My freestyle technique, what needs work?

Former Member
Former Member
Awhile back I had tried to record myself swimming freestlye and ask around the net for commentary, but it was with a low-quality camera and only above-water footage. Not getting too much feedback at that time, I decided to buy a underwater HD camera and try to use that as a reference and improve my freestyle technique. Over about 40 days I have recorded ~16 sessions, and tried to gradually improve things. Here is what I have improved: - No longer crossing over arms in middle (at least most of the time) - Entry occurs when arms are more stretched forward, before my elbow was bent ~90 degrees for some entries - Left pull is a bit more consistent, but still not a clean S curve like right arm (yes I'm right-handed) - kick is a bit tighter and more controlled (though this probably still needs to be made even smaller, with less knee kick) - neck angle when breathing is less extreme, before I was turning upwards much more than necessary I still look straight down at the bottom when swimming much of the time, partially because if I look forward with a 45-degree angle I can't really see much anyway because my goggles get in the way, although I know doing this will make my breathing more natural, and possibly improve my posture overall. I have been doing alot of catch-up with a pull bouy and that seems to have helped me control my upper body more. Also been doing alot of stretches to enable my foot to stretch to a greater degree, and doing a few laps with zoomers to help improve my overall kick form. Anyway, the result of my recent training can be seen in the following video, where I edited together a few sessions together, and you can see my technique from a few different angles, both above and underwater. YouTube- Jeff's Freestyle Technique 7/5/2010 I was concerned about doing too much endurance training with 'bad' form,but I think I am nearly ready to start doing less form work and a little more endurance training. However before that I really would like to get some critique from some masters swimming forum members. If I were to point out my #1 problem at present, it is a lack of 'balance' in the water, though I am not sure exactly what that means or how to work on it. When I see videos of pro swimmers like Michael Phelps I am amazed by how their arms seem 'anchored' in front, whereas I have to struggle to even keep them straight. It takes a conscious effort to not cross over the middle, and even then I can't seem to keep my arms 'anchored' in front. I do most of my training in a housing-development pool with no swimming friends, so any commentary would be very helpful. Thanks very much!
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  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Cool video- thanks! :cool: Does Mr. Smooth swim breaststroke??? :D I wish they had done the same for the other strokes but almost everything on the swimsmooth site is freestyle. I think breaststroke would be hard to do because there are so many variations, you might need two or three stroke models. Bill Boomer mentioned a nice little mnemonic, XYYI which indicates in the 50m the arm and leg strokes overlap making an X shape, in the 100m the timing doesn't have any overlap (push the needle, pull the needle. One of the Ys should be upside down) and in the 200 there is a prolonged streamline between the kick and the next pull. So you would kind of need three models just on that account. Getting back on topic, while looking for something else I found this video clip on recovery technique drills that Jeff might find useful: i-NE8_1OG3w
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  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Cool video- thanks! :cool: Does Mr. Smooth swim breaststroke??? :D I wish they had done the same for the other strokes but almost everything on the swimsmooth site is freestyle. I think breaststroke would be hard to do because there are so many variations, you might need two or three stroke models. Bill Boomer mentioned a nice little mnemonic, XYYI which indicates in the 50m the arm and leg strokes overlap making an X shape, in the 100m the timing doesn't have any overlap (push the needle, pull the needle. One of the Ys should be upside down) and in the 200 there is a prolonged streamline between the kick and the next pull. So you would kind of need three models just on that account. Getting back on topic, while looking for something else I found this video clip on recovery technique drills that Jeff might find useful: i-NE8_1OG3w
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