Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Freestyle!

Notice my relaxed arm :)

One goggle in, one goggle out!



I used to play water polo, which uses head up freestyle

Do NOT breathe under your arm, like shown in the photo above.




Technique- arm, leg, breathing

Your pull in freestyle swimming gives you the most forward motion. Although, some swimmer's kick is faster than their pull. We call them kickers because they are good at kicking. If they're good at pulling then we call them pullers. Two strokes are called a cycle.

Starting off, one arm lowers, just a tad bit, as your palm and forearm catches the water and gets ready for the pull. The pull motion should have your elbow higher than your hand, and your hand pointing towards the body center then downward. A semicircle is created while pulling; it starts at the rib cage and ends in front of the chest.
During the pull, your palm moves backward through the water, then underneath your body at the beginning, then at the side of your body at the end of the pull.  As your arms alternate, the recovery begins. While your arm recovers, it should be relaxed, hanging below your elbow-- your hand moves forward, with your fingers trailing downward, just above the surface of the water. In the middle of the recovery, one shoulder is rotated forward into the air while the other is pointing in the opposite direction to avoid drag.
Now that is how you do the freestyle pull! Visit Nathan Adrian | Freestyle Stroke - Swim Technique to further examine the freestyle pull.


My breath in this photo isn't perfect, as you can see.
Only half of my face should be showing.
For the lower portion of the freestyle, flutter kick is the most common kick used. It usually only provides a small amount of speed, but it helps your body to float and stay horizontal. So always kick, it's very important! The legs move alternately, with one leg kicking downward while the other leg moves upward.

See Nathan Adrian | Freestyle Kick - Swim Technique for more information on freestyle kicking!

Breathing is also super important in the freestyle stroke because it connects with the timing of the stroke. If your timing is off, swimming will become much harder. Breaths are taken through the mouth by turning your head to the side, at the beginning of the recovery. At the end of the recovery, your head rotates back, and points down and forward again when the recovered hand enters the water. Swimmers breathe out through mouth and nose until the next breath.

Take a look at Freestyle Swimming Technique – Breathing | Feat. Nathan Adrian for more information on breathing!

Here is a better photo of taking a breath.

Freestyle Swimming Technique – Breathing | Feat. Nathan Adrian



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po_mfZ5LUVo

Nathan Adrian | Freestyle Kick - Swim Technique



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl_z_4IGit8

Nathan Adrian | Freestyle Stroke - Swim Technique



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SONx52cyltI

Tips and juicy secrets

The moment you've all been waiting for!
Juicy, JUICY SECRETS!

Here, you'll find tips and secrets based on what I've learned about freestyle.

Many swimmers aren't as dedicating into swimming as much as I am, which means they are sometimes lazy and don't always try at practice.
TIP #1: ALWAYS TRY at practice, even when sets are difficult because eventually, all your hard work will pay off! Also, don't worry about being called a 'try-hard' because later on you'll know that you can swim faster than them ;)

TIP #2: Try to focus on one problem at a time when you are fixing your stroke technique, and build into it.  Later on, you'll swim great, naturally!

TIP #3: When your head is submerged into the water, always look down at the bottom at the pool to ensure a straight body position.

TIP #4: When breathing, always keep one goggle in, and one goggle out of the water.  Basically, just tilt your head to the side instead of lifting your entire head out of the water...that causes drag and late timing!

TIP #5: When recovering from your pull, always make sure you have a high elbow in the air. When pulling, always have a high elbow catch so that you can pull more water. High elbows are the key!

TIP #6: When kicking freestyle, remember to kick from your hips, NOT your knees and ankles. Also, kick in a tiny whipping motion, but not too big!

TIP #7: ALWAYS do your underwater kicks, and NEVER breathe in and out of the flags and before the first pull after a flip turn!! These little details will affect your races. Just by not breathing in or out of the flags can possibly get you from 2nd place to 1st place!

TIP #8: Enter with the tip of your fingers, NOT the sides, or your palm!

TIP #9: Always finish your pull, from head to hip.

TIP #10: Relax your arm during the recovery and keep it close to your body.

SECRET #1: When you workout the upper body portion of freestyle, you should feel a pain mostly in the back part, near your under arm muscle. If you feel most pain in your biceps or triceps, that is a signal telling you that you are pulling incorrectly!

SECRET #2: When you workout the lower body portion of freestyle, you should feel your body working out the thigh muscles of your body. If you feel like your calves are getting a workout while freestyle kicking, refer to tip #6.

SECRET #3: You ought to have body rotation while swimming freestyle to ensure smooth swimming strokes. When rotating, imagine yourself reaching your arm out to something in front of you.

SECRET #4: When coming up after a flip turn, use your opposite hand that you are facing in to pull your first stroke. For example, when you turn and face to the right, pull with your left hand first and vice versa. This helps with the reduction of drag.

SECRET #5: While swimming; imagine yourself extending out to something infront of you. This helps me and I hope this helps you too!

SECRET #6: Use your shoulders to let the hand enter as far forward as possible. Swimmers use their shoulders all the time! That is why it's so wide ;)

SECRET #7: DON'T bend your knees too much while kicking! All you need is a slight bend :)


SECRET #8: DON'T kick too much out of the water! If your whole foot comes above the surface, try to kick lower into the water.


SECRET #9: Breathing out through the nose may help prevent water from entering your nose.

I hope you all love these tips and secrets! If you have any questions, comment below and I'll do my best to answer! :)

Wishing you the best,
Amanda Le

Monday, January 19, 2015

Technique- flip turn, body movement

The front crawl uses the tumble turn, now called a flip turn.  It is used to reverse the direction in a small amount of time.

Above is a video of the girls 13-14 50 yard freestyle event.  It shows a flip turn after 25 yards so that the girls can quickly reverse and continue swimming.

Watch Freestyle Flipturn Technique Video | Feat. Ryan Lochte to get a better view on the flip turn!

The position of your body during freestyle swimming is very important. Your shoulder of the recovering arm should always be higher than the shoulder of the pulling arm.  This makes the recovery way easier, in other words, you'll feel super smooth in the water! While one shoulder is out of the water, it lessens drag, and when it falls, it helps the arm catching the water. As other shoulder rises, it aids the arm at end of the pull to exit the water.

See Freestyle Swimming Technique - Body Positioning | Feat. Nathan Adrian for a better view on body positioning!