Group Therapy: Confess Your Stroke Flaws and What You are Doing to Fix Them Here

Triathlon Forum
1

I’ll start.

Too much body roll when I breathe. So much that it is absolutely killing my right shoulder (I breathe only to the left). I have to learn to breathe to the right, even though all I do now is get a mouthful of water, my other arm drops, and my feet sink. Tough commitment to make.

I turn my head too far to breathe. Have to get comfy taking air with half my goggles still in the water.

Finishing w/ my palm facing back. I tend to flip my hand up at the end.

I start my pull a little early every time I breathe (and then I swim almost catch up on the other side). Doing more catchup drill, and some snorkel swimming to try to balance out both sides.

2

Breathing the first stroke out of a flip turn. Currently have a new set of lungs being grown for me in Switzerland.

I also only kick with my right leg on the three beat. I’ll fix it by putting on the wetsuit and not kicking at all.

3

Not beginning with a high catch.

Not keeping my elbows as high as they should be

Not using my hips enough

Not turning enough and therefore keeping my elbow high

4

I have many stroke flaws that I am working on. Mostly they are warts and I am starting to go blind. I continue to practice my strokes and have found that early morning infomertials such as ‘girls gone wild’ and ‘wild party girls’ are very useful tools.

Thank you for asking.

5

It took 3 posts before the inevitable. Not bad.

6

a flip turn?

what’s that?

7

My stroke flaw is my stroke, I am correcting it by hardly swimming :slight_smile:
.

8

My flip turn… My friends and coach says it looks like a dolphin trying to beach its self. I can get around but not smoothly so I have been working on it so I do not look like such a dork when masters swim starts in middle of sept.

9

I am sorry about that. At 39 years old you would think I could have passed on the slow pitch you served up. I am guilty as charged, sir. If I could spend as much time in the pool as I do making smartass comments here, my swim would be so much better. Sorry.

10

Breathing to the left is as smooth as silk (one eye still underwater, body goes straight) Breathing to the right not smooth (can’t keep head down, water gets in mouth regardless, body turns to the right)
.

11

I have no feakin’ clue.

Pretty much everyone that watches me swim says the same thing…“wow you’re smooth in the water”…But Man Am I slow!

Flaws I THINK I may have.

My kick timing sucks…I think

Somewhere along the line I’m apparently not holding a whole lot of water as I’m not going very fast.

I don’t breath to the left very well…or maybe I’m just not real comfortabel there, again don’t really know.

IOW I suck and I don’t know why I suck! Hey but I’m fairly “pretty” in the water…maybe I should quite tri’s and do freakin’ water ballet.

So far I have befuddled all of the coaches at the local masters class and two “hired” coaches.

~Matt

12

That’s funny, since I’ve had the same thing said to me. Hey, you look great! Well that is well and good, but I’d trade it for some speed anyday. Increasing the turnover (the most logical step) doesn’t make much diff (i.e. more water resistance, fatigue, loss of form, etc.). I’ve had a coach say the same too - I’ll keep looking. I think I’m alligatoring some with a little crossover, no matter how high the recovery or elbow and with good hip rotation. The nice stroke then is lost.

13

I breathe going into and coming out of my flip turns. And then use the “I’m a triathlete now” excuse to say it doesn’t matter.

Definitely not symmetrical in the water. Uncorrected becauase correcting it slows me down.

Weird three beat kick- uncorrected because it interconnects with the stroke asymmetry.

Tendency to drop water when I get tired- pay attention to finish of the stroke, and not lost my grip on the water.

14

We need to spend an entire weekend together in the United States and work this stuff out. I can travel to anyplace. You will find out that we have similiar issues. Let’s share them and solve them

DougStern

15

  1. I start my breath too late and can’t seem to fix it no matter how hard I try.

  2. My leading hand tends to drop when I turn to breathe and I waste the start of my pull.

  3. My kick is embarrasing.

robert

16

Rockford Illinois is a bit desolate…but centrally located.

~Matt

17

I was considering doing something with Tom Demerly near Detroit Michigan.

It would not be too far to travel.

DougStern

18

Doug-

Do you offer swim clinics? If so, when and where? If not, I’ll bet you’d fill one from this forum alone fairly quick.

19

Tom will be newly married and won’t have time for that sort of thing…

Probably could make it over in 6 hrs or so.

~Matt

20

I have so many stroke flaws it ain’t funny. But I would be very interested if Doug ever has a clinic in the Mid Atlantic states (Carolinas, VA, MD area). Heck I have relatives in NJ/NYC so maybe if he has a clinic in the city I would just so happen to visit my relatives then ;-)/.

The Short List:

  1. Never Kick

  2. Over rotate.

  3. None Breathing hand entry is pathetic

  4. I cross over when I pull.

  5. Body Position in Water is suspect.

  6. Flip Turns pfft

What am I doing about this:

  1. Bike and run faster :wink:

  2. Do a lot of drills, high elbow finger glide, varios TI drills

  3. Read all of Doug’s swim tips (as a result shoulders do not continually hurt, and my times have finally come down some).

Peace,

RF