Swimming Technique Guide
Visualisation and visual feed back are important elements in constructing, correcting and improving our stroke techniques and stroke mechanics.
In swimming - mostly, your coach is "your eyes."
Below is a series of videos for you to study, make some notes in a swimming logbook, and try to replicate the lessons in front of your mirror so that you can "see" yourself swim.
Why do it:
Travel farther, faster, with less effort, and initiate a foundation that allows you to build efficient swimming from.
How to do it:
1 - Drop down and push off, locking one hand overtop of the other by wrapping the thumb from the top hand around the side of the underneath hand.
2 - Get the hands locked before you leave the wall.
3 - Push off and rotate to your stomach (this is a drill for swimmers to learn how to control the rotation, not a rule of where you'll rotate to when swimming).
4 - Hold and glide until your body rises to the surface.
Why do it:
The fastest you're going during swimming is when you're leaving the wall. The goal then becomes hanging on to that speed for as long as possible. Underwater dolphins can allow you to maximize how long you maintain that speed.
How to do it:
1 - Building on our previous few lessons, leave the wall properly, dropping down into a streamline push-off.
2 - Rotate to your stomach and initiate dolphin kicks from the hips.
3 - Keep the kicks small to start, and focus on not leading the kick from the thighs.
4 - Flip over on your back, keeping your head back, and drive from the hips.
Michael Phelps' underwaters are one of the best in swimming history.
1)200m fly-Pan Pacs 2006.
2)4x100 free relay-Rio Olympics 2016.
3)4x100 free relay-London Olympics 2012.
FREESTYLE
Why do it:
Reaching full extension in freestyle is a necessary foundation for swimmers at every level. Learning to create a slippery line to glide through the water, which requires balance, and a sense of flying, will allow you the ability to make decisions later on efficiency or speed.
How to do it:
1 - Swim slow, smooth freestyle, focusing the attention on extending the fingers as far out front as possible.
2 - Focus ONLY on extending the hand as far forward as possible, and not on the pull, finish, or recovery of the stroke.
3 - Feel what part of the hand has the most pressure on it. It should be the relaxed fingers out front, not the palm
Why do it:
Flutter kick is the most used kick in swimming so you can consider this a foundational aspect of competitive swimming. Learning how to harness the power of your body, while not over kicking will be an important lesson when learning the details of the other strokes.
How to do it:
1 - Start from the front, not the kick. Push off with your kickboard, and focus on keeping the hands in a near streamline, with the head low and looking forward. Don't be looking around at your friends.
2 - Move your focus to your hips, try to make sure they're just touching the surface of the water. Body alignment is very important when using equipment.
3 - Now shift your focus back to your legs. If you feel any muscles tiring, make sure it's in the hips and not the thighs first. Try to discover which muscles tire initially, and that can help you learn if your kick is on its way to being productive. 4 - Finally, shift your focus to your feet. Try to keep them low to the surface of the water. The foot should only come out a bit, not high above the surface.
How to do it really well (the fine points):
Keep the toes pointed, and the kick narrow. The knees should bend, but not too much. You can see that the legs appear to barely bend at all, and certainly not at any drastic angle. You have to keep in mind that you're not only trying to develop an effective kick, but you're also trying to hide your legs behind the hole that the body in front of it cuts through the water.
KARA LYNN JOYCE, Olympic silver medallist and American record holder Kara Lynn Joyce shares the key focus points that she uses to develop her awesome freestyle technique. Kara Lynn’s six focus points work for every level of swimmer novice to elite and you can start to apply them immediately, next time you go to the pool. The extraordinary swimming footage of Kara Lynn, combined with clear, step-by-step instruction, will help take your freestyle to the next level.
Backstroke
Why do it:
Too soft of a hand entry can mean certain swimmers miss the initial catch on their backstroke. This quick drill and get just a bit more drive forward prior to initiating the pull.
How to do it:
1 - Build the swimmer’s rhythm and feeling of having the hand enter with a bit more firmness.
2 - Have the swimmer take three firm strokes, but on the third, PAUSE a bit and ride the extended arm forward for just a bit.
3 - Now make sure the swimmer drives forward with a stronger kick.
How to do it really well (the fine points):
Well, this has to be moved forward to swimming, right? For this, we count on rhythm. We set a Tempo Trainer to a slow rate, and make the swimmer focus on a SHARP transition from side to side, focusing on driving the extended hand forward.
Over a few lengths, we speed up the rate, but make the swimmer focus on making the transition to extension with such quickness, even at the higher rate, she has to pause just a bit.
While this method of extension rather than immediate catch isn’t for everyone, it is sometimes ideal for swimmers in longer races.
Why do it:
While we've covered this before, we continue to see swimmers sighting the wall after the roll over, so we'll cover it again. Lifting the head to look at the wall is sending you in the wrong direction into your turns. Know your count and keep the head down.
How to do it:
1 - Swim fast toward the wall, and as soon as you see the flags... flip... and kick out back into swimming.
2 - Each time you swim in again, take one additional stroke.
3 - Keep this up until you get to the wall.
How to do it really well (the fine points):
The idea is to go directly over into the turn as soon as you roll onto your stomach. Try to avoid rolling, looking, and then turning. Keep the action moving through the turn to maintain your momentum.
Learning the flow of the move prior to connecting with the wall will help swimmers learn that the roll and flip can be one movement... not separate. Keep working until you know the count with either arm.
Why do it:
If you've worked hard on creating great underwater dolphins, you don't want to throw that speed away by have a sloppy breakout.
How to do it:
1 - Learn your underwater dolphin count. Either the number of kicks to the 15 meter mark, or to the point where you'll run out of air if you can't hold it in.
2 - Get your body parallel to the surface and initiate the first stroke focusing on driving the non-pulling hand forward.
3 - Rotate your body so your shoulder is completely exposed above the surface before the recovery starts.
How to do it really well (the fine points):
Learn to be aware of how it feels when you get it wrong. While this swimmer is doing a wonderful job during the underwater dolphins, he initiates the first pull too early, while his body is still too deep. We can still see his entire arm underwater when he starts his recovery.
One or two more dolphin kicks would allow him to get a bit closer to the surface. Or, if he's running out of air because he's always releasing air, don't go as deep on the initial push so you can come up just a bit earlier.
Creating a clean recovery will allow for a better transition into fast swimming, and start your swim off with great rotation and pop of the shoulder.
National Team Division High Performance Consultant
Breaststroke
Why do it:
This is a simple way to not just teach swimmers the underwater pull, but to teach them everything has a "system". The younger we can teach swimmers that greatness isn't luck, but rather a plan, the better chance they have.
How to do it:
1 - We've been showing it through the introduction. We're using a Tempo Trainer and starting the rate at 1:60.
2 - The swimmer submerges, and pushes on the first beep.
3 - They initiate the dolphin kick on the 2nd beep.
4 - Pull the arms down on the 3rd beep.
5 - Recover the arms and legs on the 4th beep.
6 - Swim on the 5th beep.... all in the same rhythm.
How to do it really well (the fine points):
Drop the time :05 on each attempt, until you find the rate that's just right for the race you're swimming. It will be different for a 50 than it will be for the 200. Many swimmers can't FEEL the right rate, so teach them to find it.
Some will be better than others, so find the one with the best overall appearance, and start to build again from there.
All Strokes - The Seven Competitive Turns
Why do it:
Unless you're only going to swim freestyle, then mastering all the turns will allow you to compete in Individual Medley races, legally.
How to do it:
We'll just be quickly showing all the turns in this video. More detailed how to's are found at our website.
1 - Butterfly-to-Butterfly - Approach the wall swimming butterfly, perform an open turn, and leave the wall on your stomach for your dolphin kicks.
2 - Butterfly-to-Backstroke - Approach the wall swimming butterfly, perform an open turn directly over to your back, pushing off on your back for your dolphin kicks.
3 - Backstroke-to-Backstroke - Approach the wall swimming backstroke. One stroke prior to reaching the wall, roll over toward your stomach and perform a flip turn. Leave the wall on your back for your dolphin kicks.
4 - Backstroke-to-Breaststroke - This turn actually has a few variations, we'll quickly show two. Approach the wall swimming backstroke, on your last stroke, reach and touch the wall while tilting toward your side, perform a flip turn and push off rotated toward your stomach for breaststroke. A simpler option is to swim in backstroke, reach for the wall while still on your back, perform an open turn, and push off on your stomach.
5 - Breaststroke-to-Breaststroke - Approach the wall swimming breaststroke, perform an open turn, and leave the wall on your stomach for your breaststroke underwater pullout.
6 - Breaststroke-to-Freestyle - Approach the wall swimming breaststroke, perform an open turn, leave the wall on your side or stomach for your dolphin kicks and the freestyle breakout.
7 - Freestyle-to-Freestyle - Approach the wall swimming freestyle, perform a flip turn, and leave the wall on your side or stomach for your dolphin kicks and freestyle breakout.
How to do it really well (the fine points):
Treat each turn as its own skill. Don't assume that understanding the open turn, or flip turn will give you the knowledge necessary to do all of these turns quickly. Also know the rules, especially involving backstroke and breaststroke turns. In backstroke-to-breaststroke transition turns, you MUST touch the wall while still on your back, and you MUST leave the wall while rotated more toward your stomach.
