Critique My Stroke

[tony0000]

Here it is. (Filming courtesy of Danny.)

https://youtu.be/o8FU6EgZQFM

Any comments appreciated.

Tony

"Swim by the mile; improve by the inch."

[Zenturtle]

What is that scary creature at the end?

I posted enough about my objections against this kind of swimming.
A little focal point next to all this could be to focus on your bending at the wrist.
Try to keep the hand and forearm in line more and make it one rigid paddle.
Now you are only pivoting the hand down toward the right position, but loose connection with the rest of the paddle.

What is your swimming goal exactly? relaxed, fast, sprint. long distance?

[tomoy]

Hey, nice front quadrant timing, good rotation, good 2-BK! You've clearly done a lot of work to get to this point.

I see a little eyes-forward and heads up + it looks like you're arching your back. These might present a little bit deep of a profile through the water. So look straight down, relax the neck, tuck the tummy in, tuck in the butt. Try to present a flat-as-a-board straight arrow profile through the water.

... this will probably re-jigger your access to air ... so that'll probably be the next trick. Breath with your chin, not your eyes. Get the breath early, as soon as your stroking hand exits the water. Study the Popeye mouth. It's weird, but that little bit of facial coordination gives you another cm of air.

Anyway, it's great so far - keep up the good work.

[tony0000]

Thanks for the suggestions. I like the idea of trying to keep my hand and forearm aligned. Getting my more forearm at the beginning of my stroke is something I'm going to be working on.

I've also been concerned about the arch in the back, so I'm glad to get feedback on it. Breathing in as soon as my mouth emerges from the water, however, has been an issue because I find water is still running off of my face and gets into my mouth--an issue I never had before I got into TI.

BTW, I think my goal in swimming is increasing time and distance. Ideally, I'd like to be able to swim for an hour. (Currently I do this but have to frequently throw in some less taxing breast stroke laps.)

Tony

"Swim by the mile; improve by the inch."

[Zenturtle]

HI Tony,

The wristbending thing is not the most important thing in the grand picture. Its more an effect instead of a cause of something.

Since you are not that interested in raw speed at the moment , the more interesting question you could ask yourself is:
Why are you pulling so hard?

[CoachSamWilliams]

Hi Tony

Perhaps think about driving to air with the roll of your body/spearing of your recovering hand. Occasionally the breathing looks a little 'late' and you are pulling yourself around with your catch, which in part could explain the curving of the back (in particular the breath at around 48 seconds).

Try to nail that kick down so it is one per stroke. There is a double kicking coming in. Nearly every time you flick your left foot, your right leg also gets involved.

Do you swim with a tempo trainer? Hard to fully judge from the video but the timing looks slightly "rubato" in that it is not evenly paced with a slight differing on timing side to side.

Sam

[andyinnorway]

I agree with some of ZT's comments. Perhaps the stiffness that appears in your video is a result of just trying to concentrate on everything a little too hard.

As a piano player I have to do some scales to a metronome sometimes for my technique but I also need to sing some songs in the dark from my soul sometimes - and that helps my technique too.

Swimming for me is the same.

So try some soul lengths. (or even better long open water somewhere pretty).

[tony0000]

Hi. Lots of interesting thoughts.

I understanding that keeping the writ straight is not an end in itself, but a tool to try to the forearm vertical sooner so it can be used to push back against the water.

The timing of the breathing is something I'll have pay more attention to as I swim. Perhaps that's why I'm getting water in my mouth.

Two other issues were whether my stroke rate was constant and whether I was double kicking. Those are interesting because I don't consider it well-established that a constant stroke rate and a single kick are optimal. Perhaps it works (for me) that every other, or every fourth, stroke is slightly slower or faster. Likewise for a slight double-kick. This, i take it, was Andy's point about singing in the dark.

Anyway, one point at a time. Today I focused on my catch, EVF, and bringing my hand back straight and even to preserve as much "grip" as possible. I think it cut a stroke off my spl, although it could have been a function of my stroking more slowly to make sure I got it right.

Again, thanks for the thoughts.

Tony

"Swim by the mile; improve by the inch."

[Zenturtle]

There is a commercial solution for everything

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