Hi All,

Now that a lot of the people here are focusing on their swim, I thought I give it a try as well. Lately made a lot of improvement and went from 1:54/100m CSS in September to 1:44/100m this week. Have been increasing my times in the pool to 4 times doing around 9-10k a week. To realize the above improvement I mainly focused on increasing my spm (currently at around 58 comfortably) and, I guess, just more volume/fitness.

Few weeks ago I started with a personal swim trainer who helps me a lot but would like to get more opinions on where I should focus on. Currently focusing on the push of my stroke as I often do not fully extent to the back. As a FYI, I have never focused on or tried to improve my kick.

Looking at below video, what should be my main focus points to make easiest/fastest gains?



Cheers!

Yay, a swim improvement thread!

Immediately obvious, you're dropping your elbow quite a bit (I put in that phrase just for Darkspeedworks, just embracing my inner troll today ;-)

I will explain though. You see at the beginning of your stroke at the catch, your elbow is moving down before your hand? you really want the opposite, get your hand and down first.

try to not reach as deep. you're losing leverage. You want your elbow to form a (roughly) 120-100 degree angle at the meaty part of the pull.

Don't worry too much about the finsh of the stroke. There's not a ton of propulsion there, since the forearm is no longer perpendicular.

those are the couple of things that jump out. I like your body position overall, legs are up and I don't see a ton of drag from them. There are some things you can do with timing your kick with your arms better, I think.

Yay, a swim improvement thread!

Immediately obvious, you're dropping your elbow quite a bit (I put in that phrase just for Darkspeedworks, just embracing my inner troll today ;-)

I have many pet trolls, so I am all good with that !

So a few things:

- Your body position is not too bad.

- Do not bilaterally breath. Instead, breath every full stroke cycle, but be able to do this on your left side AND also on your right side.

- Your head is a bit low, lower than it needs to be (and this adds unnecessary drag). But don't "lift" your head to fix this, but instead angle it slightly more ahead. So, instead of looking at the pool bottom under you, look a bit ahead of you on the pool bottom.

- Spread open your hands so that all of your fingers have about (on average) 5-10mm between them, depending on big your hand is: huge hands can afford a bit more space between each finger than smaller hands. This will greatly expands the size of your paddles.

- Do not swim with a watch, never race with a watch.

- You don't need to rotate your head as much as you do to breath, really only 1 eye needs to be out of the water and your mouth should be barely, barely above the water surface. You end up breathing below the surface of the water, because your moving face creates a little 'pocket' that is actually below the average water surface of the pool.

- Your pull is where the biggest issue is. Instead of getting your forearm vertical as soon as possible (which is a good set up for a solid pull), you are instead "sliding" your arm back (with the elbow kind of leading) so you do not get a full amount of 'purchase' in the water. How to fix this? Look at youtube and search "early vertical forearm" or variants of this. EVF will help you tremendously. I have no idea who this guy is, but his explanation of it is not too bad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6952cAAXHFk


I could offer more useful feedback if you can get a video of yourself from above the water (1) from the side and (as best as possible) (2) from above. Swim in a wall lane and have the video person film from the side and then from above while he/she walks alongside you swimming.

Good luck,
Greg @ dsw

The watch creates drag.

Nevertheless, I always wear a watch so I can make sure I see the times.

Oooohhhh... So that's why I'm slow!!! Between that and my bubbles.... 10 or 20s/100y?

Pink is up to you....

I have many pet trolls, so I am all good with that !

So a few things:

- Your body position is not too bad.

- Do not bilaterally breath. Instead, breath every full stroke cycle, but be able to do this on your left side AND also on your right side.

- Spread open your hands so that all of your fingers have about (on average) 5-10mm between them, depending on big your hand is: huge hands can afford a bit more space between each finger than smaller hands. This will greatly expands the size of your paddles.

- You don't need to rotate your head as much as you do to breath, really only 1 eye needs to be out of the water and your mouth should be barely, barely above the water surface. You end up breathing below the surface of the water, because your moving face creates a little 'pocket' that is actually below the average water surface of the pool.

- Your pull is where the biggest issue is. Instead of getting your forearm vertical as soon as possible (which is a good set up for a solid pull), you are instead "sliding" your arm back (with the elbow kind of leading) so you do not get a full amount of 'purchase' in the water. How to fix this? Look at youtube and search "early vertical forearm" or variants of this. EVF will help you tremendously. I have no idea who this guy is, but his explanation of it is not too bad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6952cAAXHFk

I could offer more useful feedback if you can get a video of yourself from above the water (1) from the side and (as best as possible) (2) from above. Swim in a wall lane and have the video person film from the side and then from above while he/she walks alongside you swimming.

am interested in your advice to not swim with a watch. Can you elaborate? I always train with a watch and our squad uses Finis tempo trainers as well for cycle times etc. I find I get decent value out of the watch as it gives me good information about what I am doing intervals in and rest periods. Yes, I know you can get all of that information from the pace clock but it is not always so easy at the pool I swim at. Was just interested in the rationale for your advice.