I made this video this morning just with the hope of getting some cool images, so it's not the best for stroke analysis, but if you can glean anything useful from it, I would love to hear what I can do to improve. Most of this is at around 1:21/100yd pace +/- which is a relatively stiff pace for me, I'm about a 30 min 70.3 swimmer. Thanks!
Im no swim-coach or even an ex-swimmer. Still - my 2 cents:
(i) based on the footage - work on minimizing "sideways" movement of shoulders/torso - only roll like a log (roll - dont wiggle - if you get what i mean). When reaching far ahead on the stroke, it can be tempting to reach so far that your torso not only rolls, but twists sideways. You dont seem to reach so far that you actually crossover, but your shoulder (at least based on the few strokes in the video) moves as if youre going to cross over.
(ii) be strong from shoulder to wrist in the pull phase - could look like arms position slipped abit halvway through the pull.
Thanks - Yeah I think your right about the wiggling. It's hard for me to correct - I do not really feel it.
Not sure what you mean about my arm position slipping on the back half of the pull. Do you mean I'm dropping my elbow? ------------- Ed O'Malley www.VeloVetta.com Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes Instagram • Facebook
I made this video this morning just with the hope of getting some cool images, so it's not the best for stroke analysis, but if you can glean anything useful from it, I would love to hear what I can do to improve. Most of this is at around 1:21/100yd pace +/- which is a relatively stiff pace for me, I'm about a 30 min 70.3 swimmer. Thanks!
Again I'm no coach, but have made a lot of effort to understand correct technique over the past 10 years, and had regular video analysis.
You're a bit faster than me, - I'm low 30s for a half IM swim, and about the same pace for a 3.8k or a 5k (i have 1 pace whether 1k or10k). but I suspect that's that you're WAAAY fitter than me (and certainly not as, ahem, bulky!).
2 things I see. 1- the 1st part of the stroke- just seems to pull downwards a bit deep (ie pulling downward maybe at the front, before you get the 'drive' backwards).
2- as the other guy says, you're wriggling a bit- sort of bending into a little bit of a banana when viewed from above or below, at the front of your stroke - see it more when your left arm is entering the water. Freeze the video at 29 secs, right about when your swim trunks are in the middle of the screen, and you can see you're not straight.
Now what to do to fix ? (Again note I'm not a coach so...) For the alignment - 1. Alignment drills (eg kicking on your side, arm out forwards for the whole length, or a 6-3-6 or 6-1-6 drill doing the same.). Also try getting your hand entering in line with your shoulder (a bit wider than you do at present.onntje left).
For the pulling downward at the front... not sure. I corrected that sort of thing (and some sideways pulling when breathing on my weaker side) by drills using a pull bouy + finis 'agility' paddles, and really really concentrating on keeping the elbow high and pulling backwards, never downwards, from the 1st inch.
Thanks - Yeah I think your right about the wiggling. It's hard for me to correct - I do not really feel it.
Not sure what you mean about my arm position slipping on the back half of the pull. Do you mean I'm dropping my elbow?
I think your elbow-position is ok, but iIf you forward to about 41-43 sec of the video you get a view underneath your stroke. If you slow-mo it you will see that your wrist seems to slip abit during last half of stroke (fingers pointing forwards towards head abit as oppsoed to pointing same direction forearm does). But this is just based on a single stroke- could be just that one stroke - not a very common problem :)
More importantly than your side to side wiggle, which shows that you drive with your shoulders instead of driving with you hips, you need to work on your hand entry and catch.
There are a large amount of bubbles trapped on your hand and coming off your pull. This is caused by rushing the stroke or failing to set up the catch prior to pulling. Swimmers who possess a high amount of air bubbles pull far less water due to a dropped elbow at the catch point. I can’t tell for sure because you don’t have any overhead shots.
Here is a good comparison video Phelps vs. Thomson. Watch Phelps’ hand entry and the lack of bubbles and limb speed compared to the other guy.
Thanks - so those bubbles are on the back of my hand - the low pressure generated by the stoke holds the bubbles onto the back of the hand. There are not bubbles on the palm of the hand.
In the video of Phelps vs. Thompson, I would argue the difference in bubbles is due to the fact that Phelps has a bit of a glide before he starts his stroke. This allows the bubbles created by the hand entry to move off the back of the hand before he begins his pull and the accompanying low-pressure region on the back of his hand, Thompson (and I) begin our pull right away. The bubbles are still there when the low pressure zone is created and the bubbles are therefore pulled down with the back of the hand, not the palm of the hand. ------------- Ed O'Malley www.VeloVetta.com Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes Instagram • Facebook