Freestyle quirks and problems - please help

You are definitely over-rotating, you can see it most clearly in the fourth attached image. I am guessing that your goal stroke is as shown here: www.youtube.com/watch When you breath only one eye should come out of the water, you should be looking at the edge of the pool not the ceiling/sky, see the second attached image. You might try either dragging your fingertips along the top of the water or the zipper drill to get a better recovery, your hand seems to me to be too high on the recovery, possibly either as a result of or contributing to your over-rotation.

Head too low in the water. When you breath in your mouth is right in your arm pit. You are looking back when you breathe, can you see the wall that you have left when you pushed off. I fear that you have taken TI just a little too far. Your body fishtails.

Here's a youtube video showing Thorpe breathing: Ian Thorpe swimming freestyle 3 - breathing I've attached a frame that shows the typical head position, a little bit of the second goggle is visible but the head is facing the side rather than facing upward. Compare it to the second attached image of you above. I think your fishtail will go away naturally as you fix your roll. I looked for the inward movement of the arm after the extension that Tom mentioned, you can see it most clearly at the 45s mark of the video in which you swim directly toward the camera, the fourth image above is from this point, just after it has moved to the center. It entered and extended nicely at about shoulder width but then as you rotate it moves inward along with your shoulder. Again, I think this is due to the overrotation. In the left to right video you have a bit of a scissor kick where your legs separate quite a bit when you are on your side. I don't think you want that much amplitude in your kick when you are just swimming slowly, you just want a small amplitude flutter. Again, I think the wide kicks are to balance your overrotation. In summary, I think if you can work on getting your breath with less rotation several issues with your stroke will clear up, at which point you could take another video for further analysis.

Most of your breaths are taken with you looking into your armpit. I would suggest looking at the side wall similar to Thorpe picture that Linsay posted.

Thank you for your input, Lindsay and geochuck! You are definitely over-rotating, you can see it most clearly in the fourth attached image. I am guessing that your goal stroke is as shown here: www.youtube.com/watch I would be quite content with that stroke; I guess that is my goal stroke. When you breath only one eye should come out of the water, you should be looking at the edge of the pool not the ceiling/sky, see the second attached image.I'll follow your advice and try looking at the side of the pool when breathing. I just fear that the only thing above the water will be the one goggle while the mouth remains submerged. ;) You might try either dragging your fingertips along the top of the water or the zipper drill to get a better recovery, your hand seems to me to be too high on the recovery, possibly either as a result of or contributing to your over-rotation.I hadn't realized that my hand was too high but I'll try to fix that with the prescribed fingertip drag drill. Head too low in the water. I'm not keeping the head that low on purpose. I realize that the back of my head should clear the water; it just never happens. I probably have to work on keeping my neck straight but maintaining that requires a lot of effort. When you breath in your mouth is right in your arm pit.I'm not sure how to fix the breathing into my armpit. By breathing earlier? You are looking back when you breathe, can you see the wall that you have left when you pushed off.I'm not looking back; does my head position indicate that I do? I usually see the sky above me, maybe a few treetops through peripheral vision. If I want to see the wall behind me, I have to concentrate on looking back over my shoulder. Your body fishtails.Had you seen the amount of fishtailing a few months ago, you'd praise me for being so calm in the water now. :D I'm working on the fishtailing by strapping my ankles together and swimming one-arm freestyle. Swimming with one arm is quite hard because I cannot get the breathing right - I rotate even more. I might have to do more of that drill until it feels natural.

You can also go to youtube and type in EVF + Swimming and see a host of videos on the topic. Thank you! I found quite a few videos and will add another item to my list of stroke defects I need to fix. In summary, I think if you can work on getting your breath with less rotation several issues with your stroke will clear up, at which point you could take another video for further analysis. Everything you say makes total sense and I will primarily work on my over-rotation before I move on to the finer points. I experimented with the head position at the pool today but once again found out that what I thought I was doing and what I was actually doing are two completely different things. I thought I was looking at the side of the pool with my shoulder quite close to my face and therefore low and less rotated. The truth is that the change in head position was almost unnoticable but the shoulder rotation was even more extreme, as if I were doing some kind of bizarre stretching exercise. I was too occupied with trying to see the pool wall and still getting some air and probably hoped my rotation was reduced instead of having real control over it. Nobody said it would be easy... If I didn't love swimming so much, I'd probably hate it. :) Most of your breaths are taken with you looking into your armpit. I would suggest looking at the side wall similar to Thorpe picture that Linsay posted. I will do that--or drown trying. :) Thank y'all for your feedback! I really appreciate that you're taking the time to analyze my problems and provide solutions.

I noticed that both hands but the left is more notorious as it move toward the midline immediately after the extension of your arm. I would consider that a propulsive flaw that you may consider correcting. Your hand will move toward the midline of the body very naturally but only does so after it sets-up. You'll need to start your stroke very differently and that will take more than a few weeks to correct. Watch the following clips and then have someone video tape you swimming toward them so you can compare. www.youtube.com/watch www.youtube.com/watch You can also go to youtube and type in EVF + Swimming and see a host of videos on the topic. Good luck, Coach T.

I was thumbing through a book of drills while watching the Olympics last night, trying to find something to address overrotation. The problem most people have is underrotation so I didn't find anything explicitly aimed at reducing overrotation. I downloaded your video and watched frame by frame and one thing I noticed, which George pointed out earlier, is that you swim very low in the water, your head only breaks the surface when you breath and there are points where no part of your body is breaking the surface. This no doubt is contributing to your feeling you have to rotate your head and therefore body so far to breath. One note I saw in the drill book was that if you have trouble getting a breath try swimming faster! I've attached another image showing you and Mr. Phelps at a similar point in your stroke. Note not only that he isn't rotated nearly as far but also that he is pushing a wave, and breathing in the trough behind that wave. You aren't swimming fast enough to create that wave. Furthermore, since your entire head is underwater, any wave you do create will be in front of your shoulder, right where you are going to try to breath. So, one thing you might try is picking up that kick to give you a little more speed, and pick up your tempo a little, that alone should lift you a little higher in the water and also create a little bow wave and trough to breath into. For fun, in a deep pool get into a vertical position with your arms at your sides, and see where your water line is. How much of your head is above water? Now try lifting one arm above your head and see what level you float at. During your arm recovery the weight of your arm is going to push your body down into the water in a similar manner unless there is some counteracting upward force, and the slower you go the more it will sink you. I am not sure but at some points I got the impression that your lead arm when extended directly in front of you is actually pointing somewhat downward, which could contribute to your low body position, you might like to try experimenting with trying to get that hand right up near the surface and see if that makes any difference. Another thing that you could experiment with is a rotary timing where you start the catch as the other hand finishes the pull/push rather than waiting for the recovering hand to move forward. To experiment with that you can pause at the end of your pull where you have one arm extended straight out front the other at your side and then concentrate on starting the catch and the recovery at the same time. After some practice with that you can slowly eliminate the pause to produce a continuous stroke. I am not saying you should switch to this style of swimming, just that you may learn something from trying it as a drill. This video of Popov shows rotary timing: www.youtube.com/watch Finally, while I am not generally a fan of head-up freestyle as a drill, in your case it might be instructive to give it a try and see what happens. It might lessen your rotation, and you might have to swim faster to make it work. The adjustments you have to make may give you hints on how to adjust your regular stroke. 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.

Extend a line from the middle of your body straight out past your fingers when you swim. Your hands should never cross this point at anytime when you swim freestyle. There are tons of freestyle stroke drills that I can give. Emphasize your hand extension and shoulder roll as much as possible while keeping your lower body straight. Explaining them maybe take a more in-depth post: Drag fingertip drill (works on high elbows) Catchup drill (six beat kick) Opposite side breathing (extension) 3 second freestyle (rolling & breathing)

I also believe if you finish on mid thigh you will find the body will ride higher.