Freestyle quirks and problems - please help

Slightly less extreme, you could try swimming with the water at your hairline - as a drill not as something to achieve in your regular stroke. Again, look for what adjustments you need to make to get your head up, and then see if you can use them in your regular stroke. My head remained submerged even though I looked between 5 and 8 feet forward. But that was the adjustment that had the largest positive effect on rotation. The downside is that I lift the head very high when breathing: www.youtube.com/watch Wow, that's a tremendous improvement! Great work! Compare the before and after position while breathing in the attached image. If you can take this just a bit further so that your rotation is about 15 degrees short of vertical instead of right on vertical you'll have the rotation about right. Looking at your head position you have it facing level which is right where you want it, but if you rotate your neck about 15 degrees toward your shoulder then you will get the same position relative to the water without your body having to rotate as far. Right now it is facing straight forward with no neck rotation. You may have read that you should rotate with your body not your neck but this isn't entirely true, and is really meant as advice for people who swim too flat and only rotate the neck. See the far right picture of Phelps that I attached to post #9, his shoulders are at about 45 degrees with his head another 45 degrees for a horizontal position. I think that you can learn to breath without your head having to be quite as high. I would try the breathing drills that were suggested earlier but change the emphasis to just getting comfortable with breathing with your face almost halfway submerged. Even standing in the water leaning over, or holding onto the edge rotate both your head relative to your shoulders and your shoulders to just bring your nose out of the water and breath through one side of your mouth keeping your lips closed on the other side. You may feel a little self conscious but if you can get really comfortable breathing this way I think it will help you a lot. Your new fins may be helpful as you do drills as they will give you more speed and stability without as much effort as finless kicking. For example, once you are comfortable with breathing while standing bent over, or at the edge of the pool, you could try kicking with fins with one arm in front and one at your side, and just practice rotating your neck and body just far enough to get a breath. This will be easier with fins than without so maybe start with fins and then when you are really comfortable try it without them. I think that as you practice and you get really relaxed and comfortable with breathing your whole stroke will take another big step forward. Again, congratulations on your huge improvement and keep us updated!

Slightly less extreme, you could try swimming with the water at your hairline - as a drill not as something to achieve in your regular stroke. Again, look for what adjustments you need to make to get your head up, and then see if you can use them in your regular stroke. My head remained submerged even though I looked between 5 and 8 feet forward. But that was the adjustment that had the largest positive effect on rotation. The downside is that I lift the head very high when breathing: www.youtube.com/watch Wow, that's a tremendous improvement! Great work! Compare the before and after position while breathing in the attached image. If you can take this just a bit further so that your rotation is about 15 degrees short of vertical instead of right on vertical you'll have the rotation about right. Looking at your head position you have it facing level which is right where you want it, but if you rotate your neck about 15 degrees toward your shoulder then you will get the same position relative to the water without your body having to rotate as far. Right now it is facing straight forward with no neck rotation. You may have read that you should rotate with your body not your neck but this isn't entirely true, and is really meant as advice for people who swim too flat and only rotate the neck. See the far right picture of Phelps that I attached to post #9, his shoulders are at about 45 degrees with his head another 45 degrees for a horizontal position. I think that you can learn to breath without your head having to be quite as high. I would try the breathing drills that were suggested earlier but change the emphasis to just getting comfortable with breathing with your face almost halfway submerged. Even standing in the water leaning over, or holding onto the edge rotate both your head relative to your shoulders and your shoulders to just bring your nose out of the water and breath through one side of your mouth keeping your lips closed on the other side. You may feel a little self conscious but if you can get really comfortable breathing this way I think it will help you a lot. Your new fins may be helpful as you do drills as they will give you more speed and stability without as much effort as finless kicking. For example, once you are comfortable with breathing while standing bent over, or at the edge of the pool, you could try kicking with fins with one arm in front and one at your side, and just practice rotating your neck and body just far enough to get a breath. This will be easier with fins than without so maybe start with fins and then when you are really comfortable try it without them. I think that as you practice and you get really relaxed and comfortable with breathing your whole stroke will take another big step forward. Again, congratulations on your huge improvement and keep us updated!