ANALYSIS
Hello Patrick! Thank you for trusting us with the analysis and training, first of all congrats on your swimming success and the motivation you have to keep improving, it means a lot to us swimmers like you with big goals and great motivation contact us for ways to get better at what they do, regardless of their age and level.
Overall your stroke is good! I would say the main problem is the efficiency of your pull, you are not moving much with each stroke which causes problems like legs sinking or doing many strokes and not going faster, there are some other things that we can correct, so we will tackle them one by one.
Since you swim open water we have to focus on your body position, float ability, ankle, hip, back and shoulder mobility, and probably the most important your stroke technique from the gliding to the pulling. We have to reduce the number of strokes and increase the speed, this will help you get less tired, move faster and be able to hold it for longer, on one of your videos I counted around 19 to 20 strokes on a 25m you should be doing around 15 strokes.
Freestyle
Side Underwater Video
Time key frames:
Time |
|
0:13 | From this angle you can see how your right hand that is gliding your fingers are bend upwards, this is making you do some resistance and not taking full advantage of the pull. Make your hands like a scoop with your fingers pointing down a bit, specially when you pull, if you pull with your fingers flexing backward you wont be grabbing any water. |
0:16 | Just a bit with your left hand fingers bend when gliding. Try keeping your fingers horizontally with your hand. |
0:13 | Now let’s look at your head, when you come back from breathing you look straight down, try keeping your sight a bit more towards the wall so the top of your head does not go underwater. The more float ability the better so try keeping your body up in the surface. |
0:27 | Here your feet are a bit in dorsiflexion, this as well is stoping you, making resistance to your body. We have to work on your ankle mobility and flexibility. |
Areas to work on, in general:
- Remember we are looking for little details that are making your stroke less efficient.
- The cleaner the stroke the easier you will move through the water.
- Your flow and rhythm it can be better, just make sure you keep those elbows high before starting the pulling.
- Keep your pull strong and your body relaxed, and make sure to glide as much as possible until the speed starts to decrease.
Above Video
Time key frames:
Time |
|
0:04 | Here we can see how the finger are stoping the water. |
0:12 | The recovery and entrance are quite good, just make sure when your left arm goes in the water it goes straight to the front and not to the side. |
Front Underwater
Time key frames:
Time |
|
0:08 | When you breath the oposite arm pushes down, this is quite normal since you are trying to push yourself up to take a breath, but this sometimes messes up your technique, make sure to take a quick breath and make a “high elbow” to pull backwards. |
0:13 | Your forearm and hand are too far from your body, you should start the catch before (instead of pushing down) so the hand stays closer to your body and to maintain the body line where you should be pulling. |
0:21 | (right hand) When pulling your fingers are to separated from each other, bring them a bit closer together and have them more tense, they shouldn’t be wobbling. |
Freestyle
Good
Could be better
Needs work
1. Legs horizontal position
x
2. Ankles in plantar flexion
x
3. Arms not crossing
x
4. Correct breathing timing
x
5. Breathing technique
x
6. Legs and hands synchronized
x
7. High elbow above water
x
8. High elbow below water
x
9. 5mm Finger spread
x
10. Good head position
x
11. Steady head movement
x
12. Core stability
x
13. Glide / reach in front
x
14. Elbow bent when pulling
x
15. Hand gliding when breathing
x
16. Relaxed wrist in the recovery
x
17. Knees straight while going up
x
18. Good rotation
x
19. Clean hand entry
x
20. Fast flip turn
x
21. Good push
x
22. Compact flip turn
x
23. Good break out
x
Other observations: