Kiri

Time key frames:

0:00 – 0:12

First of all, you need to work on your synchronization. The first kick is when your arms are entering the water, once your arms enter right away start the pull, this way you will synchronize the second kick, when you finish your pull. 

Remember that there are just two kicks (sometimes you are making three)  the second kick it must be stronger that the first one. 

When you have your arms in the front put your head and chest deeper, but keep your arms up close to the surface, this movement is going to help you have a more fluent stroke and be able to move your hips more and have a stronger kick.

You have a good movement of your arms underwater, but you are opening and closing your hands and your fingers too separated and loose when pulling, make sure you have them just a bit separated and a much more tense. 

You do not need to bend that much your knees, yes, there should be a bend, but not too pronounced. Exaggerate the hip movement to achieve this. 

0:12 – 0:17

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. 

Keep your head and arms steady when doing underwater kicks. Your arms must be touching your head all the time until you break the water. 

0:17 – 0:26

You are separating your feet 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.

Make sure to have a relax recovery and you should fully extend your arms. Sometimes you bend your elbows a bit. 

Areas to work on, in general:

• Work on the flexibility of your shoulders so you can keep you arms high when you bury your head and chest.

• We have some dryland and flex exercises for your swimming, you can go to our app/library/dryland/mobility & flexibilty. You can download it here https://skillswimming.com/swimming-app/

• Work on keep your body closer to the surface. Remember that your head dictates the position of your body. 

Time key frames:

0:00 – 0:11

When your arm/hand enters the water let it go a bit deeper keeping it straight, then start bending your elbow so you pull the water backwards, it will help you grab more water. 

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

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. 

You are moving your knees up and down too much, when your leg is going down keep it straight. You want to bring your feet closer to the surface, the toes should touch the surface when you kick up.

0:11 – 0:19

The flags are there to help you know how far out you are from the wall. Once you see the flags count how many strokes it takes you to get to the wall and memorize this number, you must turn when you are closer to the wall. 

Be sure to practice your backstroke turn, you must put your feet well positioned  for a strong push and underwater dolphin kicks.

Make sure to have your elbows tight on the streamline everytime you push off the wall. Remember to blow bubbles of your nose. 

Practice your underwater dolphin kicks, do them strong from your core all the way to the feet. (remember that you do not need to bend your knees that much). 

0:19 – 0:28

Use your shoulder rotation on your favor, when your hand goes in rotate and pull, it will be easier for your shoulders.

Your arms should enter in line with your shoulders without bending your elbows, right now you are crossing the middle line of your head. 

Think about squeezing your core or flexing your abs while swimming backstroke, this will help keep your body flat and high.

Make your kicks smaller, this will help you to not bending to much your knees. Is ok to bend the knee to kick up but you do not have to move it up and down too much. 

Areas to work on, in general:

• You can go slowly first, you have to concentrate on your corrections and then start swimming with more speed and strong.
  
• 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.
• Work on one thing at the time. Focus one day on one thing, then the next day another point, do not try to correct it all at once.

Backstroke examples:

Time key frames:

0:00 – 0:14

You are doing your kick and your stroke almost at the sametime, it should be your stroke first hands to the front then your kick, so when you begin throwing your hands to the front you should be starting your kick, and when you have them on the front you finish the kick (it will be the fastest part of your stroke). 

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

Use your pull to bring your upper body out of the surface, your hands should finish touching the surface, from there throw your hands/arms and chest to the front.

Take the momentum from your kick and use it to bring your hips up to the surface when you finish kicking, it will help you have a better body position In the water

When finishing your kick, extend your legs and point your toes as much as you can.

0:14 – 0:20

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. 

Here push a bit deep, then change the position to horizontal or maybe a bit diagonal towards the surface on the pullout.

Make sure when you do the breakout after the pullout you are close to the surface so you carry the speed from the turn to your swim.

0:20 – 0:28

Exaggerate that glide, gliding makes your stroke more efficient and faster. When gliding make your streamline tight. 

Look at your hands, keep the fingers closer together and bit tense. 

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:

• Work on one thing at the time, start with the synchronization of your stroke, then move to the next point. 
• Keep practicing your turns! 
• Work on the mobility & flexibilty of your knees. I recommend you the app 🙂   https://skillswimming.com/swimming-app/ 

Breast examples:

Time key frames:

0:00 – 0:10

You must lower your head more when you are not breathing and when you breathe, rest your head on your shoulder opposite the side that you breathe.

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, rotate and glide it as much as you can to the front before you bend your elbow to start the pull. 

You need to bend your elbow more, you are starting your pull almost with your arm straight. 

Don’t forget you need to finish your pull all the way back, do not bring it out before.

You need to work on keeping your hands straight and strong all the times, sometimes you open and close your hands. 

When kicking and to bring your leg up have it straight activating your glutes and lower back, right now you are bending the knee to bring your feet up.

0:10 – 0:14

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.

On the turn keep your legs together until you touch the wall with your feet. Remember you push then you start rotating, you are trying to rotate into freestyle before you turn.

When you push of the wall after the turn, make sure you push a bit deeper, then with the dolphin kicks you start to come closer to the surface.

0:14 – 0:22

Here you can see better that you’re not gliding enough make sure that when your arms enter the water you fully stretch your arms to the front before starting the pull. 

When your arms goes in you are moving your hand to the right, the hand keep it always in line with your forearm. 

During the recovery, try to raise your elbows a bit higher. 

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

The strength of the kick does not comes from just bending your knees it starts with your glute, hamstring, and a small bend of the knee.

Areas to work on, in general:

• Work on one thing at the time. Focus on correcting your glide, then once you correct it go to the next point.
• You can practice sets like counting your strokes and reducing them so you start to have a stronger pull and grab more water.
• Exaggerate the rotation of your shoulders, gonna help to your glide. 

Free examples: