50m freestyle Help!!!

I have three observations: It's only a fifty, you need to get up on the water sooner from what you did from this video pushoff. You are breathing alot for a fifty, and you have a hesitation every time you breath. The breathing needs to be more integrated, and hopefully, you can reduce the number of times you need to. You started in one lane, nearly finished in the other. Do you have your eyes open or not? The shortest distance in the 50 is straight line, end to end. You may have something in your stroke that's angling you off to your right, and you need to fix it. start with openeing your eyes so you can stay on top of the line. It is an aggressive goal, but no-one ever got their by being feignt of heart! Good luck.

Getting to 24 is going to take you a long time. I think you have the conditioning down for 50 meters. Lots of effort, and your speed doesn't fade until the very end. If you can shorten the race by being more efficient, you'll barely fade at all. It looks like you are slipping in the water with your arm stroke, and rushing the catch. You can improve this at the same time as working on your streamline by doing lots of catch drills. I think it's best to do these while wearing fins, so that you can work with a fast flow of water, and also improve your kick at the same time. Do flutter kick on your stomach with your arms extended in front of you but not locked in a streamline. Tilt one wrist slightly downward, and allow the water to push against the back of your hand. Then bring the wrist back up and do it with the other wrist. Once you're used to the pressure on the back of your hand, allow the pressure to push your forearm until it's completely vertical, with your elbow still at the surface. Do this with alternating arms. It's kind of like doggy paddle, except you aren't pulling. Just let each forearm slide into a vertical position, and then straighten it back out. That position, with your elbow above your wrist, is the most powerful position for the freestyle stroke. Once you feel comfortable with the first drill I describe, start engaging the water with a strong pull in this position. Just quick short pulses of power at first, recovering underwater like in the first drill. Then work up to the full stroke with an over-the-water recovery. Instead of focusing on the movement of your hand, imagine pulling your elbow to your side. The strongest muscles on your upper body are the ones that bring your elbow to your side, and you want to use them as much as possible. That's the drill progression I like to use personally for a strong catch. I hope it works for you, and please ask questions if anything is unclear.

thank you very much for your prompt reply! i too find that i can't generate much pull (catch) as much as i do in the gym. and for my legs, what should i be looking out for? it seems like i'm putting so much effort into pushing my lower body up and little is driving me forward. on another note, does fins really help in understanding how to properly catch water? if so i would really invest in one!

23 in a 50m free is a HUGE goal. I'd have loved to see a demo start in the videos. So many people dismiss their start and start sequence as "good enough" when they could be leaving a whole second on the table. Its all "free" time if you take it right off the start/underwater. Also it looks like you might not be using an SDK. I don't know that you'll get down to 23-24 without that. Last, what jazz said... you're not getting the full distance per stroke while sprinting. The only way to sprint faster is to maximize distance while increasing stroke rate assuming all other factors remain constant. Sounds simple, but very hard. Also, you need to work on kicking. Given the magnitude of the goal you've set out, you should make intermediate goals and work towards those first. You should check ande's tips too, there are a ton of good ones in there to point you in the right direction.

Also it looks like you might not be using an SDK. I don't know that you'll get down to 23-24 without that. It's not a big deal in freestyle. People have gone 21 without SDK. I went 24.7 and I did maybe one dolphin kick :)

It's not a big deal in freestyle. People have gone 21 without SDK. I went 24.7 and I did maybe one dolphin kick :) I'm not saying it can't be done... but for those of us that don't have olympian genetics, it sure does help :)

Thank you all for your prompt reply! i'm dazzled by the activeness of this forum =) Getting to 24 is going to take you a long time. I think you have the conditioning down for 50 meters. Lots of effort, and your speed doesn't fade until the very end. If you can shorten the race by being more efficient, you'll barely fade at all. It looks like you are slipping in the water with your arm stroke, and rushing the catch. You can improve this at the same time as working on your streamline by doing lots of catch drills. I think it's best to do these while wearing fins, so that you can work with a fast flow of water, and also improve your kick at the same time. Do flutter kick on your stomach with your arms extended in front of you but not locked in a streamline. Tilt one wrist slightly downward, and allow the water to push against the back of your hand. Then bring the wrist back up and do it with the other wrist. Once you're used to the pressure on the back of your hand, allow the pressure to push your forearm until it's completely vertical, with your elbow still at the surface. Do this with alternating arms. It's kind of like doggy paddle, except you aren't pulling. Just let each forearm slide into a vertical position, and then straighten it back out. That position, with your elbow above your wrist, is the most powerful position for the freestyle stroke. Once you feel comfortable with the first drill I describe, start engaging the water with a strong pull in this position. Just quick short pulses of power at first, recovering underwater like in the first drill. Then work up to the full stroke with an over-the-water recovery. Instead of focusing on the movement of your hand, imagine pulling your elbow to your side. The strongest muscles on your upper body are the ones that bring your elbow to your side, and you want to use them as much as possible. That's the drill progression I like to use personally for a strong catch. I hope it works for you, and please ask questions if anything is unclear. i do think that my stroke rate seems to be a little too slow for a sprint race though. When you said "rushing with my catch", does it mean that i'm not gliding enough? or i did not set up the catch position at all? And are fins really essential? because it is kinda expensive in my country. But if it will serve to understand the concept of a proper catch i would definitely invest in one! For the drills, is the emphasis meant to achieve a gd EVF? i'm having trouble with EVF, seems hard to achieve in the water bt possible dry-land. (not sure if i'm making any sense, EVF = early vertical forearm) And yet another, am i supposed to sway so much on the upper body when swimming with only the flutter kick? 23 in a 50m free is a HUGE goal. I'd have loved to see a demo start in the videos. So many people dismiss their start and start sequence as "good enough" when they could be leaving a whole second on the table. Its all "free" time if you take it right off the start/underwater. Also it looks like you might not be using an SDK. I don't know that you'll get down to 23-24 without that. Last, what jazz said... you're not getting the full distance per stroke while sprinting. The only way to sprint faster is to maximize distance while increasing stroke rate assuming all other factors remain constant. Sounds simple, but very hard. Also, you need to work on kicking. Given the magnitude of the goal you've set out, you should make intermediate goals and work towards those first. You should check ande's tips too, there are a ton of good ones in there to point you in the right direction. could you fill me in on what SDK stands for? oh i'm trying to push it down to 25 sec without the jump start so that i'm able to tackle the problems individually. by getting the full distance per stroke does it mean i have to pull all the way to the end? just a question cause i've never trained with a team before nor have found any videos on this, when i pull, is my palm supposed to be orientated to the body middle-line or to the sides (like shoulder width)? once again tyvm =)!

could you recommend me a method as to how not to breathe ever so often? it almost seem habitual for me, and i realised that when i breathe, my body tends to turn too much. could you advice me on how to remain flat while breathing? does the timing at which i breathe have to do with it?

could you fill me in on what SDK stands for? oh i'm trying to push it down to 25 sec without the jump start so that i'm able to tackle the problems individually. by getting the full distance per stroke does it mean i have to pull all the way to the end? just a question cause i've never trained with a team before nor have found any videos on this, when i pull, is my palm supposed to be orientated to the body middle-line or to the sides (like shoulder width)? once again tyvm =)! Streamline dolphin kick. If you can get good at it, it will help the underwater part of your divestart. In my opinion, train the way you intend to race. Don't train a pushoff 50m for time. Train a divestart 50m for time because that is how you will race. You will need to work on the transition from the dive to the breakout and getting up and out of the water to start your sprint, so don't leave that part of the training til the very end, be sure to integrate it in and work on all of it at least once a week. The full distance per stroke basically means what jazz said. It looks like you're spinning your wheels while you sprint. Call it, distance per stroke, or evf, or the catch. Its all the same thing... make sure you get the most efficient stroke you can at a high stroke rate. Make sure water is being pushed by your arms and hands and not slipping around them. This is something that can only be ligthly explained in a forum. You will likely need a coach for fine tuning of your stroke if you have no experience doing this already. How old are you and how long have you been swimming?

could you recommend me a method as to how not to breathe ever so often? it almost seem habitual for me, and i realised that when i breathe, my body tends to turn too much. could you advice me on how to remain flat while breathing? does the timing at which i breathe have to do with it? A little, but for a 50 its really about holding your breath longer. You can work this by doing breath control 50's... breath as much as you want the first 25, and don't breath at all the second 25. Eventually you'll be able to do more than 25m without breathing. Keep working this up til you can do a full 50 without breathing in practice. It should help prepare you for a none or one breath race. The best sprinters breath once or not at all in a 50. Breathing just wastes time, and your body isn't going to make use of that oxygen until the race is over anyway... after all, you're only talking about 24 seconds :)