Please critique

I hate to critique openly a childs stroke, in the second video I do not like the way the hand enters and seems to push the water in the opposite direction with the palm of the hand. It enters and the palm pushing forward and then forced upward by the water. A good set of videos.

Re:BR-The overall timing is good.He brings his hands too far back.This is decreasing the power of his in-sweep and causing his recovery to start too low(too far beneath the surface) which messes up his streamlining.He is kicking out.The kick should be back.The feet start outside the knees and they should not get wider than where they are in the catch.2 good drills for him would be-1)practicing the pull bent over the lane line with it crossing at the arm pits 2)breaststroke with a pull buoy between the knees. Thanks for the tips. Yeah, I agree about bringing his arms too far back. I see a lot of extra up and down rather than forward momentum when I watch him from the side on the *** stroke. The kick is definitely a work in progress. We'll try those drills.

Hey, I tried to be nice :angel: We just have different parenting philosophies and I'm willing to agree to disagree. My worry wasn't that you were heaping on extra work or being psychotic. My worry is that you might be one of those parents I, personally (and this might be just me) dread to have as a parent on my team. I (again, personally) don't believe in parents coaching their kids--especially when the parent has no background or formal teaching in what he or she is trying to teach his or her kid. The fact that you are posting videos for random masters swimmers to view and offer correction suggestions, suggests to me that you are not an expert yourself. I, personally, am annoyed when a parent on my team tries to teach something he or she doesn't understand for themselves. They often don't really understand whatt they're teaching and they end up making my job harder. I've coached swimming for 20 years now and have spent 37 years as a swimmer. I have a hard time coaching my own kids because they would really rather have me be a supportive mom. I wouldn't, in a million years, dream of giving my kids tips on their Tae Kwon Do forms or sparring since I know little about TKD. I wouldn't think of asking others on a site about tips for them either. If I was concerned about their instruction, I'd find a good program with good coaching. But, that's just my personal philosophy. I do happen to know a lot of coaches who have that same philosophy so get used to hearing about it and try not to have such a thin skin... ***Ahhh, might have been a good tidbit of information to include that your son suffers from Asperger's syndrome and, quite possibly, needs a little extra direction. I amend my above post to say that, as a coach, I'd be MUCH more tolerant of a parent with a child who has special needs giving their child some extra direction. That makes sense to me. If you were like most parents I encounter who do this kind of thing with their swimmers who are learning perfectly well in practice, I'd be irritated. But, it looks like your situation is different. I apologize if I offended! I don't know that my son "suffers" from Asperger's syndrome. Like anything in life there are advantages and disadvantages. Straight A student and heckuva pianist, but socially awkward and athletically lacking. And yes, as you alluded to, he needs very specific instruction on things. I undersand that I am not an expert on swimming, but I have been swimming and reading about swimming alot over the past year. I have learned a lot on this board as well. And I can say with complete honesty that 90% of his improvement has been from working with him on my own. Last summer, his 25M time went from 47 sec to 33 sec with the "extra" help. This past fall, winter, and spring, while not on a team or coached by anyone but myself, his 25Y time dropped to 18.5 sec, and his 50M time is 46 sec. Same goes for his back stroke (37 sec 25M to 58 sec 50M). I teach him things as I said, that are simple, but make a big difference. For example. Geochuck says he is pushing water on his entry (true). You should have seen him before, it was a lot worse, like he was saying "talk to the hand". That is one thing we improved. Balance, 6 beat switch drills to learn to rotate and kick on his side, and fist swimming to help him feel the water are other examples. As Geochuck said, large swimming teams don't really have the time to work on stroke development. I see them do a drill, a child does it completely incorrectly, and nobody says a thing (for the record, I do not hover over my son, nor do I ever give instructions during a practice). Most accomplished kids are on year-round teams where they get more detailed training, and I did not want to subject my son to that schedule last year until I knew that he really enjoyed it. This fall we will start the Curle-Burke program, and now it makes sense to leave the training to them. You should see the look on his face when he finds out that he contributes points to the team. It was unthinkable last year.

I think better technique makes swimming or any sport more fun, regardless of age. I have Twins, 5 year old's learning to swim. The coaches do a fantastic job but I still take my kids swimming and try to help them as best I can. I have no aspirations of flogging them to go the Olympics or whatever, they just love swimming. Katie screams the place down trying to get her out the pool.

And now thinking about it I show Jarad & Kaitlan youtube videos of swimming (and star wars and pink panther...) and they think its great. Big arms, bubbles, (Katie is a natural butterflyer, just a few strokes) they learn heaps from just watching. They have their own PC's and love youtube. Times are changing. I am not flogging them. When they are "nine" ... well that is another four years away, I don't know what my kids will be "having fun" doing then.