Apparently I’ve developed a very poor habit of bouncing while I swim freestyle. I’ve had 3 different certified swim coaches look at me while I swim and nobody can tell me precisely what I’m doing wrong that causes this. Or maybe they can get close, but I can’t for the life of me feel this bounce so it’s hard to figure out what to chance. I never used to bounce. Unfortunately I do not have video.
Can any of you more experienced fish comment on this?
Some background:
I swim only about 4500yd / week (3 x 1500)
I used to swim about 10K / week when training hard for Tri…no bouncing.
I’ve only been swimming about 3 years
My 10 x 100 moderat / hard pace is 1:35 / 100 scy plus :15 rests
Generally a 2 beat kick…little kicking
My head position seems good as I can generally breathe to either side with one goggle exposed
I swim pretty level
Maybe this is too much info and someone can peg it real quick. It’s frustrating…and embarrassing…lol. My 10 year old is on the swim team and even hear about it from her!
OK let me try to explain something and hopefully you can provide some advise this way.
I definitely try to or do get pretty good elbow bend out front or high…ish elbow catch.
I FEEL like I get lots of torque right at the front of my stroke, but maybe that I get so much up front that it kind of peters out as I pull back and I may not finish my stroke properly. Especially when tired.
Could this be a simple culprit? Pulling too hard to early and / or applying that force while still pushing down?
I try to start my catch while my hand is still very high in relation to the surface. Do I need to let my hand fall some to get further below the surface maybe? Watching someone like Ian Thorp swim his hand seems very high during the catch. Phelps…not as high?
Probably pushing down at the front end. Do you breathe every two or every three strokes? I’m guessing the bounce comes after you breathe. If so, you’re probably pushing down.
do you have snorkels? it could help you swim without having to turn to breathe so you can just focus more on your form. I agree with everyone above who suspects you are pushing down with your hand early on in the stroke. You could also do some sculling drills to improve your feel for the water. Your hand is there to support your body weight as you glide forward over it - not much point in putting a lot of weight when your hand is still far in front of you, because your leverage there to support your weight and convert that to forward motion is very poor.
2nd law of motion says that you are pushing down somewhere.
Since you mention you feel a lot of pressure in the early part of your pull, I am betting that the pressure you feel is actually pushing down into the water, not back. Not uncommon to see people who say they feel like they had a good workout, but they spent the better part of their energy lifting and holding their head up out of the water as they breathe. When I ask them to insert their arms deeper into the water to help them feel where the pressure should be they say they feel like they aren’t doing anything. It’s just that they have finally stopped pushing down.
While it is quite rare, I have seen two men who had a late transition from insweep to upsweep and they got some push down with their pulling arm at that point.
So like others, I am suspecting you are pushing down into the water with your arm, difficult thing to fix I find.
You don’t actually want to feel a lot of pressure at the front of the stroke when pushing down. if you know the “barrel” analogy, you want to roll your hand and forearm over the barrel (not push down on it, just roll it), and push back on the barrel once your arm is in position.
where to start the catch, you want your elbow as high as your flexibility and shoulder strength allow.
Back when I coached age groupers the bouncing that was common was often the result of over reaching at the front of the stroke or crossing midline (or even coming too close to midline). This made the hips pop out of the long axis of the body (that’s the Newton second law thing like a previous poster mentioned). The “bounce” therefore looks like a rocking between the shoulders and the hips when viewed from the side.
Yes I have swam with a snorkel a bit and this is also why I try to swim a bit breathing every 3, 4, 5, etc. To attempt to smooth things out with no breathing.
I totally get the barrel thing. I think for me after reading Sheila’s book and the phrase “it’s all about the catch” I took it too far and made it all about the catch…lol. Now I’m completely front loading my effort in the catch and pull and have nothing left for the back 3/4 of the pull.
I will try harder and if I can figure it out I’ll report back and thank everyone. Thanks again for all the suggestions.
Human beings suffer from latent quadrupedalisim- put us on our stomaches and our baby instincts come out. We might move our arms above the water, and try to kick correctly, but we continue to try to crawl like a baby.
Stop it!! Think of fishes and kayaks.
Couple of thoughts. Pushing down with catch - been covered. Elevated arm during extension - could your arm be above your shoulder, creating a ramp? Pushing up at end of pull - could you be forcing yourself down by pushing up against the water at the end of the pull?