Have a look at Swimsmooth.com. You will find all the answers you want. They break it all down for you and give you video of how to do it along with the drills to correct it.

One of the things (along with what you said) is to take a look at your hand/arm entering in front of your head and watch how far your elbow drops below your wrist/hand... "putting on the brakes" with every arm/hand entry...swim smooth will show you this and how to fix it.

Good luck.

You're losing most of your kick. Try and have your toes pointed (like standing on tip-toes to reach something on counter above you). Looks like you could start your pull a little sooner by not driving your hands so deep when they enter the water.

looks like you could afford to actually lift your head slightly. Your looking straight down, which in my opinion, isnt a one size fits all approach. It looks like your whole head is submerged. Lift your head up and eyes slightly more forward. Most people have the opposite problem! This may help allow for a 'higher catch', because as the others have said, your arms extend quite deep in the water and then you put the brakes on.

Fully agreed. You're slowing down at every hand entry as your hand palm is slightly facing forward when starting your catch.
Try to increase your stroke rate.

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Triatlon/Running/Cycling coach
TrainingPeaks Certified
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what the others have said about hands and toes

you've actually got quite good "balance"/posture in the water, better than most people I see. That's a huge component in eliminating drag.
Could you post a video shot from the front? There could be some other things not visible side on

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I agree with the other posters that your head is a little low, and that you need to work on higher elbows.
My new observation: your left arm is going into the water a little deep, as well.
I suspect your hips and feet could ride higher on the water, but I'm not sure how to explain how to do that.

- quicker stroke rate - this will help bring you up a bit
- catch and pull - don't try to 'glide' too much (if at all),.. you're pushing water as you do that (see where your hand glides forward and turns up before the pull)
- diagonal 2-beat kick - right arm pull > left kick, etc. Darren Smith a big fan of this.

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Coaching - Future Endurance

What's slowing you down is your catch. For now, don't worry about your kick. I bet when you put a pull buoy on you don't go anywhere.

Your stroke rate is fine, ignore the above.

-you are over rotating
-you could enter slightly further forward
-when your hands enter, your finger tips are in a good place, but then you try extending your arm and your fingertips go up (bad) and then your elbow drops (bad). enter further in front, almost near extension, be aware of keeping your fingertips flexed and elbow up.

DONT put a band around your ankles, YET.

wear a snorkel watch be aware of what your hands are doing. do some 25s with buoy and SMALL paddles with the bottom strap removed. when your wearing paddles with the lower part removed and when you enter and the paddle separates from your palm, your fingertips are flipping and your stroke is disengaging. doing light paddle work makes you very aware of what your hands are doing.

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Inside The Big Ring Podcast!

Thanks for the great feedback. Went to the pool today and focused on raising my head slightly and not extending my hand up. Tried to keep my wrist bent downward upon entry and under my elbow. Actually felt really comfortable with the changes. Will see if it shows in my swim times once I'm back with my masters squad. Also did some catch up drills to start focusing on entering my arms further forward.

I'm taking another video with the changes and will post again for reevaluation.

Yes on higher elbows, 80% of your swim gains will come from improvements with your pull underwater so focus on that. Kick I wouldn't put much time into that for now. On youtube search for videos containing Swim Speed Secrets by Sheila Taormina. Good book BTW.

It looks like a lot of the issues for you are related to training. You can do all the drill work you want, but until you get the strength and conditioning in the water it's going to be tough to get to the technique. You can tell from the video of your movement through the core, especially right before the catch that there isn't a lot of "muscle recruitment." You seem to be only engaging portions of the shoulder muscles, but some of the that is related to your body position in the water. You are fairly low. You are burying your head in the water and artificially bringing up the hips into position and that really puts you out of position to effectively leverage the water. The other issue would be on the extension, you drop your elbow below your wrist and lose about 8-10 inches of pull at the start of the stroke. Effectively, you are pushing yourself up in the water instead of pulling yourself forward.

One of the worst things you could do would be to speed up the tempo of your stroke. You really don't have a great catch as it is and speeding up the tempo of your stroke will only increase the amount of slipping of water. Adding in some kick sets into your workouts would help a lot. It will push you to get better body position in the water, improve the efficiency of your kick and add a lot of stability to your stroke. Get some in water stretch cords and do some sprints with those on and focus on getting a high elbow catch. Also, don't be afraid to swim with fins. They will get you some more speed, put you in a much better body position that you can then practice over and over again and help with some ankle flexibility.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Tim Floyd

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Hey all, thanks for the great feedback. I've gone back twice since posting and worked on not raising my hands and lowering my elbows. I also started looking forward to raise my head a bit. I believe the changes have had a really good impact on my swim, although I haven't been able to see how it affects my times yet, but at least it FEELS better. On the video it even seems to fix my kick a bit.

Here are some new videos of my stroke from the front, side and a crappy one from the bottom front.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL4nK6tnAAo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1CK1oZTT_8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtu2oducNCs

I learn a ton by watching others' videos and reading your critiques. Super helpful:)

Also try to stop your hands going wide during the pull, - trying to increase your tempo at the moment will only exasperate this problem - focus on bringing them straight backwards. You will go faster if you do this, even though you may think you're not able to put as much effort into it.

You might find this video helpful http://vimeo.com/78646420

I like the way you can see the angles you're supposed to have and how that changes the force you're applying to the water. If you look at your from-the-side video, your depth of entry should be higher and your catch (EVF) should happen earlier, again to apply force backward instead of downward. Notice on the video how the whole area under the upper arm and arm pit stays open to the bottom of the pool while that forearm and hand (ideally no bend in the wrist) gets vertical.

I'm still working on it too, but I found seeing those angles to be very helpful.

Informative video. Thanks for posting.

Gonna do my best to point out some issues.

1. Dorsiflexed ankles.
2. Not rly vertical forearm in the pull, looks like you are slipping through the water
3. Elbow is a bit to low when you start your catch and you could probably reach a bit further at the front

And some really good things

1. Rhytm. Especially the front video looks really rhytmical.
2. Body roll is very good.
3. Kick is tight and lifting you.

The medicine:

1. Stretch your ankles and use fins sometimes
2. Stretch your pecs, lats and try to improve shoulder mobility.
3. Concentrate on your catch when you do your easy swimming and use Catch-up and fist drills for a short while before every session. Paddles can help but only if you lock your wrist!

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Endurance coach | Physiotherapist (primary care) | Bikefitter | Swede