Nuthin'? Over 100 people looked at that gawd-awful stroke and had no comment?

Or is it just so bad that it is beyond hope?


(hmmm....maybe that shouldn't be in pink)

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

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It's that the camera is jittery and bouncing all over the place. The other thing is it takes a long time to load. I gave it :05 and it barely started loading. By the time you were down to the other end I gave up on it.

Pro Tip of the Day:
The best thing to do would be get a gopro or some other underwater camera. Get side shots, a shot from the front and back. Then repost all 4. That might yield you some good feedback.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
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Yeah, sorry about the camera work. I blame the guy on the deck!!

Mrs. P13 got me a GoPro for Xmas, but it was one of the lower-tier model and I haven't yet gotten a replacement one for it. I'll have to move that up the purchase priority list.

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

it looks to me like you have pretty limited shoulder/spinal flexibility. the reach and finish are both pretty short. i think it's worthwhile to work on things like learning the other strokes, improving walls, dolphin kicking as all of these things really require/build swim-specific flexibility and strength and overall feel for the water.

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Oh yeah!

I'll let the fish chime in here for the improvements - but I did note that you're swimming a lot faster than your previously staetd 300yd / 5minute (1:40/100yd) pace in this video - is this an all-out sprint for you?

I might be doing my math wrong, but judginf from the last 25 (<20sec I think?), if you kept that up for 100, you'd be around 1:2x pace, which is substantially faster than your 300pace.

Your swimming there?!

Thought this was an instructional video on how to recognize when a victim is drowning!! (Now I got that out of the way)

A critique here aint gonna help that stroke, get lessons at a local YMCA or something.

There are 2 things that come more naturally in some than others:

1) A natural fast tempo (stroke rate)
2) A natural float in the water.

Most have neither, a few have both, a few have one or the other. You at least have nice tempo (which is probably the more desirable of the two if you only have one).

That said: Bilateral breathing should never be done. BUT you need to iron out the lopsided stroke, so go ahead and breath bilateral every other lap for the next several months. And swim a lot. There is hope for you. You could be under 4:15 in a 300 yard time trial in 2-6 months.

Your lack of shoulder flexibility has you swinging your arms out and over instead of you slicing through the water. Back up against a wall and put your butt and head against the wall. Now put your arms up so they are pointing straight up to the ceiling. Now overlap your hands so they are covering each other and still pointing straight up. With your arms and hands still pointing up and hands overlapped, completely lock your elbows so your arms are pressing tight against your ears/head. Make sure most of your back is still staying flat against the wall. Your arms need to be able to do that with nearly no effort. Until then, you'll be roundhouse windmilling like that video.

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I'm no fish but you guilted me into replying.

You're thrashing like the front row of a Slipknot concert.

Some STer has a sig line that says

Slow is smooth
Smooth is fast

I would start there, as I imagined swimming downhill. Theough a tube just bigger than my shoulders.

You have a lot of movement that is causing drag rather than lift. If I knew more about swimming I could tell you where to start.

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Looked like to me you had to much shoulder movement. Also looke like you just learned to put your head under water while swimming and wanted to lift it up to see where you were going. I would say slow down get more comfortable with a smoother stroke and breathing with your head in the water

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Ok, first off other than being a little bit too much in the air, you've got a pretty decent kick. It's from the hips, feet are pointed pretty decently. It's a little stiff and doesn't flow completely naturally yet, but it's much better than some I've seen. I think it is helping to keep you high in the water.

The arms remind me of one of those old toys that you wind up in the tub, and then they just rotate a paddle around in a circle. Your lack of shoulder flexibility is causing you to kind of throw your shoulders/upper body side to side to try and get some extension, which causes a bit of a snake in the water. Compounding that, once your hands are in the water they pull kind of straight back, but in an outward fashion like a kayak paddle. (As a matter of fact, your entire stroke looks like a human kayak paddle). Your right hand kind of throws across a bit (and enters short), then loops ahead and back out to the side.

You can work on the flexibility, and even with the limited flexibility if you can get an arm bend/catch going it will help a lot. (And 1:40/100 for a 300 is not that bad, unless you're puking in the gutter exhausted afterwards).

Actually, I'm more amazed the guy with the camera was able to get that far above you without falling in himself while walking the edge...

John

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Top notch coaching: Francois and Accelerate3 | Follow on Twitter: LifetimeAthlete |

I would recommend the finger tip drag drill to help bring your arms in more in line with your core. Most of swimming is about a strong core. What you do is when your arms are leaving the water to come up for the next pull, drag for finger tips along the top of the water. Pretty simple, but will help you bring your arms in closer to your body and over time will make your stroke more efficient. Hope this helps.

The 50 was a build, so it was close to all-out by the last 15-20 yds.

Thanks for all the tips. Agreed on the shoulder flexibility (had actually meant to include that in y original post). I was really shocked by how stiff they looked in the video.

Besides the wall stretch noted above, any other stretches I could do to improve flexibility here?

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

Second the finger tip drag with catch-up drill. Your shoulders need to pivot around you head (keeping head straight) with each stroke. The catch-up and finger drag will help with elevating your elbows on returning arm.

http://www.usmsswimmer.com/...immer_stretching.pdf

And don't worry too much about the fingertip drag just yet. Your lack of flexibility will really limit how effective that drill is.

John

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Top notch coaching: Francois and Accelerate3 | Follow on Twitter: LifetimeAthlete |

Great. Thanks, John!!

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Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams

Stroke is wide and very short in the back. Your open turn took 2+ seconds as well.

Second the drill recomendations. The lack of rotation is part of why your stroke is short.

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2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
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While I can barely swim, I have done a bit of filming to help out some other similarly aquatically challenged friends, and I would say that I'm more suited to walking along the side of the pool with a camera than actually being in it!

This might be useful - I use a short pole (actually a straight aero bar) with a GoPro on one end (which goes under the water) and another camera near the top (also waterproof). With these you can film simultaneously above and below water, and synchronise them in an edit so that you can understand exactly what is happening throughout the stroke. Screenshot below:



While it is clear that I am never going to be even an average swimmer, the video below illustrates the filming:

Please don't fall off your chairs laughing

Cheers, Rich

You have limited shoulder mobolity and should be able to extend your arms overhead, alongside your ears, without compensation by spinal extension.. Your pectoralis major, deltoideus(anterior) and lattisimus dorsi, is properly tight and need mobility work and stretching pre and post workout

If you fix this mobility issue, your front crawl, will be much easier and faster to improve.

If you cant stay relaxed in a streamline position, then you are bound to compensation in your spine and hip and you will fall out of allignment

that was a turn? I thought he was resting between intervals.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

There's always duathlons :)

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

dropped elbows everywhere but im not one to give swimming advice if you saw my thread about filming myself swimming too