Hey guys, my apologies to those of you getting sick of critiquing people, :laugh2: I just joined a masters team this week and I've gotten some really good instruction on the *** stroke and free, but have a couple questions and a video on which i'm hoping to get some feedback. On the free, the coach is advocating pressing down with the whole arm and then pulling the water underneath me with the forearm just about parallel to the pool floor. He even said to almost touch my opposite hip with my hand (I understood that as crossing the midline on the pull). Is this kind of old school or is there something I might be misunderstanding? It felt very weird trying that, very different from what I had been (unsuccessfully) striving for before. I'm kind of trying to combine elements of what he is saying with what I have read and watched in videos. He was very helpful in getting me aware of my balance and body position. On the *** stroke he was very helpful as well with the arm pull, I did much better after his instruction. One interesting thing he advocated was bringing the legs up during the pull and kicking while arm shooting, so my feet should be back together once my arms were in streamline. What I have seen in videos of olympians shows a kick that is a little more delayed; the legs come up to the butt during the shoot, then the arms are in streamline before the actual squeezing of the legs/feet. Can someone comment on this?
I think I may have screwed myself by doing so much reading and watching videos for 3 years before getting a coach. I would have been less confused during practice. That said, the net effect has been positive.
Here is a freestyle video from today. I definitely see flaws; left arm is weird, probably too high, so I have trouble catching. I look uncomfortable and twisted when left side is down. I'm still not getting the forearms very vertical, right arm in particular probably pulls too low. I wonder if I need more shoulder strength and/or more internal rotation of the shoulder. I've been working really hard on narrowing my kick amplitude, but some strokes forget. I also have problems with the kick rhythm. Please critique and offer me drills you would do when I do practice on my own (have Masters just 3 days a week). Thanks a bunch.
YouTube - Swim Dec 9
On the *** stroke he was very helpful as well with the arm pull, I did much better after his instruction. One interesting thing he advocated was bringing the legs up during the pull and kicking while arm shooting, so my feet should be back together once my arms were in streamline. What I have seen in videos of olympians shows a kick that is a little more delayed; the legs come up to the butt during the shoot, then the arms are in streamline before the actual squeezing of the legs/feet. Can someone comment on this?
YouTube - Swim Dec 9
I'd say bring the legs up as you are beginning the insweep.He seems to be advocating the kick a little early,but that timing is best for some.It depends on the strength of your pull relative to kick.Great BR swimmers have great kicks and their timing may not be the best for those with weaker kicks.Also,it may be that your current kick is too late and he wants you to over correct.Post a video of your BR if you wish.
In the video it looks like your arms are going through the motions but not catching much water. There's very little body rotation and you don't appear to be engaging your lats and core. Also your kick doesn't appear to be contributing much to propulsion, even though you're kicking fairly vigorously. (Boy do I know that feeling!)
Try rotating more and "reaching over the barrel" on catch. Experiment a little until you feel it in your lats. Fist drill might help get the feel, it works for me.
Try letting your fingertips naturally dip towards the bottom, creating a more vertical forearm before pulling at all. Your initial pull has little grab. That's where I'd start. Doesn't look that bad all ... just some fine tuning needed.
He even said to almost touch my opposite hip with my hand (I understood that as crossing the midline on the pull). Is this kind of old school or is there something I might be misunderstanding? It felt very weird trying that, very different from what I had been (unsuccessfully) striving for before. I'm kind of trying to combine elements of what he is saying with what I have read and watched in videos. He was very helpful in getting me aware of my balance and body position.
It looks to me as if you are pulling a bit wide on the free, so he is trying to get you to focus on pulling under the body, but you shouldn't be crossing the midline. Also as PP said, work on engaging the core and more rotation, this should help keep your hips up and body more streamlined.
Hope it helps
Thanks guys. I've been experimenting with different degrees of rotation, sometimes I do rotate more. I'll go at it again today and post a vid (freestyle and ***).
I'd say your kick looks a little too big, at least for you, for now...You CAN kick big, but not if it throws your body around, which in the video it looks like it is doing. Work on pull sets only, or concentrate on taking much smaller kicks for now.
Thanks guys. Here is more film from a couple days ago where I tried to be more cognizant of rotating and not pulling out (I meant to videotape even more today but forgot my camera; I'm guessing it would have looked even better today because it felt more natural and I think I was more consistent). In the video below it was a bit hit or miss. One thing that helped was thinking about why I seem to pull out. It occurred to me that I'm doing it in the process of trying to internally rotate the shoulder. In the video below you can see me try to quickly adjust it after a brief outsweep. Then, I thought, why not adjust it from the very beginning. So while internally rotating my shoulder I have worked on supinating my wrist, with the net effect being that my wrist is pulling straight back. I haven't seen video yet, but it feels more efficient. Also today I was really working hard on pressing my torso down and continuing the kick while extended. Hopefully I can get video of that in the next couple days, as well as my *** stroke. Thanks for all the help. I'll look out for you, Swimshark!
YouTube
Taruky, hey, I recognize that pool in your video tape! Glad you are getting some good help from Cy. One great tip that I got from his son is a drawing that he did with an S vs the straight line of the pull. See if you can get Cy to draw this out for you on the board. It helped my free out a lot.
It does seem that you can come in a bit more on your body with your hands. But not so far that you are crossing the midline.
As for ***, when I was with my former team, they tried to get me to do the same ***. It didn't work for me. But I did change to bring my kick up a tad earlier. Try their method and then adjust to what feels comfortable. Bringing the kick up and hands in at the same time was slower for me. See what works for you.
If you come to the morning practice, don't forget to look over to the white caps and wave. I'm usually in the end lane, against the wall (some times in a green OMS cap but one day I'll break out a new Curl cap)
