The great thing about swimming is there’s always something to improve. Whether you’re a new comer to the sport or if you’re a veteran of many swim meets, you can always work on taking a facet of your stroke to the next level.
Today’s Critique is going to be of Terri Duncan’s Freestyle, a local swimmer at the pool where I work. She’s been coming in the mornings and putting some yardage in staying in shape and being active.
Well to break it down her stroke is fair, given she has no “professional” or intense instruction. The big points of the stroke that need to be addressed are her breathing (which we will discuss this next Technique Tuesday), her body rotation, and her arms in general.
The Breathing: I don’t want to give too much away and leave next Tuesday as a lame repeat post, but Terri has the habit of picking her head up out of the water as she breathes. Then, while face is still out of the water, looks forward and places her face in the water again. This breaks the body line, as we discussed in last week’s T.T. in regards to head position. The goal should be to turn your head to the side you wish to breath from, and then turn your face back into the water without changing your body alignment.
Body Rotation: While head position is by far the most important aspect to focus on, and yes your body does follow the general direction your head dictates, the Core zone is responsible for this part. Weak Core Body strength will keep you from efficiently rotating in the water. This is “all in the hips” as we discussed this T.T. If Terri is able to achieve a stable and efficient rotation with her body, it will allow her to grow her vessel (body) in the water and reach further, “eliminating” distance she has to power or swim through. It will also aide in simplifying and improving her ability to breathe correctly while swimming. Currently she swims flat along the surface of the water, teasing those watching by almost entering a rotation, but not quite.
Arms (Recovery and Timing): This portion will be explored in more detail in a future T.T., but in order for Terri to benefit from this post I have to give away some trade secrets now. Currently her stroke is a little short on the reach and the finish through. As addressed in the body rotation assessment, if she is able to rotate on to her side, her reach will extend about 2-3 inches on the conservative side. Depending on fatigue it may extend further than the respective length of not rotating.
Her follow through on her stroke ends just past her hips. While she has a very powerful front end to her stroke, the fact she sells the strokes short by not fully completing the pull, costs her about ¼ of a yard on each arm pull. A simple solution would be sure to tap her thigh on the completion of each pull, as far down her thigh as possible.
As for timing, this is perhaps THE most difficult part of the arms. When learning how to swim, whether it be self taught or by an instructor, most individuals will wind-mill their arms through water to go as fast as possible. Clearly the faster one powers their arms through the water and takes that next stroke the faster they’ll go…? Not necessarily true. It depends on where your arms are in the stroke. Terri’s timing is off just enough that she almost windmills like a little kid during a swim lesson. It’s not a bad thing, just something that can be tweaked with enough focus to improve the speed and efficiency of her Freestyle. She should instead drill a catch up stroke, by only starting her next pull with the out-stretched arm when her recovery hand is entering the water at the outstretched arm’s wrist.
All in all, Terri’s stroke is not bad. It just has some adjustments to be made for efficiency and ease of execution. The good thing for Terri is I see her on at least a weekly basis so I can give immediate feedback on the execution of her technique and offer one-on-one technical changes.
For those of you who read and want some feedback in writing like this, please remember I only offer a Critique of the Week to those who follow the blog. I do offer private lessons, so if you’re in the area and want more extensive feedback feel free to shoot me an e-mail. Anything that is gone over in a private lesson will only be used in a Critique of the Week if you want it in writing or give consent.
-Fast Swims!
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