I am not sure what you mean by lead with the shoulders or hips when turning to breath. I roll from side to side when swimming freestyle so just to turn my head a little bit to breath. What leading do you need to do?

My hand enters the water a little in front of my head and then extends to full extension. I am not sure if this is optimal, but it is probably typical.

I'm not a great swimmer, just a front MOP swimmer. This is what I do.

I think my shoulder's slightly lead me hips but that doesn't change when I breath, they are so close to rotating at the same time. To breathe I just turn my head.

Entry for hand, at a recent clinc I attended the coach told me that my hands should not be right in front of my head but out to the sides slightly. Kind of like 10:30 and 1:30 positions. It feels weird with my hands that far apart but it seems to be faster. When your hand enters the water it should go down at a 45 deg angle which starts your catch immediatly and doesn't let you glide like TI teaches you.

I hope this helps

jaretj

I understand the need to edge change as that is key in many other sports, but if you are going side to side then doesn't something has to initiate the roll from side to side?

Sitting here at my desk, I'm not really sure what initiates the rolling to one side or the other. The entire stroke just sort of works that way, and my pull under the body is certainly part of it along with the hips .... I think that the shoulders are less involved here, but will try to figure it our a little better the next time I go swimming.

The hips should initiate the roll. Hips-back-shoulder-triceps-wrist. Accelerating throughout.

Large muscles to small muscles - similar to throwing. Breathing should fit into the stroke rather than the other way around.

Thanks - the swim has just been really frustrating, especially when different people explain it and contradict eachother, but I suppose that is that same in a lot of sports - no one exact correct way. Just have to stick with what works and put in the yards. Here is what a friend/pro suggested: your arm is supposed to enter the water as making the same shape as an inverted v where the top is the elbow, so the hand is ahead of the elbow (but I am not sure I am answering the question). How deep: it depends, if you swim open water or in the pool. In the pool, it would be about 12-15in depending on your size (not really deep) but in open water you need to go deeper as the surface of the water isn't still, and therefore, going deeper allows you to catch still water. some coaches say you lead with the hips, some with the shoulders. I think it's more natural to lead with the hips.

I am absolutely no expert. However, experts (Doug Stern, Boris Talon, Sheila Taormina, Dawn Polk) have told me to lead with the hips in the roll and your hand enters next to your ear or just slightly forward of it.

I can't really say that it works for me since I am a weak swimmer.

---

Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com