showpost.php
and I found this on fishtailing:
forums.usms.org/showthread.php
Former Member
A lot of swimmers who do not have control of their kick whether it be a two beat or six beat kick, fishtail. It can also be because you are pulling incorrectly. I would suggest somme catchup swimming and pulling directly down the the black line on the bottom of the pool. It seems you are not extending on entry and in too much of a rush to get the arms to the finish and too much of a hurry to get from the finish to the hand entry.
