I will begin by saying I have been swimming for quite some time. I swam in college but that was a long time ago! Watching this video I realized two things 1) My technique has become sloppy. 2) My technique is quite outdated. Despite swimming regularly, my progress seems to fluctuate and I have plateaued. I have recently begun looking for all the “free speed” I can find and was hoping to clean up my swim stroke a little bit. I would love to get your critiques but most importantly your solutions/suggestions.
Well you are a better swimmer than me and you can flip turn which I can’t, so I’m not sure that my observations are the best you’ll get! But the first thing that struck me was how your hands are entering quite close to your head and driving down at a fairly steep angle, before you push them out front and back up again. I wonder if some fingertip drag drills might help. Second thing I notice is your elbow below your hand at full extension, which looks to be setting you up for a late catch and you might be pushing down on the water quite a lot before you are pushing back. I’d concentrate on keeping your elbow high and trying to set up an early vertical forearm, tonnes of info on here about that. Correcting your hand entry will probably help set you up for that.
Your rotation and kick look really good, and your head position looks nice to my untrained eye. And you can flip turn!
I can’t help you at all. You look great in the water to me. Good luck though!
I will begin by saying I have been swimming for quite some time. I swam in college but that was a long time ago! Watching this video I realized two things 1) My technique has become sloppy. 2) My technique is quite outdated. Despite swimming regularly, my progress seems to fluctuate and I have plateaued. I have recently begun looking for all the “free speed” I can find and was hoping to clean up my swim stroke a little bit. I would love to get your critiques but most importantly your solutions/suggestions.
Even though it is not apparent in this video, a previous poster mentioned your “angle of entry” and having seeing your stroke head-on I can definitely say that your near-crossover entry could be cleaned up a bit.
Slow motion - nice.
Anyway, you enter down and then your hand slides back up. It’s not a huge deal by any means but that can be cleaned up and simplified. Instead of a circuitous route, you might reach out a tad further and have your hand travel a straighter route to the fully extended position. It’s a minor thing but may be related to the cross over James pointed out.
You might benefit from some internal rotation stretching at the shoulder so that at midpoint of the pull you can get closer to having shoulder over elbow over wrist in a straight line. You already do that very well, but like everyone you might be able to do it a bit better. On the other hand, trying to get there is fraught with peril! Being more aggressive with your catch can definitely lead to shoulder problems. So the way to pursue it is to do those stretches mildly and just let it take its course without stressing on it, let your shoulder kinda find its own.
Unfortunately in a way, you’re already a good swimmer and there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of free speed in that video.
Maybe Dolphin kick off the wall instead of flutter?
I think you needed to work on your turnover on that second length 
Looks really good. The only two things might be that you need to get your forearm vertical sooner (you are pulling with a straight arm as seen from the side), and you have a bit too much of the discontinued S-pull. You also do that old thing of having your reaching hand go toward the surface before you start your pull, rather than putting it in the water at the surface and starting the pull.
You are so far ahead of triathletes in the water it’s not funny.
Unless this is a troll to see who can find faults with an elite triathlete’s form…
Unless this is a troll to see who can find faults with an elite triathlete’s form…
Haha, she’s not trolling…promise. She is genuinely interested in good feedback.
Unless this is a troll to see who can find faults with an elite triathlete’s form…
Haha, she’s not trolling…promise. She is genuinely interested in good feedback.
If that is true, why is she posting on slowtwitch?
I knew that was coming haha
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Looks really good. The only two things might be that you need to get your forearm vertical sooner (you are pulling with a straight arm as seen from the side), and you have a bit too much of the discontinued S-pull. You also do that old thing of having your reaching hand go toward the surface before you start your pull, rather than putting it in the water at the surface and starting the pull.
I had those same thoughts. Her first hand motion was up, then down, then she pulled back with mostly a straight arm. I, too, have the occasional s-pull problem as muscle memory takes over. It seemed that her right arm had more s-hook than her left. Her stroke is very old school.
you’re not really getting a very high elbow on your pull, especially with your left arm. You’re kind of doing the old school “S” pattern and your arms are too straight on your pull - I think klehner made a similar observation.
From the angle I can’t quite tell if you’re dropping your elbow on your left arm but it certainly seems like you aren’t getting maximum propulsion from your pull on either arm. Basically, to my eye you’re not getting enough force from your lats on the pull. A higher elbow catch - really planting your hand and forearm - will give you more leverage and less shoulder strain.
As others have said, your angle of entry is a little wonky. Your hand enters a bit deep then you kind of float it back up to initiate your catch. Seems like you could enter your hand a bit flatter and get into your catch without adjusting hand position.
All that said, it looks pretty good!
Its a very fine stroke. Whats your cruise pace?
Only think I can see is what other already said: too much reach towards the surface with the leading hand and then a bit to straight pull. I know reaching like that feels great because you feel really long in the water and the feel of the water is very good in that position. Heck, even Sun Yang does a bit of that.
I have been trying to get in the habit of dolphin kicking off the wall and I just can’t get it to work. There is a dead space when I push off and then start drowning a bit but then I flutter kick myself to the surface. I am sure it is a timing thing but I am having a hard time coordinating it. Might be because I flip turn really close to the wall, haha.
Nope not, trolling. I even got a second opinion to make sure I did not sound like I was trolling
Yes, I have been told my stroke is a bit outdated. I need to freshen it up a bit so I have been trying to adopt a higher elbow catch. However, seeing this video made me realize just how early my hand enters the water.
Its a very fine stroke. Whats your cruise pace?
Only think I can see is what other already said: too much reach towards the surface with the leading hand and then a bit to straight pull. I know reaching like that feels great because you feel really long in the water and the feel of the water is very good in that position. Heck, even Sun Yang does a bit of that.
If you check her blog, you’ll see she swam a 26:00 at REV3 Florida and 20:23 in an olympic earlier this year. For reference. I’d guess threshold pace is something like 1:15/100scy (sorry I don’t know times in meters) maybe a little quicker.
I can’t add anything. I have some of the same issues. It does look like you have the “old school” “S” motion they used to teach us swimmers 20 years ago. I have the same problem. I’m trying ot straighten it out and keep my elbow hig hand use a EVF… but undoing 20 years of muscle memory is hard as hell.
Don;t be suprised if you go backwards when you make changes. I feel like my fitness is imrpoving fomr consistent weekly yards, but because I’m screwing with my stroke, I’ve lost a little bit of my feel of the water and how to pull hard without my form comming apart.
At 1:54, during your left hand entry, what is up with the crazy fingers?
My cruise pace is usually at about 1:10 per 100/scy. My kick does a lot of work for me.
James suggested it would a good place for some feedback. So here I am.