After spending countless hours buying the underwater camera, lining up the right camcorder, getting the right cable connections, and now fighting with a conversion from Sony’s .vob format over to MSFT Movie Maker-friendly format, and then converting that to .avi and posting on youtube…
The GOOD news: Here it is.
The BAD news: The video quality is terrible. It lost a LOT in translation. I don’t get it - it’s nice and crisp on my PC in MSFT Movie Marker, but not so much using Real Player after the conversion, and then a lot worse still after loading to youtube. If anyone knows how to improve that, I’ll re-work it.
OK, so re: the swimming part, what feels like Thorpe-like high elbows, well, aren’t. Especially on the left. My kick gets a little bicycle-y now and then. I still lift my head a little to breathe. And I am starting my pull way too early (I’m not even back to flat yet).
All those posts going on and on about all the different technique theories that you have spent god knows how much time researching, and that’s the best you can do?
1 - Arch your back a little, and lean on your chest
2 - As you extend your hand at entry, try to get it a little deeper. By staying so close to the surface, you’re sinking your feet and hips a little (and your pull doesn’t engage anything until your hand is 6-8" down anyway)
3 - Your hip drive should initiate in synch with your hand entry and the beginning of your pull. Your power comes from your hip, and you’ve already moved your arm through 30% of your stroke before your rotational power kicks in. I have some great core exercises to help with this, but the basic premise is that you drive your shoulder and hip down simultaneous with hand entry and your pull should start a millisecond later.
4 - Reach over the barrel. You’re dropping your elbow when you should be raising it.
5 - Along that same line of thought, your hands should pass closer to your chest.
6 - Your hand and forearm should be at 90° to your line of travel for as long as possible. That means pushing the elbow up early to get that 90° position early, and then pushing towards your feet. Finish into the heel of your hand so that your fingers are still pointing at the bottom of the pool at the finish of your stroke.
felt like i was watching myself swim !! thing i notice first (and what i feel about myself) is how deep in the water, versus on the surface, you are. Like your entire horizontal line is just deeper, rather than closer to the surface. anybody got a solution for that ??
hips drop/core comes out of line (see how your spine isn’t straight - should be straight, easy fix, suck in your gut while you swim, and keep your core tight)… go find championship winning freestyle and watch it… your arms look passable, well… they have problems… catch is too late, elbows drop abit, and you sweep wide, but I’d work on body position first!
The reason you go as fast as you do is because you have decent streamlining, good hand entry and glide, and a strong kick.
As far as I can tell, you are getting about nothing out of your pull. Nothing. No wonder 2:00/100 is your speed. It looks to me like your catch is straight down, and your pull is straight back up to your hips. Seriously. Your arm is about straight when you catch and pull, you get nothing out of your triceps in the back half of your stroke. I can imagine how hard it is to get your body to the surface.
Try this drill: 25yds, both hands in front, scull with one hand (out and back) three times with arm fully extended, then take a stroke with that arm and repeat the whole length of the pool. Next length, same arm, pull to your shoulder (your elbow should be at 90 degrees, upper arm nearly parallel to the surface and forearm pointed straight down), scull with that hand (out and back) three times, finish stroke and repeat the whole length. Third length, same thing but pull nearly to your hip, and scull there. Last length, full free, concentrating on what your arm position felt like the first three lengths. Repeat with other arm. Do this a couple of times every single time you get in the water for, say, a year or two.
IMNSHO, you have little concept of where your arms actually are (and I daresay the same is true for those experts who have told you how good your technique is). Doing drills like this will help you feel where your arms should be at various points in the stroke.
Edit: on the other hand, you actually look like you could be a decent swimmer. I see many triathletes who give me the impression that no matter how hard they try, they just aren’t going to “get it”. You don’t look like that, God knows why not.
See, this is what I mean. You’ve said in the past that elite swimmers and coaches have told you, “Basically there’s nothing wrong with your stroke.” And then you have made it seem like you are an anomaly and that there is no explanation for why you can’t get your times any faster.
But the explanation is pretty simple. Pretty much ever aspect of your stroke, from front to back, needs serious work. There’s not a single thing I looked at that doesn’t need to be fixed. And that’s fine! You look like pretty much every other triathlete on the planet. No one expects you to have a perfect stroke. But you can’t make it seem like you have a perfect stroke and then wonder why you can’t go faster than 1:30/100s.
The answer is obvious. GET A COACH. A superb one. Just drop the cash and do it (it’s way cheaper than race wheels and will save you way more time). And swim every day. And swim hard and fast. You will get faster. Guaranteed. You have at least :15-:20/100 of upside in your stroke with just a single season of dedicated, supervised training.
Just drop the cash and do it (it’s way cheaper than race wheels and will save you way more time)
No truer words on ST have been spoken. And this applies to everyone not swimming faster then 1:10 for an IM, 21:30 for 1.5k or 29 for 2k.
3 - Your hip drive should initiate in synch with your hand entry and the beginning of your pull. Your power comes from your hip, and you’ve already moved your arm through 30% of your stroke before your rotational power kicks in. I have some great core exercises to help with this, but the basic premise is that you drive your shoulder and hip down simultaneous with hand entry and your pull should start a millisecond later.
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This is the first thing I noticed. The timing is off and it does look awkward. I think some people overanalyze the catch. Sometimes it helps to think of it as let the momentum forward take care of the catch part of the stroke (otherwise, relax at the front end - you are going forward, so let that get your hand/arm where it is supposed to be). Then, put the effort into the power zone - shoulders to just past hips. Pulling hard at the top part of the catch will not do much as far as speed is concerned.
See, this is what I mean. You’ve said in the past that elite swimmers and coaches have told you, “Basically there’s nothing wrong with your stroke.” And then you have made it seem like you are an anomaly and that there is no explanation for why you can’t get your times any faster.
But the explanation is pretty simple. Pretty much ever aspect of your stroke, from front to back, needs serious work. There’s not a single thing I looked at that doesn’t need to be fixed. And that’s fine! You look like pretty much every other triathlete on the planet. No one expects you to have a perfect stroke. But you can’t make it seem like you have a perfect stroke and then wonder why you can’t go faster than 1:30/100s.
The answer is obvious. GET A COACH. A superb one. Just drop the cash and do it (it’s way cheaper than race wheels and will save you way more time). And swim every day. And swim hard and fast. You will get faster. Guaranteed. You have at least :15-:20/100 of upside in your stroke with just a single season of dedicated, supervised training.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… (but before I do, let the record show that I’m not asking for advice and then arguing because I’m not hearing what I want to hear)… What you are suggesting is nearly impossible. I have dug deep, calling local and fairly distant colleges, spent time with various high school coaches and elite swimmers who also coach. NONE has given anywhere near as much useful feedback as at least 3 of the above posters. And NONE do anything more than an occasional coaching session. Hell, I’ve been trying to convince two triathlete-coaching outfits here (staffed w/ a few top notch swimmers) to start a swim-specific coaching plan, and they yawn. Not enough $ in it apparently, and nearly no one else wanting/willing to dedicate themselves to the task.
It ain’t the $, people. I’d drop an unspeakable sum if it guaranteed I’d be :20 per 100 faster in a year! (without having to swim more than 4x/wk :-)). Hell, this little video project is already over $1000.
I never do those scull drills because they really bother my shoulders. A lot. But I’ll give them a try again.
And let’s not exagerate my slowness… It’s not 2:00/100, more like 1:40, and high 1:40s for half-IMs.
The thing I’ve really fought is this early pull. Anything later feels like total catch-up and I’m rising/falling too much in the water. Maybe it all comes together if I get/keep that elbow higher (and earlier catch). I can only focus on one or two things, so what would you suggest that be? Earlier and more vertical catch?
All I can say it THANK GOODNESS someone feels my pain!!! Same boat as me. Same swim times and same problems with coaching. It is frustrating. Everyone says to get a coach. Well, find me one that is worth the time and money I am willing to invest. I never met Doug Stern, but it seemed he would have made a great person to work with. Seems that most good swimmers and most people doing coaching can’t get the synapses to connect when working with someone who is a BOP swimmer. They only know how to work with people that are good swimmers. That is my take on it at least.
3 - Your hip drive should initiate in synch with your hand entry and the beginning of your pull. Your power comes from your hip, and you’ve already moved your arm through 30% of your stroke before your rotational power kicks in. I have some great core exercises to help with this, but the basic premise is that you drive your shoulder and hip down simultaneous with hand entry and your pull should start a millisecond later.
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This is the first thing I noticed. The timing is off and it does look awkward. I think some people overanalyze the catch. Sometimes it helps to think of it as let the momentum forward take care of the catch part of the stroke (otherwise, relax at the front end - you are going forward, so let that get your hand/arm where it is supposed to be). Then, put the effort into the power zone - shoulders to just past hips. Pulling hard at the top part of the catch will not do much as far as speed is concerned.
I think what you’re both saying is that my pull is too early, so that by the time my hips are in action, my arm is already past my shoulder? And so a more catch-up style (though not flat, the way I see lots of people do that drill), where I focus on hip first and then pull (the “millisecond later”) would be the idea?
Just drop the cash and do it (it’s way cheaper than race wheels and will save you way more time)
No truer words on ST have been spoken. And this applies to everyone not swimming faster then 1:10 for an IM, 21:30 for 1.5k or 29 for 2k.
Would you know any good coaches in the central FL area? I have been to 3 coaches ALL USAT qualified(whatever that means) and each one changes everything the last coach did.
If you do please post it here or PM me,
Thank you
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At first blush, it doesn’t look too bad. I can see why someone would watch you swim a bit and say you look OK. But, once I hit pause to do some stop action, its clear you got some issues.
Basically, your arms are pretty straight (too little elbow bend) and the path of your hands is too far from our center line. This means you are not generating nearly as much power as you could. (Which may explain why folks look at you and think you look good but you can’t go fast . . . You really don’t look that bad, but you also are not swimming in a way that will ever be fast since your stroke has a very finite limit on how fast it will get you).
Watch some of this video and compare where your hands travel vis a vis the center line of your body versus the this guy.
You look pretty tight in the shoulders too which might be part of the problem. Not sure if it is because you lack flexibility or you are just not executing the right motions. If it is tightness, you might want to incorporate some stretching into your routine. You are also intitiating your catch pretty late, again this may be an flexibility issue.
