Let me start off by saying I am not a swim coach nor a uber swimmer, I am sure your splits top mine. However from a observation standpoint I will play.

Second vid you look a lot smoother. The only thing I would critique (same thing I was told to fix) is your arm entry. You seem to slap a little bit, and thats only slowing you down. The other part is when you reach, it looks like you are right at or crossing the center line of your body. My buddy who was a highschool distance swimmer and now a masters coach said your arm reach should almost be at a 5 to 10 degrees.

Try standing up, and raise your arms above your head as natural as possible. You should find a comfortable arm slot. When in the water, with your natural body roll this will be more efficient and put less stress on the shoulder.

Hope that makes sense.

Looks like you can extend the arm out more before entry and not cross over the midline.
And dude I was all ready to critique a girl in a bikini with that handle you got. What a big let down please change it so it does not happen to others......maybe 1fastwolverine......that's more manly!

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-When your hands enter the water they cross the center line, don't do that

-I think a two beat kick is a little advanced for you, try a doing a 6 beat kick and focus on keeping your legs up and behind your body. Should be a small kick if 6 beat. If you don't like it stick with the 2 beat.

-Try some catch-up drills and sculling drills to help with your grip on the water

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Running is a gift.

Poor catch and dropped elbows to start.

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FREAKEN HILARIOUS!!!!!

If I was 1fastwolverine my last name would be Potts. For your humor I give you this picture... wait for it. :)

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The two beat kick just happened last night. It felt *really* good?!?

Is this the correct sculling drill?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxPgQ3LElMg

You were not funny, so you get no pictures of half naked women in Central America!

And on a long shot if anyone is doing Rev here in Costa Rica and would be willing to do a little swim lesson that weekend?

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Im waiting for it but I cant get past the last girl.....just saying.

That's the sculling drill I've recently added to try to work on the feel of EVF.
BTW, you also have a bit of a scissor thing going on with your kick when
you breathe. I recognize it because I do something vaguely similar.

26 strokes for one length of the pool. That's a lot.

I'm not saying there is a target number that triathletes should strive for, but high teen's always seems to give the best of both worlds. Ultimately, you just aren't reaching enough with your arms. The left arm is your gimper arm (don't worry alot of people have a weak arm). Just try to focus on that arm..finger drag or high elbow drills. Hopefully those will tend to correct some of the crossing over the center of your body. Even if you have some remaining crossing over the center left over...its okay..as long as it works for you (re: no shoulder pain).

The upper torso seems to be bobbing a little bit much and I that is also related to the high stroke rate.

It might feel good and it might be the fastest but time yourself with a 6 beat and a 2 beat to make sure.

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Running is a gift.

Dropped it down... did several lengths in 17-19, couldn't get much on video as the wife was busy doing *something* in the pool. 3:02/100m surely isn't swimming....

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How many times a week are u swimming?

You appear to have very little ankle flexibility so u get nothing from your kick. We can see that on your push off. Also you enter the water next to your ears and should be in front of your head plus exit is short also. As hinted to above these may be emphasized by your la k of shoulder flexibility. Lastly, your stroke really doesn't look bad for someone who has only been swimming a year. What would really be of benefit is underwater shots as something funky is going on underwater.

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2cents: you said something about leading with the hips? For me I lead with the shoulders and let the hips follow as I think rotating shoulders and hips simultaneously isn't the best way to think about it. It's almost as if your hips are resisting so try to follow through/let it flow with your hips a bit more as they follow the shoulders rotation. Also, I feel your stroke is a little short at the back so if you try a few laps fully extending backwards and purposely touching your thigh with your thumb and/or doing board slap drill. (Board between legs like a shark fin, each stroke slap dat board.

I'm not a swimmer either so take this as observation only. I'm not sure if its the angle of the video but it looks like you're right wrist is bent upward for the stroke on that side almost like you're palm is up for a small amount of time on entry. I guess that goes with the slap that others mentioned? Maybe you can try to reach a little longer with your left arm by rotating more on your left? I tried to get a little more symmetrical and it helped me.

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There is nothing wrong with the hip rotation. It's a core lead portion of the stroke but made difficult if you have an ineffective kick like the OP.

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Its not the angle. A couple strokes you can even see his fingers out of the water when he is reaching with his right arm.

you will see a big improvement if you widen your hand entry. your current hand entry (being not wide enough) makes you lose power and lose streamline. imagine you are doing a pull-up, that's how wide your hands should be.

I know you don't have to worry about this in open swim but you're losing a lot of momentum in your turn, try not flipping over on your stomach so soon. You break cadence and its not smooth when you flip right away, you also lose speed and momentum.

I'm not an expert by any means just starting out but thats my observation from your most recent video.

examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9eDAQxL5cA&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hysq6tX7d5Q&feature=related

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A few pointers from a college/masters swim coach who works with a lot of Triathletes:

-Spend some time learning how to kick. Yes, you do not need to kick a lot in open water swims, but your kick balances out your stroke. You scissor kick every time you breath, then drag two anchors until the next scissor kick. Your toes should be pointed at all times, focus on the up-kick just as much as the down kick.
-Don't turn your head when you're not breathing. It looks like your taking a small breath, but when I look closer your face gets out of the water and you're not breathing. If you're not breathing, your head should be looking down (neutral head position like when you're standing). Pay attention to what your looking at when not breathing, and you'll fix this quickly.
-Make a habit of counting your strokes when training. If you comfortably take 17-18, and in the middle of your workout are taking 20+, you're doing something wrong.

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Your head rotation is far too much, you only want to get half of your mouth out of the water. Also, your head is waffling from side to side, try and keep a clean body line by not moving your head. Your left arm is entering way too far to the right, enter parallel with your shoulders with both arms. Also, both arms are crossing over your body line too much under water. Keep both strokes entirely on their respective sides of your body. Perhaps most mportantly, be sure to keep a high elbow under water, practice rotating your wrist and "dropping your thumb" under water to raise your elbow. You really need to work on your catch, do a sculling drill out in from to get a feel for the water. Your shoulder rotation and early recovery both look good. IMO, I think you need to do some distance per stroke drills and really nail the catch.

Not a fish, but clearly you drop your elbow at the start of the stroke, as RealAlbertan said. While not the best view for it, you probably cross over as well.

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