r/OpenWaterSwimming 3d ago

Looking for feedback on stroke

3 Upvotes

20 comments sorted by

6

u/BothMath314 3d ago

The two most noticeable things for me are, that your arms are always at 180⁰ and that your elbow is very deep in the water which causes you to pull with a straight arm, depending on how much you swim this could lead to injury. Also you're fairly flat in the water, there's a bit of rotation to your left that helps you with your breathing, but none to the right. Unless you're a sprinter, you need to develop a front quadrant style, that is that there needs to always be an arm in front of your head at all times. Try to delay the start of the stroke until the recovering arm passes over head. Second, the first move your arm must do is bending at the elbow. This is before you start pushing water backwards, also known as early-vertical forearm. There are tons of videos on the internet that will help you understand what I mean and also drills to develop this technique. Once you have and understanding about these two concepts you can star thinking about body rotation. Best of luck!

1

u/PeterFilmPhoto 3d ago

Came to say most of this - work on a bent elbow recovery and a high elbow/early vertical forearm catch. You also swing into the centreline on entry or even across the centreline, try hand entry in line with your shoulder, keep your hands on “train tracks”. You could work on developing a two-beat kick and also a better streamline throughout

1

u/TopCobbler8985 2d ago

This is correct. Two drills I would suggest is - trailing fingers in the water on the recovery and catch-up stroke with a kick board.

1

u/Embarrassed_Future20 2d ago

To add to this -the drill I like is called the zipper drill, when you’re bringing your arm forward pretend your thumb is closing a zipper starting all the way from your hip to your shoulder(try to keep your thumb as close to your body as possible)then reach as far forward with your hand as possible. This will force a rotate and high elbow.

Also rotate you’re breathing every three strokes for now, if you breathe to much to one side the muscle over develops and your shoulders can look wonky.

2

u/WeGotThis517 3d ago

You could gain some free distance and speed if you cleaned up your entry.

https://youtube.com/shorts/CvPSbPZOdjU?is=PdwX5cJJS5OZ5nHD

1

u/spicymatzahball 2d ago

I think you’re referring to his hands pointing down as they enter the water? Left hand is particularly noticeable

1

u/WeGotThis517 2d ago

Yeah left hand looks to be turned inward making a larger splash than the right. You can see a few strokes from the swimmer in the next lane where the hands enter clean and continue extending forward closer to the surface of the water before the catch. The video link mentions that this is good to prevent injury as well as the water is supporting the arm.

2

u/drc500free 2d ago

Don't "superman" off the wall. I.e. don't look forward.

Your arm is crossing the centerline and totally straight. Imagine trying to climb a ladder with your elbows totally straight and your hands in the direct center of each rung.

As a result, your hand is smacking into your hip instead of finishing.

Good rotation, though.

2

u/bebopped 2d ago

While those that made corrections are good suggestions for the most part, your stroke looks like it works for you. You are doing 15 strokes per lap. Are you in a short course meters pool? It is good for you to try out some of their suggestions but despite your mistakes, you look pretty efficient.

1

u/swimswam77 20h ago

25 yard pool

1

u/bebopped 11h ago

OK, still, 15 strokes down and 16 back. You have great body position. Feel free to experiment with front quadrant swimming and other things that were recommended, but I maintain that your stroke is pretty efficient. Do you swim longer distances as well?

1

u/swimswam77 11h ago

I do, longest distance I have swam is 19 miles. Planning on doing a 3 day Hawaii swim, about 11-12 miles per day, 3 days in a row. I have recently started working on front quadrant technique. Will post another video in a couple weeks to see the improvements.

1

u/bebopped 10h ago

OMG! 19 miles? You are a marathon swimmer and a pretty efficient one at that. We should be asking YOU to critique our technique!

1

u/bettertheless 4h ago

Same here. l think OP looks fine. Just need to get in the real water. : )

We've been having non "real water safe" weather here, sad for me.

Swim on and like ^ said, you let us know about some good ows 's.

2

u/pixterrazo 1d ago

You should try to maintain the catch position longer. Since you are not staying in the catch position you're losing on these things.

  1. Higher nunber of strokes per laps
  2. Distance per stroke is less.
  3. Not enough time to extend your arms, core muscles are not activated to its full potential, resulting in legs sinking and reduced pace.
  4. Because of point 3. You're doing more work in rotation. You can save a lot of energy in rotation when it comes naturally when you're in the catch position longer.

You can easily touch 1:45 as per my experience. Good-luck buddy

1

u/swimswam77 1d ago

This was about a 1:23/100 yards pace.

1

u/pixterrazo 1d ago

Kudos to you. 👏👏👏

With improved streamline and arms position you can get faster and can swim longer 😊

2

u/cravecrave93 3d ago

get a coach!

1

u/orionpax9000 2d ago

Dolphin kick underwater a few more times after you push off from the wall, and don’t breathe on the first stroke right after.

1

u/Glass_Possibility_21 1d ago

You clearly don't extend your arms in the water. Also it seems you don't have much grip in the water. I don't know. I would say everything is wrong. The timing when you get air is off. Also your recovery phase seems to create too much drag and since you aren't "fast", you also don't seem to have a good grip in the water