I am not a great swimmer either, but two things I see in your stroke that my coaches have identified as issues for me (hope it helps)

1. not much of a 'high-elbow' catch - looks more straight armed? the sooner you can get some purchase on the water with your foream and focus on pulling it through past your hips using your back muscles as opposed to shoulder may help you be more efficient and powerful.
2. I notice your right hand seems to glide out a bit more and even turns a bit upright - this is effectively putting on the brakes. fingers below wrist, wrist below elbow, elbow don't drop it and try to catch the water a bit sooner.

my 2 cents. it's helped me be more efficient (if not slightly faster) for what it's worth :-)

Its not that bad. I'm amazed with your body position, most triathletes that go slow and have a very poor catch hang VERY low in the water but you are way up on the surface. Very good.

My tips is to work on the catch with any means necessary (work on land with cords first to even feel how to do it). Use paddles and try to make them vertical asap in the stroke, before applying power. Work on shoulder mobility. When you fix this you will be in the 50%'th percentile and then when you get really fit I bet you will soon be able to cling on to the back of the front.

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

I was thinking the same thing, he's just wind-milling and straight-arming but body position looks fairly decent.

jaretj

im prob way up because of the pull-bouy ;)

yeh my lefty is a massive windmiller...michael klim would be proud

Dropped elbows, dropped palms, sissor kick, breathe to your right side only....perfect triathlon stroke!


Perfect candidate for some band only laps.
You will learn very very fast to get a grip on the water.....or you will drown!

I think youve already made the biggest step yet to sorting your stroke. You had the balls to video yourself, post it up and look for help. Kudos

Haha yep... Fwiw I can bilateral breathe but still straight arm with the opposite arm when I breathe

I'd prefer to see you swimming without the buoy. You don't get to race with it. Also, underwater views are good, but above the water views tell me more, personally.

I suspect that the buoy is hiding a lot of the real issues, because what I see, while far from perfect, isn't that bad. your right elbow is dropping, but the left isn't that bad and might be as good as you can get for the time being. Other minor tweaks in hand position and elbow bend probably aren't going to get you much, just remember that you want continuous power with your forearm and palm facing behind you as much as possible.

arm velocity and acceleration to the bottom of the stroke is good. body roll is good. although you might be overrotating the breath?

What you are probably doing is breathing late, causing the scissor kick.

other things: point your toes. You might also me shortarming the catch? I can't really tell though from that angle. A good description I heard is that instead of rolling side to side, you want to roll "forward" i.e. getting that shoulder extension at the same time as the roll.

edit - also, pull harder. ;)

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Haha how did I miss the buoy!?

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

Me too, I was gonna complement him and then I re watched it and saw the buoy - you do suck (just kidding), I swim the exact same way with a buoy!

things tend to slow down worse without my piece of swimming crack!...my PB is 17:58 for 1km, no flipturns. Yep, issues ;)...i never knew i straight arm pulled on one side, and i also thought my right arm caught *some* water. I have no idea how im generating any forward propulsion at all when i look at it??!!!

Try putting on the band on your ankles while you use the buoy, you really have to focus on your pull.

You're going to get a shoulder injury if you continue to pull with a straight arm like that.

Yeah, you kick more with the buoy than I do without. I concur with the suggestion to re-record without the buoy since it may change your stroke.

agree completely....oddly my right shoulder is the dickie one

I googled some drills to help fix this, it seems i breathe late which also makes me straight arm pull. Doggie paddle drills, sculling etc is what i have come up with. In true triathlete fashion, i have a center snorkel to. I may acually get to use it for some of these drills. Ill tie one of my bike tubes together for my feet too, that may come later.

Im assuming im over-rotating with the left arm being dragged to the ground like that.

Agree with the other comments that it would help a lot to work on your catch and a high elbow position. If you haven't done so, I'd suggest you might take a look at Sheila Taormina's book Swim Speed Secrets, which focuses in detail on that area.

Good luck,
Mark

Have you checked the swim smooth website already ?
They have different swim types and you're clearly an "over glider". They have corrective action plans with specific drills for the different kind of swim types.

I do see 2 main issues that you'll need to work on to improve your catch :

- you have a dead spot with your right arm in front (swim smooth is calling this "applying the brake").
- watch your arm while breathing....it's completely dropping and is not providing you any support (hence your scissor kick).

I would focus on these first before looking at other issues.

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Triatlon/Running/Cycling coach
TrainingPeaks Certified
http://www.endurancepeakcoaching.com

Ok, really stupid question here. Several comments on this thread lamenting the scissor kick. I know there's always debate about kick vs. no kick, but that's not what I'm sensing here. Tell me what's wrong with the kick in this video, and/or the "scissor kick" in general? I'm clearly missing something. (no surprise, given my own middle to back of the pack swim skills...)

The better question is why is there a kick when he is swimming with the pull buoy?

the scissor kick in this particular video here isn't that bad, probably because of the pull buoy between his thighs which prevent it from being worse. It will probably be far worse when the buoy is removed, since you shouldn't be kicking at all with the buoy.

A scissor kick doesn't add anything to propulsion, and basically acts as a huge brake. That's why you don't want one, if your legs aren't going to contribute anything to your forward propulsion, at least make them not get in the way.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

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

Even with a buoy you are better than 90% of the triathletes I see when they are buoy assisted it's not THAT bad. That said if I could encourage you, coming from a guy who used to be addicted to a buoy like Oprah is to balloon dieting. The only fix was to leave it at home so I had no choice and it's the single biggest reason my swimming started an upward trajectory. Just do it and once everything in on the table to see you can't hide from the deficiencies and you have to fix 'em. It sucks I know, but in the end you will be glad you did.

You need to redo the video without the PB. Anything we can tell you with it is pure guesswork, since your stroke without it may change completely.

Set the gopro up at the end of a lane (not the side) and get some shots closer to surface level both coming in and going away. Do the same side shot you just did, and then get some above water video both coming and going as well.

John

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Ok I will set the gopro up at different angles and get rid of the bouy... I showed this to my swimming instructor mate who said I had heaps of issues but to work on the pull first then try and incorporate breathing etc ... 12-18 month job she reckons ... Ahh well I have a half next week then nothing for 6 months so a big block of swimming may be the order of the day

I had another go here: https://www.youtube.com/...amp;feature=youtu.be ...i dont know why youtube quality is so crappy so you cant see too much. The original gopro footage is clear as day...
Anyway im having trouble bending the left arm- whenever i rotate to breathe on that side (right), creating an EVF position is very difficult, which makes me think my breathing is off? IE im not breathing at the right time?

I recommend going to a masters workout. Having people look at your stroke here but the constant supervision of a coach really helps you focus on form for the entire practice. You'll get there.