What does your training currently look like and what sort of paces are you hitting for your various sets?

Your streamline is good but elbows are slipping. Need more EVF. That'll be $90. Have a nice day. :)

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Marty Gaal, CSCS
One Step Beyond Coaching
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Haha, sounds about right! Okay, thank you - I will pay more attention to establishing a better EVF during my swim sessions.

You know what, not great. This is my first triathlon season (including swimming and biking) and I'm following the 14-week IM training plan from Fast Track Triathlete. My biggest problem when it comes to the swim is that the pool I'm swimming in is not a "proper" pool - it's very short (I don't even really know how long it is, but I suspect it's between 16-18m), as you can tell in the video. However, the trade-off is that it's just an elevator ride away, so it lets me get in more swim time than I would otherwise be able to manage with my schedule. I think that trade-off is worth it for now, although after IMLP I will look into signing up for a better pool.

I know I'm going to get eviscerated for this, but the problem with the super short pool is that I'm not sure what pace I'm really swimming at, with the constant turns and me not knowing the exact length of the pool. As such, I'm following the Fast Track Triathlete training program, but swimming off of RPE (the training plan calls for smooth, strong, very strong, max, etc.). I'm getting the volume in and focusing on technique, but I haven't gotten more quantitative than that. I absolutely know this is not a good way to train and am looking to improve.

I'm not a good AOS swimmer, but after 7-8 years of annoyingly hard work, I swim OWS a lot faster than 2:00/100 in races.

That said, I'm pretty sure you stroke looks better than mine! At least to me there are no big time killing errors, and your stroke rhythm is good. Pump up the pace, and you should go a lot faster. That's some good work for a mere year of swimming.

I'm actually a bit horrified that you're only achieving 2:00/100 in OWS. You should either measure that pool length to get an accurate distance (easy to do, just pace it and measure your foot lengths), or better yet, just drop in a public 25yd/m pool and do various time trials to see if your OWS is a lot slower than your pool pace.

If it is, you should work on sighting and navigating to close that gap. I too had a big gap in my first few years of tri swimming, where I would train like crazy, get better in the pool, then ALWAYS drop 2:00/100yd pace on race day regardless of distance. Turns out I didn't realize how much my poor sighting and navigation were killing me - I think I would get confused/frustrated and back off into easy-moderate pace too often in the OWS. After practiced it semiregularly prior to race day (in a pool, no less), my times have lined up a lot more closely as I can 'race' the full OWS.

other than dropping the elbows on the pull, there isn't much that's "wrong". Your stroke looks better than mine.

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Looks good based on your experience. Maybe need to develop more power or explosiveness if you were swimming 50/100yd races but for a distance guy it looks reasonably efficient.

Thanks, guys. Very helpful thoughts. Yes, I definitely need to improve on my open-water skills! Thankfully IMLP should be a pretty straightforward swim, which doesn't hurt.

In terms of increasing stroke rate, this might be a silly question, but is that purely fitness-related? i.e., analogous to increasing cadence at the same gear and thus going faster. If so, is that just something that takes time?

One other thing I feel is holding me back is my kick. Is there anything in the video that looks hugely flawed? I ask because whenever I use a pull buoy, I feel like I'm gliding through the water - once I drop the buoy and start kicking, I feel like I'm substantially slower, although it doesn't seem like I'm really sinking too low in the video. My sense is that's an opportunity for some easy speed for me.

I agree with Jason that you are dropping your elbows. Here is a link to a Jonnyo video that was a giant help to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1KReTEXiBM

I knew I was supposed to have a high elbow and that meant keeping my elbow near the surface while bending my forearm down so that my hand and forearm were both facing straight backwards (so I could push water backwards and get the equal and opposite reaction of going forward) -- but I just couldn't do it. Jonnyo shows that you need to get the point of your elbow pointing up not down (to do that involves a rotation in the shoulder). Once you can master that, the high elbow can follow.

Stroke rate and body position looks pretty darn good.
Swim speed looks definitely faster than a 2:00/100m, more like a 1:45/100m.
Pool length is definitely an issue in relation to translating swimming ability to open water. With such a short pull and regular push offs from the wall you only get a few complete cycles in per length which makes covering distance a whole lot easier and stops you forming a good rhythm etc in the open water.
As much as it might be hard to do, consider adding in one open water swim per week in the last 1-2 months leading into the event and try some longer swim intervals in a 50m/y pool.

You seems 6-kick swim? maybe change to 2-kick, save engry for increase stroke rate, then you will be faster.

I agree with Jason. From what I can see in the video it doesn't look bad at all. Maybe get into your pull a little earlier hard to tell from the limited video. Self taught adult onset and swimming less than a year I'd say you are doing very well.

I did a time trial in the local pool on Saturday. 4K in 1:10 no wetsuit. I haven't seen myself swim in some time but I'd bet I don't look better than you maybe worse. You are doing a good job I think of keeping your head down.

The short pool is likely a disadvantage. If it is 16m and you get 3m off each wall you are only swimming 13m per length. On the other hand if it results in more swimming that is probably good. As someone else said good idea to get into a 25 m/y pool once a week. Put a pull buoy or something on deck and work on sighting it without lifting your head up too much or disrupting stroke too much. Sight at a certain interval. I often do three breaths then sight and I breath every third stroke. Other times if I get a good draft and the person in front of be is going nice and straight I'll just swim for awhile benefit from the rest.

Your first full IM swim I think best to try to just hold it together. Sighting, trying to draft some people, thinking about form when you get tired.

Good luck.

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You know, there is a very easy solution to this: buy or borrow a tape measure, or a surveyor's wheel that measures in feet, and MEASURE THE FORKING POOL!!!!! I mean, this is NOT rocket science, Dude!!! I swam in a 50-ft pool most of the time for about a year or so b/c it was the only pool available, and when I did get the chance to swim in a standard 25-yd pool, i saw no deterioration in my times. The biggest thing i noticed was that i was faster in the shorter pool, due to the extra speed you get off of each wall. Having now swum in numerous pools of various lengths, i have concluded i gain about a second per turn, i.e., 2 sec per 100 faster in 25 m pool vs a a 50 m pool. If you compare the WRs in the 25 m (scm) pool vs the WRs in the 50 m (lcm), you'll see that even the fastest swimmers in the world gain around 0.7 sec/turn.

All that said, i concur with the others that your stroke looks really quite good for an AOS who has only been swimming for 6 months or so. You're absolutely sure you never swam on a team as a kid??? In any case, you definitely have some talent for swimming. Measure your pool and then report back to what kind of pace you can sustain for 200 yd or thereabouts.

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This. You are leading with your elbow in the pull, instead of grabbing the water with your hand/forearm. So, not a lot of propulsion going on.

No fee for the second opinion.

Your first motion at the end of your reach (hand furthest in front) is to drop your wrist, which is part of dropping and leading with your elbow. That first motion should be to leave your elbow at the surface, and drop your entire *straight* forearm until it is as vertical as your shoulder mobility allows, then pulling straight back.

Re turnover: you can maintain your current turnover because you aren't doing a whole lot of work in each stroke (like pedaling in an easy gear on flat ground). Once you adjust your stroke to actually move water as described above, you'll be exerting a lot more force and therefore expending a lot more energy. The result might be to reduce your turnover. Turnover is individualistic within a small range (most good OW swimmers have a much higher turnover than do you). For me, swimming is like cycling: lower torque and higher cadence works best. Others are different. Use the clock to figure out where your tradeoff lies.

Your form looks pretty darned good, except for the fact that you aren't moving much water. :-)

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"Go yell at an M&M"

Is that the form/technique you hold for the whole swim? One issue might be that your hips sink or elbow drops as the workout progresses, and the video is you swimming fresh.
If you have a garmin or other swim watch, look at your time per lap and see if things deteriorate. You can also film yourself during a 10min swim and see how your form looks at min8 as compared to min1.

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That is a fairly significant change. I would say with a full ironman swim coming soon in term of changing stroke mechanics at most work on one thing particularly given the OP has a pretty decent stroke. Three components of swimming. Fitness, mechanics and open water skills.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
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The OP does not have a pretty decent stroke. The OP may have a stroke that looks "pretty", but it is dysfunctional since he's not really moving much water. Anyone who swims around 2:00/100 (yards or meters) really isn't moving much water.

When the OP changes his pull to actually, well, pull, he's likely to find that he's now exerting enough energy that maintaining a six beat kick is not possible. In fact, I'm guessing he'll also find he lacks the fitness to maintain a productive pull for an IM distance swim.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

could be an illusion of the short pool, but eyeballing it he's swimming WAY faster than 2:00/100 in the video. I'm guessing 1:30-ish pace. if he actually swam 1:45 pace in a tri, (using that number since that is actual swim speed as opposed to sighting, reading currents, etc) I'm putting that down to swim-specific fitness, remedied fairly simply by time in the water and making sure he does sufficient work at appropriate intensities.

I do think he's overkicking a bit, and really does need to stop leading his pull with his elbow. That may mean that the recovery motion becomes less pretty. But, other than the pull, there isn't all that much that is terrible.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

I think you're making the typical error of judging someone's video by their alleged, non-verified swim race times. You might as well throw out the video in that case.

For all we know, his 2:00/100 race pace is a function of his OWS deficiencies, and in fact, his pool swim pace is more than adequate for what it looks like (I'd tend to agree with Jasoninhalifax's guesstimates.)

But from a form standpoint, it does look pretty good. His dropped elbow, contrary to what you say, is NOT a horrible dropped elbow - it's actually pretty good from the video, maybe a slight drop, but I'd say actually a very good pull for someone with that rate of turnover as especially for limited experience.

That's true that from a form standpoint, it looks good. However his stroke rate roughly 60/minutes which is not ideal since I doubt his 6-kick could give him much propulsion while increase the stroke rate could (assume he could keep the form). And I agree that it is a significant change and require a lot of practice, not good for a coming soon full ironman, it is more for the long run.
http://www.triathlete.com/2015/08/training/what-is-the-ideal-stroke-rate_120831

This video was FANTASTIC! Thank you for sharing. I was watching Chloe Sutton's video on the catch and she mentioned rotating the elbow upwards, but I didn't understand how or why to achieve that. This video explains it much more clearly! Can't wait to try this out in practice. The movement does feel very unnatural - I wonder if this is something I should ease into, i.e., is there any risk of injury if I try to completely switch my stroke to achieve this rotation all at once?

Yes, you're absolutely right. This isn't rocket science. I'm going to measure the pool this weekend so I can be more quantitative about my swim training. Thanks for the extra kick of motivation to get that done. I try not to kick off the wall very much in order to maximize the effective distance of the pool. I've also considered getting a drag suit to create some additional resistant, although I'm not sure if that's a good idea. I like the idea of occasional drop-ins to a better pool - I have a great one I can use and will do that going forward! Thanks!

This is definitely a video of me swimming relatively fresh - I'm sure my form deteriorates throughout the course of my workout, which is something that I'm working on. But it's good to know what proper form looks and feels like for me so that even if my form deteriorates, I can recognize it and try to bring it back to what I know is correct.