arms crossing over
tighten up kick
pull is weak--couldn't tell for sure why you've got to pull more water though, paddles maybe?
appears that you're trying to "look pretty," turn it over faster and forget style points

It is very difficult to tell from your video, but the main thing is that your pull seems not to be not very effectual. You are just slicing your arms through the water, you're not doing much to 'grab' or catch the water. If I could see a lot better, I could probably give you more info. What did your private one-on-one coach say about it? Any comments about early vertical forearm? Did he/she tell you how to correct the problems?

Not bad. You are doing something weird with your left wrist - it's like being arched or something just as you are entering the water. Sure you have some cross-over as well with the left arm (if you are fast and cross-overing..and not seeing pain...it could be okay for a triathlete though) but I would say just work on proper hand entry. You could also pick up the pace a little bit.

Just looks like you need to work on the concept of reaching and then pushing that water down. Fingers together..etc.

Kick is okay...better than those triathletes that don't believe in kicking.

x2

To the OP - it doesn't look like you're grabbing any water. It would be interesting to see what you look like if all you changed was trying to really grab the water.

As noted above you seem to be lacking propulsion from your pull - the question is why. I think it's because you have a dropped elbow - which means you are losing the surface area of your forearm - your elbow is coming down and in towards your centerline and then sliding back toward your feet. You need to keep it up and out and grip more water with your arm, not just your hand. Right now your arm is taking the path of least resistance until you recover it, you want the path of most, or at least more resistance. One way to visualize this is to think about reaching over a barrel that is horizontal underneath you at your chest/neck and trying to lever yourself over the barrel. Not above the water, but after your hand enters and moves forward.

Here's an article that might help:http://www.h2oustonswims.org/...d_dropped_elbow.html[/quote[/url]]

Thanks for this, man. It really helped me visualize what was going on.
--------------------------------------------------------
Gulf Coast Tri 4:27:48 Race Report
Accelerate3 * DiMOND BiKES
My Race Reports * Race Results

Looks like you have plenty of stuff to work on (that's great by the way, it would be frustrating if you were doing everything right and were still slow). I'm not an expert, so take my list with a grain of salt. Many of these are noted by others, but I'll list all that I saw:
1.) Your cocked left wrist out of the water is weird. Not sure it is "wrong", but definitely not standard.
2.) You seem to try to reach all the way over the water, it is ok to let your hand enter earlier than that.
3.) You are definitely reaching across the center line of your body.
4.) Your body position slowly gets worse as the lap progresses; I can see your feet at the surface at the beginning and then they sink never to surface again. On good swimmers, you'll see their feet barely breaking the water surface.
5.) Try to only breathe with one goggle out of the water. You don't need to turn your head that far.
6.) Your arm timing seems slightly off to me; I think you could benefit by swimming a bit more "front-quadrant".
7.) You are babying the water a bit. You don't have to be so nice to it. ;)

A lot of people are talking about your "pull" and they are correct, it's an issue and one that others have already provided some advice on. I am not sure it's your "biggest" issue.

A few others have mentioned either "kick" or "body positioning", I think this is your bigger issue.

To put it plain and simple, you need work on getting your hips/a$$ up higher in the water when you swim. This will allow you to maintain a small kick. You almost/pretty much want the top of your butt to either break through the top of the waters surface or very close.

For reference when I see people in the pool dragging their hips and they're ankle doesn't break the waters surface with their kick I think of a boat trying to get up on plane. Notice how when you get in a boat and you throttle it but it takes a bit before it comes up on plane but there is a lot of throttle on the gas, then it gets on plane and really takes off? A lot of time in swimming it's the same thing, you are putting out similar power to others around you, but your body position is to low/not up on plane you don't go as fast. Get your body position right and learn to hold/maintain it longer and that will make you faster. Why do you think everyone love's swimming in wetsuits? It pick their ass up for them and gets them higher in the water then they normally are, it also helps hold them there while once fatigue sets in.

In the future, don't post you're warm up swim. Everybody looks good during warm up, you're fresh. Post the last 500 yards you swim when you're good and tired and you're natural form can be seen. This shows your real issues.

If you are an Endurance Nation member you should send this video or a new one to Rich, guy swam in college and knows his sh!t. He swims 55:xx Ironmans all day long.

I'll echo the comments about not catching water.

A helpful thing to think about is pushing the water backwards as soon as your arm enters the water. Attempting to do so will force an early vertical forearm and force you to finish your stroke.

I would get a pool buoy and really just focus on pulling. Do some work with paddles as well. Cut out having to worry about kick and body position and just focus on learning to push the water backwards.

I have found that one handed drills have been really useful for improving my catch. These can be done a couple of ways. The easiest is to just hold a kickboard in front (a touch wider than your shoulder) and to just swim wit hthe other arm while taking breaths on the side you are swimming with. This really helps me to get a feel for the catch phase and is a good way to work on developing a high elbow/vertical forearm catch and to commit it to neuromuscular memory. As you get better at it, ditch the kickboard. If you get even better you can then let your non-swimming arm stay streamlined by your side. I find this particularly useful for developing the catch at full extension and for working on not dropping the forward arm when I breathe (say the left arm when I breathe on the right side or vice versa).

I think some of the stuff on swimsmooth.com would be useful for you. This is the online resource and dvd that I use and have found it very helpful.

The upper and lower halves of your body are disconnected. Your legs are kicking, your arms are moving, but they're not moving in synchronization. Freestyle swimming is a continuous movement from the tips of your fingers to the tips of your toes. The "rotation" you will hear people talk about is the critical component that links the stroke together and involves transferring the weight of your body from one side to the other. You don't have much rotation and your legs appear to be sinking a bit. This is probably the reason you are not getting much out of your pull.

Find a swim coach and work with them often. Listen to them and do what they say. Back off your running and biking if you need to, but you need to spend a lot of time in the water with someone who can help get you going.

His knee kicking is making him sink, my point is there is more wrong than right and the op needs to focus on breaking the stroke down and building it back up. Those 2 seconds Ryan is underwater are the fastest 2 seconds n each 50.

I have seen a few illustrations where the arm crosses slightly in front of the chest on the stroke and some where the stroke happens to the side. I've also seen a images of a rotated swimmer where the arm strokes in front of the chest and due to rotation its to the side of the body. Which is right?

You're picking up on something very important. And many illustrations out there online are plain wrong. The problem is, if you have decent body rotation (as you should), you have two completely separate frames of reference. The first one is that of the pool and that is essentially stationary. The second one is your upper body, but that one is constantly rotating back and forth. Then, add to that, the part of your body that can visually check your limb positions (your eyes) is mounted in yet another moving object, your head. And your head tries to stay mostly stationary, but then rotates frequently to breathe. So, ...

During part of the underwater pull, yes, your hand and forearm is definitely between your torso and the pool bottom. But, during this same instant in time, your arm is "out to the side" relative to the your chest and shoulder. I have a poolside dryland demo that demonstrates this very easily, but describing it on the net is kinda hard.

How do I correct the knee kick? How am I supposed to kick?
I know from the hips, but are the knees locked?

How do I correct the knee kick? How am I supposed to kick?
I know from the hips, but are the knees locked?

I am curious about the timing and how/where/why I can do better. Can you explain that a little more?

From the point of reference of the wall/floor. Would it be correct to say that my arm pulls perpendiular to the floor and parallel to the wall?

From the point of view of my body, does the arm initiate the pull to the side of my body and as my body rotates, the pull happens in front of my chest?

Should the body rotate 90 degrees to each side? or 45?
If I took to images facing right and left, would they sit back to back or shoulder to shoulder?

--Use a 6-beat kick (3 with each armstroke). Each 3 kicks should be used not only for propulsion, but to aid body rotation. Kicking on side/switching sides w/armstroke helps me with this.
--Our tips may be helpful, but as a whole they may make for a confusing mishmash. I'd suggest a coach. Good luck!