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. :)

The head-up freestyle with fins (dolphin kick) helps you anchor your head in one position as your body moves. (breath forward) This at least can reduce the head motion you're experiencing, and train you to do something different. (Then you'll have something to compare to.) This drill also has other benefits, it is very good for stroke timing/rhythm, and it will really help your core stabilizers, (since you don't like gym work) I'd try this 2-3 times per week until you've noticed some adaptation. Try another video during the drill, let's see if you're doing it right. I can see how that makes sense. Thank you very much! I didn't own fins, so I got myself a pair with a short blade. My first challenge will be to learn the dolphin kick, or something that remotely resembles it. I'll upload a video once I think I'm doing something that comes close to what you described. :) Do you ever get to Belgium, I have a friend that is going to swim the English channel in Early Sept. He travels to Germany often and I know that he would be happy to help you with your swimming stroke. He is a student of mine and we worked on his stroke and he has become very proficient in his swimming. He has been helping a swimmer who lived in Germany who since has moved to S Africa. She is starting to swim very well recently. I have to admit I've never been to Belgium although it's practically around the corner. That is a very kind offer and I would very much like to meet your student whenver he's anywhere near. Thanks a lot!

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

George: I tried to swim faster here (really, I did): YouTube - Swimming freestyle for stroke analysis - increased pace, August 17, 2009 Unfortunately, I didn't get the angle quite right but you'll probably get the idea. SolarEnergy: I gathered some footage of streamlining/pushoffs but I never really focused on recording my streamline so I'm not sure this is helping: YouTube - Streamlining and Pushoffs 2008 And don't look at the turns too closely; I'm just starting. ;) I believe I can manage to get into a streamlined position but it requires a lot of concentration and I feel very tense when my sole focus is on a good streamline; I probably hold my breath when stretching in some places and pinching in others, which isn't really helping me with the rest of my swimming.

I do not like your breathing you are an armpit breather. Don't look back to where you have been. Your right hand on entry does some strange wiggling stuff to get it into the catch position.

It's been a year since I posted a link to a video and I thought it was time to provide an update: YouTube - Swimming freestyle for stroke analysis, August 13, 2009 There is still a lot to be done and I'm only beginning to understand how many stroke defects I have to work on but nonetheless, comments are welcome. :) Thank y'all!

You appear to be a pretty good slow swimmer, I would prefer to look at some fast speed swimming.

I had a quick look at what other members have said so far. I won't get into deep details about stroke mechanics since it's already been covered extensively. The thing that bugged me at first sight and that still bugs me a bit is that given your execution of freestyle, I am not sure that your *basic* hydrodynamic position is sorted out. You know when you push off the wall and glide underwater by adopting a *rocket-**** position? I'd really like to see this. I'd like to remind you (I am sure you've heard it over and over) that at your level, *Stretching* is very important and should have a beneficial impact on your ability to implement several suggestions made by other members so far. The thing that bugs me with your executions (over time) is that your upper body muscles (upper back, shoulders and probably pectorals etc) seem to lack flexibility. You seem to be very strong, gifted on the muscle mass side, but I am not sure that you spend enough time is stretching as much as it is required to get this *rocket-like* perfectly hydrodynamic position. This basic feeling of being hydrodynamic should translate into a stroke that is more fluid. So my 2 pennies, stretching !!

George: "fast speed swimming" isn't part of my vocabulary. ;) I'm having trouble swimming faster because my stroke totally falls apart that way. So even if I spend more energy, I don't move forward much faster. And since I have so much basic stuff to work on, I never tried to become better at swimming faster. I will, however, try to record and post a video of a "strong" effort so you can judge for yourself. 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. Thank you both for your replies!

I can just imagine what happens at speed. I noticed the tendancy at slow speed a slight fishtailing. which I can imagine gets worse at speed. I notice you are dragging water with the left hand as it exits the water and I see water flying through the air which means the left hand does not exit cleanly. I am afraid your head is just a little to low in the water ala following directions from some DVD.