I only started swimming freestyle less than a year ago and I'm still struggling with quite a few issues:
1. When breathing to the left, my head head-spine alignment vanishes and it appears as if I'm trying to change direction while lifting my head; I have no clue why I might be doing that.
2. I over-rotate when breathing.
3. Even with a slow hand entry, there's a lot of splashing going on.
In the answers to a few other posts I read that videos help, so I've put a few online:
Back/front view:
www.youtube.com/watch
Right side view:
www.youtube.com/watch
Left side view:
www.youtube.com/watch
In general, breathing in freestyle is problematic for me. When I swim relaxed enough to breathe with ease, my form totally degenerates and I'm wiggling through the water, almost flipping on my back when breathing. If I focus on a certain aspect of my stroke, for example, keeping my chin close to the shoulder or reaching out when rotating to air, or synchronizing my kick with my stroke, I find that I build up so much oxygen debt that I cannot swim more than two lengths in a 50 m pool without pausing.
I can only guess why--I probably forget to breathe out with sufficient force because I'm busy with other things and when I realize that I need more air than I'm currently getting, anxiety kicks in and everything falls apart.
I'll happily accept any comments on my videos or general advice that might help me not drown and maybe even improve my stroke. :)
Thank you!
Parents
Former Member
SolarEnergy: In fact, I don't remember anybody pointing that out and I am definitely guilty of not stretching enough; the amount of stretching I do gravitates towards zero. But I acknowledge that not stretching hinders my progress and I will include it in my workout.
I always assumed that core stability, i.e., letting my gut hang down, was more the issue than flexibility but in all likelihood it's both. At your level, the rational behind the importance of stretching has to do with Newton's Third Law of motion: "for every action force there is an equal (in size) and opposite (in direction) reaction force".
Lack of flexibility in various muscle groups (especially upper body) will result into counterproductive forces being applied where it shouldn't.
Let us take a simple example to illustrate this. Lack of flexibility for pectoral muscles: You are recovering the right arm, but due to lack of flexibility of right hand side pectoral muscles groups (or even both side's pectorals) the pulling action of left hand is disrupted.
In other words, at your level, most technical flaws falls into either the proprioceptive category (your ability to move your body exactly as you should without the need to see yourself) or lack of flexibility category. Proprioceptive issues, you are addressing them by asking members to comment on your clip. But if a flaw is there because of flexibility issues, no matter how well the issue is explained to you, no matter how hard you try and film and look and comment, and film again etc, that won't work without correcting the flexibility issue.
Fortunately, you don't have to be *that* flexible. The *rocket-like* position you can take while pushing off the walls and gliding can tell if you have at least a decent flexibility level.
If when pushing off the wall, you glide perfectly streamlined with both arms over ***and behind*** the head, and that this position feels easy to keep, the the odds of seeing this flexibility transferring into your stroke is very high.
This is why I stated (after having seen all your clips) that I wished I could see your glides off the wall. Because if you can not achieve this perfectly streamlined position with arms above and behind the head easily, it'll be very difficult to make substantial progresses with your stroke. Same goes for all other strokes by the way.
It is this position here that I am talking about (although I find that the arms could be brought *behind* the head a little more).. YouTube - How to Swim the Freestyle Stroke : The Streamline Position for the Freestyle Stroke
Another view here (after the turns)... YouTube - Flip Turn
SolarEnergy: In fact, I don't remember anybody pointing that out and I am definitely guilty of not stretching enough; the amount of stretching I do gravitates towards zero. But I acknowledge that not stretching hinders my progress and I will include it in my workout.
I always assumed that core stability, i.e., letting my gut hang down, was more the issue than flexibility but in all likelihood it's both. At your level, the rational behind the importance of stretching has to do with Newton's Third Law of motion: "for every action force there is an equal (in size) and opposite (in direction) reaction force".
Lack of flexibility in various muscle groups (especially upper body) will result into counterproductive forces being applied where it shouldn't.
Let us take a simple example to illustrate this. Lack of flexibility for pectoral muscles: You are recovering the right arm, but due to lack of flexibility of right hand side pectoral muscles groups (or even both side's pectorals) the pulling action of left hand is disrupted.
In other words, at your level, most technical flaws falls into either the proprioceptive category (your ability to move your body exactly as you should without the need to see yourself) or lack of flexibility category. Proprioceptive issues, you are addressing them by asking members to comment on your clip. But if a flaw is there because of flexibility issues, no matter how well the issue is explained to you, no matter how hard you try and film and look and comment, and film again etc, that won't work without correcting the flexibility issue.
Fortunately, you don't have to be *that* flexible. The *rocket-like* position you can take while pushing off the walls and gliding can tell if you have at least a decent flexibility level.
If when pushing off the wall, you glide perfectly streamlined with both arms over ***and behind*** the head, and that this position feels easy to keep, the the odds of seeing this flexibility transferring into your stroke is very high.
This is why I stated (after having seen all your clips) that I wished I could see your glides off the wall. Because if you can not achieve this perfectly streamlined position with arms above and behind the head easily, it'll be very difficult to make substantial progresses with your stroke. Same goes for all other strokes by the way.
It is this position here that I am talking about (although I find that the arms could be brought *behind* the head a little more).. YouTube - How to Swim the Freestyle Stroke : The Streamline Position for the Freestyle Stroke
Another view here (after the turns)... YouTube - Flip Turn
