Freestyle quirks and problems - please help

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. Thank you once more, Lindsay! That improvement would not have been possible without the multitude of suggestions you provided. Now that I know what to look for, I'm sure I will eventually be able to make it repeatable and take it one step further. Actually, what I read was that the distance between chin and shoulder should not change when rotating for a breath, as if there were a thread. I believe I read that in an article Emmett Hines wrote. That has already helped me because--it may be hard to believe--my over-rotation was much worse before I saw myself swimming the first time. I had this self-image of an arrow, cutting through the water and I was appalled when I saw how I actually swam. However, even though I tried focusing on the chin-shoulder connection, with the large number of stroke defects I'm dealing with, I could never correctly or fully implement what Emmett suggested. In case he ever reads this post: No, I am not a freeloader. Yes, I did buy the book and even ordered the 2nd edition! :D 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.I realize that I have to work on getting used to breathing with half my face in the water and the pool side drills seems to be just what I need. I will also work on learning the Popeye breathing. I just hope I won't copy some of the other guys I see at the pool. They practically have their entire head above the water, the surface is 3 or 4 inches away from their mouth, and they still do the Popeye thing. :) 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.I couldn't test drive my fins today because an aqua gymnastics class invaded the small pool just as I wanted to put them on. But I'm confident they will have the effect you described. I believe they will amplify something that I noticed today and which helped me quite a bit in getting a clean breath--thanks to the input of George and Coach T.: While I was swimming a few laps, trying to relax and re-create the image that you saw in the last video, I also tried keeping my finger pointing at the bottom of the pool during the pull and taking it all the way down to the thigh - the poor man's version of EVF/high elbow. This time I actually felt that I was riding higher in the water and that my forward movement was constant enough to allow me keeping my mouth closer to the water line than I normally would have risked when breathing. I even felt water rushing by my mouth and still didn't swallow any--or at least not enough to remember it or break the stroke. ;) Now it could be that I was just hallucinating and what I did looked horrible and was all wrong, but it felt very good. I'm hoping that the fins will add to that effect and let me make adjustments with less risk of getting thrown off by anxiety. My only fear (and the reason why I had not owned any fins before) is that I will get addicted to the fins and not enjoy swimming without them anymore. Again, congratulations on your huge improvement and keep us updated!Again, thank you very much for your time, patience, and willingness to share your knowledge! You cannot imagine how much you've helped me in such a short time. It would have taken me at least weeks, more likely several months to find out on my own what to work on to build my freestyle. Everybody here is very kind and I'm immensely grateful. And yes, I will keep you updated. There's so much to do still. :)

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. Thank you once more, Lindsay! That improvement would not have been possible without the multitude of suggestions you provided. Now that I know what to look for, I'm sure I will eventually be able to make it repeatable and take it one step further. Actually, what I read was that the distance between chin and shoulder should not change when rotating for a breath, as if there were a thread. I believe I read that in an article Emmett Hines wrote. That has already helped me because--it may be hard to believe--my over-rotation was much worse before I saw myself swimming the first time. I had this self-image of an arrow, cutting through the water and I was appalled when I saw how I actually swam. However, even though I tried focusing on the chin-shoulder connection, with the large number of stroke defects I'm dealing with, I could never correctly or fully implement what Emmett suggested. In case he ever reads this post: No, I am not a freeloader. Yes, I did buy the book and even ordered the 2nd edition! :D 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.I realize that I have to work on getting used to breathing with half my face in the water and the pool side drills seems to be just what I need. I will also work on learning the Popeye breathing. I just hope I won't copy some of the other guys I see at the pool. They practically have their entire head above the water, the surface is 3 or 4 inches away from their mouth, and they still do the Popeye thing. :) 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.I couldn't test drive my fins today because an aqua gymnastics class invaded the small pool just as I wanted to put them on. But I'm confident they will have the effect you described. I believe they will amplify something that I noticed today and which helped me quite a bit in getting a clean breath--thanks to the input of George and Coach T.: While I was swimming a few laps, trying to relax and re-create the image that you saw in the last video, I also tried keeping my finger pointing at the bottom of the pool during the pull and taking it all the way down to the thigh - the poor man's version of EVF/high elbow. This time I actually felt that I was riding higher in the water and that my forward movement was constant enough to allow me keeping my mouth closer to the water line than I normally would have risked when breathing. I even felt water rushing by my mouth and still didn't swallow any--or at least not enough to remember it or break the stroke. ;) Now it could be that I was just hallucinating and what I did looked horrible and was all wrong, but it felt very good. I'm hoping that the fins will add to that effect and let me make adjustments with less risk of getting thrown off by anxiety. My only fear (and the reason why I had not owned any fins before) is that I will get addicted to the fins and not enjoy swimming without them anymore. Again, congratulations on your huge improvement and keep us updated!Again, thank you very much for your time, patience, and willingness to share your knowledge! You cannot imagine how much you've helped me in such a short time. It would have taken me at least weeks, more likely several months to find out on my own what to work on to build my freestyle. Everybody here is very kind and I'm immensely grateful. And yes, I will keep you updated. There's so much to do still. :)