been a while!

Timing and rhythm seem good,but you really need to work on EVF.You are leading with your elbows instead of your forearms.

i'm sorry for my ignorance, but, whats EVF? And how am i leading with my elbows? (again sorry for the questions ive never been coached or anything before)

nvm i looked up evf. some further explanation on how im leading with my elbows would be awesome haha :P

There are some drills. Dryland, you can put your arm up against the wall as though you are swimming to the ceiling, rotate your body like you would swimming, and practice rotating the shoulder/elbow while keeping the hand flat against the wall. You can also do the same thing with a lat pulldown machine, work on keeping the elbow above head level as you catch, then pull the elbow, forearm, and hand in the same plane towards your feet. The idea is to help create muscle memory. In the pool there are some devices that can force you to do that to create any propulsion. As it is now, you are kind of fooled into thinking you are gripping water because you feel pressure on your hands. The problem is the pressure is not straight back, and the forearm may be even less vertical than the hands (you ideally get the majority of propulsion from the forearm). Some drills which take the hand out of the stroke force you to get the forearm in the right direction in order to feel resistance against the forearm. One is the fist drill. Just swim with closed fists (don't clench too hard, you aren't trying to create strain in the forearm). Finis has a device that you hold in your hand which essentially does the same thing (called PT paddle). Another is the technopaddle, which Tom Topolski (in this forum) developed. It takes the hand out and helps drop your forearm into proper position. There is also the Finis forearm fulcrum which basically locks your wrist so your hand and forearm have to be in the same plane. There are other variations, like holding a ping pong ball in each hand between the thumb and index finger, leaving only the last 3 fingers to engage in the stroke (I like this drill a lot). One thing I find helps me is to think of the initial catch as a gentle drop of the wrist and forearm, keeping the elbow in front. It should be a relatively relaxed and slow part of the stroke and should begin shortly after your other recovery arm exits the water. Of course your elbow has to be in a reasonable position to do this otherwise the forearm can't drop and you end up actively trying to push the forearm down. So practice extending with that internally rotated shoulder (not overly so, again just so the elbow faces the side wall) but keeping the hand facing the pool bottom. Good luck.

Elbows are dropping. Imagine wrapping your extended arm outward over a big barrel. As it begins to travel under your torso...throw the barrel and the water back. High elbow is a key ingredient of early vertical forearm. That what you want to strive for. And what George said about the head position...keep you head in neutral and look down at the black line. After you find the right horizontal line, then work on having the eyes looking slightly ahead. Old School * Head sticking out of the water a bit at the top. * Eyes looking forward at an angle to the vertical. * Neck muscles engaged to carry the head's weight. * Spine line curved in an ‘S-shape'. * Core muscles not engaged New School * Head ‘totally immersed' in the water but ‘only just'. * Eyes looking straight down. * Neck muscles relaxed with minimal ‘tone'. * Spine line as straight as is comfortable. * Core muscles engaged

What everyone is getting at is this. When your arm (which is about to catch) is extended, you need to internally rotate your shoulder a bit without rotating your hand. In other words, your elbow, rather than facing the bottom of the pool, should face the side when the arm is extended. This allows you to flex your elbow in a way that keeps it in front of you on the catch, gets the forearm and hand downward/vertical, and then catapults you forward on the pull. Your forearm paddle gets vertical and begins working from out in front. The whole leading with your elbow mistake basically means that if your elbow is farther back than the forearm and hand, the forearm and hand logically cannot be in a vertical orientation. The benefit of the vertical position is obvious; the pull forces are all straight back, so you go faster. What you are doing in the video is essentially pulling your arm back with little grasp on the water until your forearm gets to about your upper to mid chest level. Your forearm gets vertical late. If you youtube guys like Ian Thorpe of Grant Hackett, it will be clearer.

I would work on head position you seem to be looking forward. Your butt is very low caused by head position and your dropped elbows while they are undewater. Your elbows should be at 90 degrees to the wall, they appear to be at 45 degrees. :bliss::bliss::):)Tuck the strings inside the jammers, they are hanging loose.

A little more. When you come off the wall from the push off your chin is up, it should be tucked in to almost touch your chest. The top of your arms should be touching your ears. You are face is up after you start swimming almost looking strait forward.

Thank you guys for taking the time out of your day to help a beginner haha. I will work on all these things and maybe I can do a follow up vid in a few weeks? Also, no one said anything about my kicking? I feel like I don't kick at all and that's causing tons of drag, or is the drag just caused by me dropping my butt as previously stated? With that being said I was thinking about getting some fins and the finis snorkel, do you guys think that would be a worthwhile investment?

Oh one more thing, how is it that engage my core? The only I even slightly feel my core doing any work is when I do flip turns