My First Videos Ever

[lloyddinma]

Hello everyone!

I have good news and "news." First the "news." I was fortunate to get a lifeguard to videotape me.

The links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrX5RaU9-Gs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuGSzZwVtQc

Yes I can see myself. However, feedback is fully appreciated. (I was a little hasty, so my SPL which is usually 15 - 18, is way off here and I believe or at least feel I spear deeper than this.)

Besides The TI coaches here have been very helpful. I figured you would finally like to place a swimmer to the many questions asked.

Now to the good news. First, on Sunday, I was able to swim continuously for 600 meters. (12 x 50 meter interval). Second, the lifeguard has offered to tape me ever so often for feedback.

I would never have thought I swam this way.

Thanks

Hi Lloyd,

Looking good there buddy. Looks like you have really good rotation and your breathing bilaterally, which is great. If I may make a suggestion or two now that you can do a few laps at a time you could start working on a few kick laps so you could start with 25m and build up the laps from there. When your kicking you need to try and make the water "bubble" not splash behind you and kick from your hips. if you find you are kicking lick you are running or riding a bike role on to your back and hold the kick board over your knees, it it bounces a lot then you are kicking from your knees and not your hips. The next thing you can do to work on your upper body is to throw on a pair of fins preferably the long blade type as they heap to get your kick right and improve ankle flexibility. Then do you 8 x 50 or 25's with you head looking slight in front of you ( your eyes should be looking about 1 to 1.5 meters in front) and start reaching to the end of the pool every stroke. So just have you have been doing by working on your distance try to now work on one thing a t a time. Keep upthe great work.

Let me know if you would like more information

[CoachBobM]

You've got a good balanced, horizontal body position, good head position, good body roll, and a good arm recovery.

But your entry with your left arm is better than your entry with your right arm: On your left side, you are doing a fairly good "mailslot" entry, but on your right side, your hand lifts slightly as it is about to enter, so that you are sort of pressing on the water with the palm of your hand as it enters.

Your knees are doing a lot of bending when you kick, and this is actually causing your body to zigzag a bit as you swim, as well as slowing you down. A narrow, hip-driven kick will create less drag and make you move straighter in the water. I would suggest that every time you go to the pool, you go do the deep end and do some vertical kicking: Fold your arms across your chest and keep your head above water by kicking. Focus on kicking from your hips and ankles - not from your knees. You might even find it beneficial to temporarily keep your legs stiff at the knees to discover what it feels like to kick from your hips, then relax your legs at the knees while maintaining that same feeling. To learn how your kick relates to the rotation of your core body, try periodically doing quarter turns, first in one direction and then in the other. To carry this over into horizontal kicking, start vertical kicking and then let yourself "fall back" onto your back while still kicking.


Bob

[truwani]

Hi Lloyd,

I am not a coach but I think you would benefit a lot if when you start your recovery your elbows are not behind your shoulders.
This will diminish your zigzag in the water and put more Wright in front of your body, which should help on aligning your body horizontally

Good luck!

[Zenturtle]

How did you think you where swimming,and where do you see the difference between your perceptions and reality?

It looks like you are taking the relaxation mantra a bit too far.
You have to straighten your vessel and your kick more.
I like the smoothness in your stroke, but you have too little foundation to attach those smooth moving arms to.
Your amtiming couild be a bit more catchup combined with switch the whole body from left to right rail, but in my opinion its easy to lenghten the stroke out a bit after getting more whole body tone.
Its looking promising already.

I am going to promote my dryland drill for this again.
Do straight arm windmilling armstrokes standing straight up.
Look in the mirror and hold your head still like its on a pole thats planted in the ground.
All the main bodyparts are allowed to rotate around this pole, but that pole needs to stay straight as an arrow.
Feel how much you have to work your core to achieve this and where stifness in your upperbody and shoulders is working against the free body rotation.
Feel how you can rotate shoulders and arms more or less seperately from the main body rotation or rotate shoulders and hips like one unit.
Thats the diffence between a shoulder or hip driven stroke.
Go from straigt arm to a more clawing shape with the arms by bending elbows a bit and rotate the elbow up.
Change the relative armtiming between true opposition windmilling style and catchup style.
Do one arm swings the same way with weights in your hand.
Feel how your core has to work to keep rotating perfectly around the imaginary pole while the weight on your arms is trying to bend it.
You will find out that aquatic posture is the best posture to handle the loads and keep straight for the most reps.

[lloyddinma]

Thanks CoachBobM, Zen, SwimCoach and Truwani for you constructive feedback and advice.
Truwani you might be right. I was shooting for opening my axilla.

Originally Posted by CoachBobM

I would suggest that every time you go to the pool, you go do the deep end and do some vertical kicking: Fold your arms across your chest and keep your head above water by kicking. Focus on kicking from your hips


CoachBobM, I will take this advice. It will mean having to change pools because my current one is 4ft deep all over. But anything to get there.

Bob

Originally Posted by Swimcoach

Hi Lloyd,

Looking good there buddy. Looks like you have really good rotation and your breathing bilaterally, which is great. If I may make a suggestion or two now that you can do a few laps at a time you could start working on a few kick laps so you could start with 25m and build up the laps from there. When your kicking you need to try and make the water "bubble" not splash behind you and kick from your hips. if you find you are kicking lick you are running or riding a bike role on to your back and hold the kick board over your knees, it it bounces a lot then you are kicking from your knees and not your hips. The next thing you can do to work on your upper body is to throw on a pair of fins preferably the long blade type as they heap to get your kick right and improve ankle flexibility. Then do you 8 x 50 or 25's with you head looking slight in front of you ( your eyes should be looking about 1 to 1.5 meters in front) and start reaching to the end of the pool every stroke.

Let me know if you would like more information

Hi Swimcoach,

Taking you up on more information and advice. Interestingly, I just recently got a pair of fins that fit me (size 16) but are a little different in technology: Speedo Nemesis. Hope it does the trick.

Originally Posted by Zenturtle

How did you think you where swimming,and where do you see the difference between your perceptions and reality?

I suspect fatigue played a role when I took this first video: my stroke had melted: the previous day I was at the pool for about 3 hours, where I swam my longest interval.

It looks like you are taking the relaxation mantra a bit too far.
Yes Zenturtle, I am guilty of overlearning: have suffered from being very stiff and tense in the water.

You have to straighten your vessel and your kick more.
I like the smoothness in your stroke, but you have too little foundation to attach those smooth moving arms to.
Your amtiming couild be a bit more catchup combined with switch the whole body from left to right rail, but in my opinion its easy to lenghten the stroke out a bit after getting more whole body tone.
Its looking promising already.


Before respponding here I googled and looked up catch-up and windmilling. came up short on the latter and insufficient on the former. Will keep researching.



I am going to promote my dryland drill for this again.
Do straight arm windmilling armstrokes standing straight up.
Look in the mirror and hold your head still like its on a pole thats planted in the ground.
All the main bodyparts are allowed to rotate around this pole, but that pole needs to stay straight as an arrow.
Feel how much you have to work your core to achieve this and where stifness in your upperbody and shoulders is working against the free body rotation.
Feel how you can rotate shoulders and arms more or less seperately from the main body rotation or rotate shoulders and hips like one unit.
Thats the diffence between a shoulder or hip driven stroke.
Go from straigt arm to a more clawing shape with the arms by bending elbows a bit and rotate the elbow up.

Need to convert the words in to pictures. So, I will be studying this and the following in detail. Just curious, is it similar to what David Shen has here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5xMFIJ_TkA



Change the relative armtiming between true opposition windmilling style and catchup style.
Do one arm swings the same way with weights in your hand.
Feel how your core has to work to keep rotating perfectly around the imaginary pole while the weight on your arms is trying to bend it.
You will find out that aquatic posture is the best posture to handle the loads and keep straight for the most reps.

When you say "aquatic posture" are you referring to getting back in the water or still dryland rehearsal.

I have had a quick look at the Speedo Nemesis fins and they might work for you. If they can increase your speed and propulsion through the water so you can focus on your stroke then great. Remember the whole point of fins for you at this stage would be to buy you time so you can focus on stretching out, rotating your body and get the best pull through the water. Hope it all works and let me know if you need a hand. I'd love to see another video in about 2 weeks time.

[CoachStuartMcDougal]

Originally Posted by lloyddinma

Hello everyone!

I have good news and "news." First the "news." I was fortunate to get a lifeguard to videotape me.

The links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrX5RaU9-Gs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuGSzZwVtQc

Hi Lloyd,

You are very comfortable in the water, good head-spine alignment and rhythm - lots of good things going on in your stroke.

Looking at 2nd video 0:12-0:13. Your impulse is pulling causing the middle to go soft which always triggers the kick from the knees seeking stability. Hold a long edge, take advantage of your height and hold lead arm in front until high side (recovery) arm enters in front.

The first video you are over-rotating, see 0:02-0:04, your high side arm is directly above the torso causing instability and the middle to soft as well. Swing recovery arm away or outside of body line to stabilize your platform.

Both the impulse to pull (windmilling arms) and over-rotation cause the middle to twist and bend (going soft). Hold lead arm in front longer, swing high side arm away from body keep your middle tone, and not bend. Think of your torso (sternum to hips) as your boat - don't bend/twist the boat.

I wouldn't use fins until you stabilize your platform. But I think using a swim snorkel will help so you don't need to reach for air with the head which only "bends the boat".

Here's a freestyle demo (above and below surface views) to help understand the timing up front and keeping the core (your boat) tone: TI Freestyle Demo

Thanks for posting your video for all to learn and keep up the good work!

Stuart
MindBodyAndSwim

Originally Posted by CoachStuartMcDougal

Hi Lloyd,

You are very comfortable in the water, good head-spine alignment and rhythm - lots of good things going on in your stroke.

Looking at 2nd video 0:12-0:13. Your impulse is pulling causing the middle to go soft which always triggers the kick from the knees seeking stability. Hold a long edge, take advantage of your height and hold lead arm in front until high side (recovery) arm enters in front.

The first video you are over-rotating, see 0:02-0:04, your high side arm is directly above the torso causing instability and the middle to soft as well. Swing recovery arm away or outside of body line to stabilize your platform.

Both the impulse to pull (windmilling arms) and over-rotation cause the middle to twist and bend (going soft). Hold lead arm in front longer, swing high side arm away from body keep your middle tone, and not bend. Think of your torso (sternum to hips) as your boat - don't bend/twist the boat.

I wouldn't use fins until you stabilize your platform. But I think using a swim snorkel will help so you don't need to reach for air with the head which only "bends the boat".

Here's a freestyle demo (above and below surface views) to help understand the timing up front and keeping the core (your boat) tone: TI Freestyle Demo

Thanks for posting your video for all to learn and keep up the good work!

Stuart
MindBodyAndSwim

Nice suggestion Stuart and good video.

Lloyd there helps for you learn from here mate.

[lloyddinma]

Originally Posted by CoachStuartMcDougal

Hi Lloyd,

You are very comfortable in the water, good head-spine alignment and rhythm - lots of good things going on in your stroke.

Looking at 2nd video 0:12-0:13. Your impulse is pulling causing the middle to go soft which always triggers the kick from the knees seeking stability. Hold a long edge, take advantage of your height and hold lead arm in front until high side (recovery) arm enters in front.

The first video you are over-rotating, see 0:02-0:04, your high side arm is directly above the torso causing instability and the middle to soft as well. Swing recovery arm away or outside of body line to stabilize your platform.

Both the impulse to pull (windmilling arms) and over-rotation cause the middle to twist and bend (going soft). Hold lead arm in front longer, swing high side arm away from body keep your middle tone, and not bend. Think of your torso (sternum to hips) as your boat - don't bend/twist the boat.

I wouldn't use fins until you stabilize your platform. But I think using a swim snorkel will help so you don't need to reach for air with the head which only "bends the boat".

Here's a freestyle demo (above and below surface views) to help understand the timing up front and keeping the core (your boat) tone: TI Freestyle Demo

Thanks for posting your video for all to learn and keep up the good work!

Stuart
MindBodyAndSwim

Coach Stuart, how are you?

Thanks for the feedback and links. I have limited bandwidth, so I will study them later.

Wrt to the overrotation, you are deep in the money. Being my first video, I have over-analyzed it and even noticed my n***ple pop up. Initially, I thought I was over-rotating my neck: I am stacking.

However for the high-hand being directly above the torso, I was wondering if your advice is for now specifically tailored for my body type and/or competency level or general.

Read from some TI coach interviews that keeping the axilla open, and advancing the elbow was good for propulsion.

Something similar appears to be deployed here at 2:25 - 2:40:

https://youtu.be/rJpFVvho0o4


After I tried a buddy's fins (Nemesis), and removed them I noticed a temporary sensitivity to my feet, and kick quality, analogous to wearing a glove or paddle for fisting. So I got them them for drills. But I will hold off.

Wrt the Snorkel, at Coach Desanto's suggestion, I started using one for skating drills. So I will expand usage now. In fact I found a kick-drill video on youtube that showcased them with a kick board.

The knee kicking rings true and sounds similar to something Terry said in blog about leg splays. I think he called it compensation for "lateral instability."

The consolation is that I normally would spear deeper with a closer entry point to my head. So, I hope to return to a deeper pool (greater than 4ft). It feels psychological unnatural when I spear deeper into this one.

Thanks for your help.


Swimcoach, thanks again... it will take longer than 2 weeks for another video