Video technique review

Steve, I don't understand technical aspects of swimming so please ignore any advice I might try to offer. But I am right at your speed so I might be able to offer a little perspective. My times are 28 in the 50 and 2:21 in the 200. This tells me that you are a drop dead sprinter and/or could drop a lot of time in your 200 by just going to work on aerobic sets. In one year I went from being able to swim 10 100s on the 2:15 to being able to do 20 on the 1:45. During that time I dropped one second on my 50, 5 seconds on the 100, and 20 seconds on the 200. I don't know if this your idea of fun though. In retrospect, I would have dropped more time on the 50 by just doing 25s and 50s and hanging around working on technique and turns and starts. It also supports the notion that aerobic conditioning might be a waste of time for sprinters. But the 50 will never be my thing while it could be yours. You look like you have some real talent and potential for improvement. The other thing I find interesting is that your kick time is about 10 seconds faster than mine per 25. My kick power is absolutely horrible. This leads me to believe that your powerful legs are not helping your speed and might even be hurting it. One thing I can naturally do is drag my legs behind to keep me afloat and streamlined. Do you ever use a pull bouy? I hate them myself. I don't know if that would strain your shoulder.

OK, I ignored your advice as you advised, but thanks. Yeah, my kick is still too wide, and I seem to be better at shorter events, but I think the being drop-dead part about sprinting is partly due to conditioning (lack of) though. I need to start focusing on longer races and other strokes, one set I plan to use this summer for the 200 is this: 5 sets of 8x50 on 1:00 Set#1 - o=ez, e=200pace+2sec Set#2 - o=ez, e=200pace+1sec Set#3 - o=ez, e=200pace Set#4 - o=ez, e=200pace -1sec Set#5 - o=ez, e=200pace -2sec I also did a full length (25M) of fly for the first time and timed it at about 16 sec, so I might have some potential with the stroke, but I also tried back and br. The back, I couldn't even maintain - it made all sorts of part's ache, and the br was 27 sec. I haven't figured out how to breath with fly yet but I plan to do a length more often to get it down since my body does seem to accept this stroke more naturally. As for training, right now I seem to respond better with about 1500-2000M/Y a day. Comparing to this spring when I bumped my daily distance up to about 3000 without any effect makes me content with a bit more than 1500 a day. Skill is another thing, I didn't have the typical swimming background so little things like turns, starts, breakouts, pacing, etc have a drastic impact on my performance, and if I'm not rested or nervous I'll screw it up. One more area that I need to consider is race preparation, not swimming related but planning and organizing. I haven't seemed to get it right yet. I have done 6 meets total, they were all this year, not one did I manage to sleep more than 4 hours the night prior, except Friday night before Atlanta's first event where I got about 7 hours but I had to drive 5 before the event. Some nights before were just 1-3 hours of sleep. For me, sleep effects my performance considerably no matter what I do. For the 50 fr LCM, I am certain I can do it sub 29 in the right state of mind and a little luck, I just have to prove it to myself.

Am I doing fly correctly? Looks a little unusual to me YouTube- DSCF0779.AVI Your body seems to remain kind of low in the water. I think you need to kick harder so that your shoulders get higher on recovery. Then you won't be fighting against the surface as much, your arms will reach farther forward with less effort, and you'll find breathing comes easier. It's cliche to post Phelps videos, so here's a Cavic video instead. See how these guys all get their shoulders above the surface on recovery so their arms don't have to fight to get forward. YouTube- Cavic breaks Phelps record, from Universal Sports

When comparing to the non-cliche clip (thanks), in addition to the kick, might also be related to too narrow of undulation. I also see inward splashes at late recovery in mine, where the pro's show splash later at entry. It really didn't feel that resistive up front, but if I plan to do this event in a 50, I'll definately have to breath and get higher. Thanks for the input, the vid was resourceful

Am I doing fly correctly? Looks a little unusual to me YouTube- DSCF0779.AVI

It probably shouldn't be your #1 priority (I think undulation probably is) but you should try doing the recovery with your palms facing backwards or backwards and in if the wrist is bent, right now, at least with your right arm the palms are facing down and forward, which will tend to result in your elbow bending.

Rotated hand slightly, undulated a little more, used a little more force and did get out of water a little more but for some reason my head thrusts fwd/dwn on 2nd beat kick during recovery. My head bounces twice instead of once - strange. YouTube- DSCF0788.AVI

Rotated hand slightly, undulated a little more, used a little more force and did get out of water a little more but for some reason my head thrusts fwd/dwn on 2nd beat kick during recovery. My head bounces twice instead of once - strange. YouTube- DSCF0788.AVI There's definite improvement in that clip!

HI, I suddenly stopped dropping time in free 2 years ago and have been working hard trying to get back. I'm getting close, but perhaps there's something I'm doing wrong. Also started other strokes since then. Using 50M LC times, though I don't practice in such a course, it makes for a good comparison: 2010/06/05 - 30.87 (nearest lane) Despite armslap and early fatigue, this is still my best swim 2011/06/25 - 31.14 (had zero speed) 2012/06/02 - 30.93 (felt good the first half then made the mistake of looking forward twice) Here are some clips (the pool is turbid but it should work): fr rt frt side 0.125.wmv - YouTube (free) To me, my upper body seems OK but my feet are too deep. 6.6.12 kick.wmv - YouTube (kick) Seems too mechanical? fly - YouTube (fly) 6.6.12 bk.wmv - YouTube (back) 6.6.12 fr.bk fast.wmv - YouTube 25 free fast and 25 meters back (out of breath) Please don't hold back on the critisism Thank you:)

Thank you Mike! A few years ago you helped me make big improvements with my free, I'll try to add to this.