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
Former Member
In the first of you deliberate swims while doing the catchup stroke I looks like you drop your elbow, which is the elbow preceeds the hand.
In the second film Your head moves off the streamline then the hips move from side to side and you get a little fishtailing happening.
Right now I am having a little internet connection problem here in Mexico and the video is coming in spurts of good and bad.
First of all, good idea doing a chronology through changing your stroke around.
You've improved your stroke count from around 20 to around 18- that's a great improvement, but you should get that down a bit more.
I think you can do that by shedding the bubbles- it looks to me like you've got a cloud of bubbles around your hand under water. I could be wrong about what I see in the video, but bubbles cause your hands to push foam rather than water- you'll get more purchase/resistance in pure water. You can get rid of the bubbles by starting your pull a bit later- glide a bit until the bubbles are shed and then retireve.
It may not be the bubbles, but it just seems like you need to "dig in" a little more to reduce your stroke count. It will fatigue you a bit more but you should adapt and reduce your strokes per length. This should make you more efficient and powerful. Good luck!
Thank you for the comments, I can actually see what you all are talking about with the elbow. See you in a few months!
Former Member
Ditto on the catch/elbow.
You're not catching the water and puling your body past. Your hands are exiting well behind where they enter.
Slow down, get some hand paddles, and get into a group where you can spend the hours pulling looking around at all the other swimmers' strokes.
Join a Master's program!
Better. I agree with everyone comments.
Work on a higher elbow recovery and more of a hip driven body roll. You are still pretty flat in the water. You need more early vertical forearm and catch the water better, your pull looks too deep. On entry try to reach and hold that extension momentarily before beginning the catch. When you push off the wall hold a tighter streamline with your arms. This is part of pool swimming and can't be ignored. Make 30% of your practice time kicking. Learn bilateral breathing, I don't but wish I could.
Learn and do the other strokes, at least back and ***. They all help you build an acute feel for the water which makes you more efficient.
You are getting better!
A couple of points that I noticed:
- in the head on shot your hands are entering the water at or slightly inside your shoulders. You want them to be entering the water at or slightly outside your shoulders to better recruit the large muscles on your pull
- You are dropping your elbow on your pull. Concentrate instead on pointing your fingers towards the bottom of the pull at the start of your pull. The goal on your pull is not to have a completely straight arm as what little power you gain from that is off set by the increased drag and slower speed thru the water.
- You are not allowing your arm to get full extension after entering the water. Think about reaching for the opposite wall with your finger tips.
- Your kick is a little too large with a little more flex at the hips than it should have. This also maybe due to too much bend at the knee, I couldn't be 100% sure from the clips. But either way, this excess flex is dropping your legs down in the water throwing off your body position and creating more drag. Think a faster tighter kick, if you have a water proof camera, have someone film you from about a foot below the water surface while you swim head on at them, pay attention to how much of your legs are visible. You should only be able to see your feet and maybe the lower part of your leg you should not be able to see from your knees up.
You are definately improving, keep up the work!!!!!
First of all, nice job! I can see a lot of progress. Your stroke looks very smooth now. I agree with the other comments and I'd also add that you could get a lot more out of your kick. right now it doesn't look like you're getting much propulsion from your kick it's mainly just counterbalancing your pull. Try to work on incorporating a strong six-beat. Even a four beat kick, but I'd like to see some boiling water back there! Also push off the wall hard and streamline. You should at least get to the flags before you surface and start stroking. That alone will cut a couple strokes off per 25.
Former Member
You have a stroke that looks far better than many Masters swimmers I see. In the first video your stroke count is 16 - about the same as mine. I'm no Paul Smith or Ande but I'm not slow.
I think the single biggest problem I see is the kick. Not that it isn't powerful (it isn't) but your legs drift apart when your body rolls to breathe. That causes a huge drag, slowing you down. It is easiest to see in the first video even though it is a bit off camera.
Compared to many swimmers your catch and elbow position is not bad at all.
In the 2nd video when you are swimming faster it definitely looks like you lost some "bite" underwater. Some swimmers when they feel more resistance underwater will simply turn their hands a bit to reduce the feeling of resistance. That means they lose traction and the pull is less effective.
