Tri-Banter wrote:
I think a lot of us probably can't see what these good swimmers are actually doing - at least I can't. ---
You're overthinking it. Swimming has a thousand moving parts and no one can do them all perfectly. Pick up just 1 tiny thing that someone is doing. Hand entry. First movement/ catch. Head position. Eye position. Rotation. It really doesn't matter. Pick one. Watch someone that does it better. Work on making yours better. The deck clock (or, shudder, your watch) will give you feedback. And, we're talking like 1 sec per 100. Didn't work? Fine. Do something different. Once it works. Repeat, repeat, repeat. And while you're repeating, find the next tiny thing. Keep doing tiny thing 1 and start working on tiny thing 2. What you are not allowed to do is turn your brain off.
This stuff happens naturally on a team when your working day in and day out. If you can't get to a team, then race for time. You wouldn't expect a new runner to BQ in their first year of training. Nor would you expect them to BQ on 1-2 days a week of running. Excellence takes time and attention to detail.
Agree in general, but one thing to be aware of is that when you are talking about swimmers who really aren't all that good at it yet, there are a lot of things that a really good swimmer will do that only works because they are a good swimmer, if the poor swimmer tries to do it they won't see any difference in the clock, or just make things worse. Take the kick for example. A good swimmer with a 6 beat kick will have their heels bubbling the surface, because their legs are nice and high in the water. A poor swimmer might see that as splashing the water with the feet, but their legs are naturally floating 18" under the surface. So they overkick with a massive knee bend to try to splash the water with their feet.
I think watching and emulating without additional guidance works better once you have a pretty solid understanding of what it is you are trying to do in the water. If you don't have that, then having guidance is really important.
Swimming Workout of the Day: Favourite Swim Sets: 2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly