Aidan

Time key frames:

0:00 – 0:15

You are moving your head up and down to much, you must keep it neutral and align to your spine.

You should use the power of your arms to pull you forward not up, when you pull forward it will be enough for your head to come a bit outside and take a breath.

Do not put bring your arms too deep when you have them in front of you, that is making your arms go down, keep them closer to the surface, your head and chest does go deep.

You are pulling with your fingers too separated and loose, make sure you have them just a bit separated and a bit more tense. 

You have a good synchronization, but sometimes you are making the two kicks when your arms are infront. Just focus on make the second kick (when you finish your pull) stronger than the first one (when your arms are infront). Working on this will help you to have a smoother stroke and swimming with more efficiency. 

0:15 – 0:21

On the turn you must compact yourself much more, bring your knees to your chest with more strength and focus on put both feet on the wall to have a better push. 

Make sure to have a tight streamline every time you push off the wall. You want to have your biceps touching the sides of your head, and your head inside your arms to take advantage of the push off the wall.

Watch this video:

Streamline Video

0:21 – 0:26

You are separating your legs when kicking. Try to keep your feet together, big toes must be touching at all times. This will help you have a stronger and more continuous kick. 

When you synchronize your 2nd kick and your pull, the recovery will be much easier, since you will combine the strength of both you will have more time to do the recovery with both arms.

Areas to work on, in general:

Work on the strength out of the water with dryland training.

Time key frames:

0:00 – 0:08

You have a good start on your pull but look at your fingers they are open and loose, put them just a bit separated and much more tense. 

Keep your hand and your forearm inline do not bend your wrist to pull.

Your hips are a bit bend, try to stretch them more, bring them as close to the surface as possible.

Your lower body is sinking a bit, engage your core and bring your hips and legs closer to the surface. This will help you have a more efficient stroke. Your toes should touch the surface when kicking up.

0:08 – 0:15

When you do the flip turn turn your hands to do a curl with your arms so it helps you turn better and land better.

Make sure to have a tight streamline everytime you push off the wall. Push, then wait a little bit more, and finally start the dolphin kick to bring you closer to the surface for the first stroke. 

0:15 – 0:23

Good rotation of your shoulders, just put attention on the rotation of your hips, try rotating less, just enough so it can help you rotate the arms and shoulders.

Good recovery! Your arms are enter in line with your shoulders. 

And here you don’t need to kick that wide, make your kicks smaller, this will help you to not bending to much your knees. 

Areas to work on, in general:

• Work on keeping your kick up and near to the surface, putting attention on making a small kick. You can make kicks without moving your arms and just feel the movement.
• Practice your underwater dolphin kicks, do them strong from your core all the way to the feet. 

Backstroke examples:

Time key frames:

0:00 – 0:13

You have a good synchronization on your stroke.

Exaggerate that glide, gliding makes your stroke more efficient and faster. 

When you are gliding look at the floor and keep your streamline tight, this will help you to have a smoother stroke. 

Throw your hands to the front not down, here depends in the event, if you are swimming distances longer than 100 breast long course, then you can throw your hands a just bit deeper to have a longer glide.  

0:13 – 0:19

On your turn, you must compact yourself much more, keep your knees together and bring them with strong to your chest. And once your feet touch the wall, you should push off with both legs at the same time. 

0:19 – 0:25

Good kick!

The pull make it shorter/smaller, your elbows should never cross the line of your shoulders, when you arms pass the line of your shoulder they should be already touching your body.

0:25 – 0:40

You have a very nice kick but sometimes after you finish the breaststroke kick, you spread your legs and do small freestyle kicks. You should keep your legs and feet completely together.

The knees do not separate too much from one another, there is a small opening but not to wide. A good drill is swimming breastroke with a pullbouy on your legs.

Areas to work on, in general:

• You can do some exercises like swimming one stroke for two kicks, this will help you to feel your glide.
• Keep practicing your turns! 

Breast examples:

Time key frames:

0:00 – 0:12

Here keep your head more steady, rotate breath then come back to a neutral position, you sometime move your head up and down.

When your arm goes in the water, try to glide more with your arms and do not drop your arm, when your hand enters the surface, and you finish your glide, bend your elbow to start the pull. 

You are pulling with your fingers too separated and loose, make sure you have them just a bit separated and a bit more tense. 

Good kick! Just try to maintain your feet close to the surface all the time. 

0:12 – 0:16

When you turn, rotate your hands and use your arms to do a curl so you can flip better and have a better position to get into a streamline faster.

Before you start the turn, keep your legs together. This way you’ll be able to have a better position with your feet on the wall and you will improve on your push. 

Make sure to have a tight streamline every time  you push off the wall. And try to make one or two underwater kicks more, you want to take advantage of the turns and starts.

0:16 – 0:25

Here you can see better that you’re not gliding enough, your arms enter the water good, in line with your shoulders. Take advantage of this and glide. 

Try to lift your elbows a bit more during the recovery (when your arms are out of the water). And try to rotate more. 

Remember it should only come out half of the face when you breathing. 

Areas to work on, in general:

• Work on one thing at the time. Focus on correcting your pull, then once you correct it go to the next point.
• Overall your freestyle is good. Be sure to practice sets like counting your strokes and reducing them so you start to have a stronger pull and grab more water.
• Remember to move more your hips when doing butterfly underwater kick.

Free examples: