Tricks to help you engage your "core" in Freestyle

Good point philoswimmer! I will re-phrase: I need drills or tricks to help me engage my lats when I swim. I feel like I am using the small shoulder and chest muscles too much. My lats never hurt or feel tired. I've been working with a 6 beat kick in the skater position followed by a roll to repeat on the other side. This drill seems easy and I don't feel much transfer to my stroke. Should my lats be tired after a 4,000 lcm workout of all freestyle? It seems like they should. I am confused:badday: I didn't mean to criticize your wording of your question, but rather all of us who think that using the core is the key to good swimming. If we can't say how to do it, then the claim that we're doing it starts to seem a bit questionable. But again, I was just being provocative in the hopes of eliciting more feedback for you. I am far from an expert, but: Have you had someone watch your stroke to see if your body roll transfers to your regular stroke -- not just when you are focused on it, but all the way through that 4000 LCM workout? That would seem to me to be the key to engaging those lats.

Good point philoswimmer! I will re-phrase: I need drills or tricks to help me engage my lats when I swim. I feel like I am using the small shoulder and chest muscles too much. My lats never hurt or feel tired. I've been working with a 6 beat kick in the skater position followed by a roll to repeat on the other side. This drill seems easy and I don't feel much transfer to my stroke. Should my lats be tired after a 4,000 lcm workout of all freestyle? It seems like they should. I am confused:badday: I didn't mean to criticize your wording of your question, but rather all of us who think that using the core is the key to good swimming. If we can't say how to do it, then the claim that we're doing it starts to seem a bit questionable. But again, I was just being provocative in the hopes of eliciting more feedback for you. I am far from an expert, but: Have you had someone watch your stroke to see if your body roll transfers to your regular stroke -- not just when you are focused on it, but all the way through that 4000 LCM workout? That would seem to me to be the key to engaging those lats.