Rick

Time key frames:

0:00 – 0:20

Make sure to have a tight streamline everytime you push off the wall. Your biceps must touch your head all the time. 

Once your hands get in to the water you are moving them up and down. You must keep them align to your forearms and pull without making to many movements. 

You are taking too long gliding because your put your arms deep in the water, then you bring them up then you pull, at all times keep the arms high in the water and from there pull.

You are missing lots of hip movement, the kick comes from your core not only by bending your knees. 

0:20 – 0:43

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

Your hands are pointing down towards the floor, this is why your head is coming out too much, change the direction of the hands to pull backwards, you want to move forward not up.

Start the pull before you are taking too long gliding.

You must work on your synchronization, the first kick is when your arms are entering the water, once your arms enter right away start the pull, do not glide that much, this way you will synchronize the second kick when you finish your pull. 

On the recovery your hands are are too close to each other, the arms should enter at the line of your shoulders, right know the arms are entering almost touching each other. 

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 and the closer you are to the surface, much better. 

Time key frames:

0:00 – 0:05

First of all, here, when you do the breakout try being closer to the surface for the first stroke so you can carry the speed of the turn/underwaters, if you start the first stroke and you are too deep you will lose your speed. 

You must keep your head steady, now you are moving it to the sides. 

Your arms should enter in line with your shoulders, right now you are crossing the middle line of your head with your left arm. You must keep them very close to your head. 

You don’t need to kick that wide, make your kicks smaller, and do not move your knees up and down, your knees should not break out of the water, work on keeping them underwater. 

0:05 – 0:15

You are pulling with your arm almost straight. 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 and have a cleaner pull without many bubbles.

You have a good rotation of your hips, think about squeezing your core or flexing your abs while swimming backstroke, this will help keep your body flat.

Remember that you don’t need to move your knees up and down, yes is ok to bend the knee to kick up but you do not have to move it up and down too much. Your toes should be breaking the surface. 

0:15 – 0:26

Good turn! You can practice making it more compact, bring your head towards your knees with more speed. It will helps you turn better and land better. 

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.
• Practice your underwater dolphin kicks, do them strong from your core all the way to the feet. 

Backstroke examples:

Time key frames:

0:00 – 0:23

On the streamline keep your head steady and align.  

Make sure to have a tight streamline everytime you push off the wall. You want to take advantage of the turns and starts. 

Good underwater pull out.

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.

Make sure that you open your ankles to the sides to have a strong kick.

0:23 – 0:39

Work on your synchronization;

You are doing your kick and your stroke 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). 

Try to lift more your lower body each time you breathe, use the strength of your lower back for this. As you improve your synchronization, this will become easier for you. 

The lower part of your body is sinking, 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.

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 streamlines, the more steady you can. 
• Work on your flexibility of your knees, on breastroke you need a lot of this,  remember that here you have specific exercises for this.  https://skillswimming.com/swimming-app/ 

Breast examples:

Time key frames:

0:00 – 0:10

Your body seems in a good position, remember that your head dicts the direction of your body, keep it more steady, sometimes you have the tendency to look forward during the stroke. 

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. 

On the pull focus on having your hands aligned to your forearms, right now you are pulling with your elbow first.

Good frequency on your kick, you can try keep it closer to the surface making it smaller. 

0:10 – 0:22

Make sure to have a tight streamline every time  you push off the wall. Here you can see how your head it is a little bit raised, you should keep it steady between your arms. This way it will be more efficient. 

On the recovery your arms are crossing a bit the middle line of your body/head, try keeping it in the same line as your shoulders. 

It’s good that you’re finishing your stroke all the way back, but remember to do it with backwards, right now you are finishing your pull, throwing the water to the opposite side.

0:22 – 0:39

Even as you increase your speed, remember to keep your head steady. Focus on a point on the floor; it will help you maintain a straight body position close to the surface. 

When sprinting make sure to have a full extension of the arm when going in and there is a small pause on the front.

Make your kick smaller when swimming at high speeds. Right now, it’s too wide. A smaller kick is more effective. 

Areas to work on, in general:

• Work on one thing at the time. 
• 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.
• Sometimes is good to forget about the technique and just try going faster, by pulling strong and getting your kick up in the surface is going to help you bring your lower bofy up.
• Work short distances keeping the best possible technique, as you improve, increase the swimming distances without changing your technique.

Free examples: