Sonya

Time key frames:

0:10 – 0:20 You want your arms to alternate during the pull; when one arm is up getting ready to pull, the other one should be finishing the pull. Notice how this is not reflected on your stroke, you wait until one of your arms finishes the pull completely before even bringing the other one up to begin the pull. Again, alternate is the key word here.

Do not do a pause with your arms when you finish the pull, when you end the pull bring it up right away, your arms should be like a windmill, opposite from one another all the time.

0:00 – 0:08 Use your shoulder rotation on your favor, when your hand goes in rotate and pull, it will be easier for your shoulders. You are pulling with your arm straight, the arm needs to be bend while pulling underwater like grabbing and pulling from the lane rope.

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

You want to bring your feet closer to the surface, the toes should touch the surface.

0:09- 0:19 Your arms should enter in line with your shoulders, keeping them very close to your head, right know you have them going in too wide. Keep your arms straight at all times when you are in the recovery phase.

Areas to work on, in general:

• Work on your body position, do backstroke kick on your back, focusing on bringing your legs up to the surface, and having your body on a horizontal line. You can use fins sometimes, to understand better the position.
• 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 – 0:24 Sometimes you have the tendency to look forward during the stroke, try avoiding this, it can make your lower body to sink.

You are taking your head out too much to breath, remember it should only come out half of the face, you also need to 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.

Your pull is too slow, when you finish gliding and you bend your elbow to start the pull, accelerate the pull and do it strong.

Focus on bringing your kick closer to the surface. You can work on kick on your back, and focus on having your legs straighter and your toes touching the surface maintaining them in plantar flexion.

0:36 – 0:49 If you pull strong you will have more speed, the faster you go the easier is going to be for you to float and to stay closer to the surface.

Areas to work on, in general:

• You did an excellent job, at the end of the camp you where swimming much better and relaxed, now do short distances keeping the best possible technique, as you improve, increase the swimming distances without changing your technique.
• 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 legs up.
• You can work slowly 2 times a week on your ankle flexibility, here is a video that can help you link

Free examples: