on this video I’ll show you set of exercises
that take around 20 to 30 minutes and will help you start swimming like this. By the end of the video you’ll know how
to do at least one stroke that looks and feels like these ones. This video has 5 parts: This 100 meters freestyle swimming demonstration. 5 key points of the theory of this freestyle
swimming technique. 5 Common problems when trying to swim like
this. Exercises to help you swim smoother in 5 steps. A Giveaway. Theory
Basics There are many ways to swim freestyle or front
crawl. This way is efficient and moderately fast. From now on we will call it arrow freestyle. The key of the technique is that there are
not a lot of extra movements, the only movements there are, are optimized to help you move
forward. I did a total of 50 strokes in 100 meters. It’s almost catch up swim. (Catch up is a popular drill used by coaches
to help swimmers glide and make their body longer.) The kick is a 2 beat kick. Which means 1 kick per stroke. This helps save up energy since the legs have
big muscles that use a lot of energy and oxygen. Advantages and disadvantages of the arrow
freestyle technique: This is by no means the fastest way to swim
but when you perfect it, it can be pretty fast. Once you start swimming and practicing with
this arrow freestyle technique you can build up a lot of endurance and you’ll be able
to swim long distances at a constant pace. That is why this technique is often used by
open water swimmers and long distance pool swimmers in the middle part of their swim. It may seem easy to swim like this but it
does take effort, specially if you are not used to it. Pros
It can be pretty fast . Build up endurance. Constant pace over long distances. Cons:
- Not the fastest Not easy
takes time and effort 5 Key points: The legs need to be synchronized with the
arms. You kick down with your right leg at the same
time that your right arm is pulling. The body needs to be as horizontal as possible. Your legs need to be very straight. Your breathing needs to be quick. Breathe faster than me for optimal results. Your arm should always wait for the opposite
arm to almost finish before it starts moving. Specially when you are breathing. Since your arms are producing most of the
forward movement, they should be very efficient- meaning:
high elbow (vertical forearm as soon as possible), using the rotation to pull with bigger muscles
and having barbie hands. Common problems You should expect 5 things to be your main
obstacles: Legs kicking fast instead of 2 beat kick. Splashing water, instead of smooth swimming. Not enough glide. Balancing problems (difficulty maintaining
a horizontal position). Kick and pull not synchronized. Exercises to help you fix them One stroke at a time. If I told you to swim at this pace with this
technique and you have never done it, you would probably think that I am asking too
much. But if instead I asked you to spend 20 to
30 minutes trying to do just one stroke that looked and felt like this, you’d probably
be up for the challenge. So let’s do that. One arrow stroke. Why only one stroke? Many coaches try to correct technique while
swimmers are at full speed swimming many laps. This is probably the worst time to try and
correct technique since you are tired, focused on other things and probably in autopilot. At least in the beginning of changing your
technique or trying out a new one, we believe that you need to slow things down and break
things into manageable pieces. Then build your technique while you put together
those small pieces. What does it take? This arrow freestyle looks easy but you’ll
actually need to master 5 things. And you can improve 4 out of those 5 things
in just 20 to 30 minutes with the exercises I am about to show you. 1 - Balance You need your body to be horizontal. You need your legs not to sink. This is a bit easier if you are moving, kind
of like riding a bicycle. Practice this: push off and stay still. Keep gliding with that horizontal balance
by pushing your chest down and having a tight core and tight legs. 2- Mobility This is unfortunately the one that you won’t
be able to fix quickly. In order to put your forearm like this you
need to be able to move your shoulder like this and like this. Stop this video and try to put your arms like
this. If you can’t you’ll need to do these stretches
daily for a few weeks. 3- Control We naturally have a tendency to move our legs
fast in order to move faster. But for this technique you need to control
that tendency. You need very straight knees and pointing
toes. You only bend them when you kick down once
every stroke, and you never stop the plantar flexion. This is relatively easy to correct. To force yourself to stop kicking like crazy
put on a pullbouy between your feet, or a kickboard or wrap a stretch band around your
ankles. Anything that stops you from kicking. And swim 4 x 25 like this. 4- Listenning A good hand entry should sound like this…
one kick per stroke sound likes this … If you hear this instead … it means that you
are doing something wrong. Find out what it is and do 4 to 8 x 25 listening
carefully to try and swim smoother. Then listen to your sense of touch. We have a lot of nerve ending in our skin,
use them by feeling how the water moves around you. Around your hands and around your torso. Feel the pressure agains the top of your feet
when you kick down. Notice that feeling of knife through butter
when you have pointing toes. Feel how the forearm uses leverage to move
you foreword when it is perpendicular to your body. Do 2 x 25 focusing on one part of the body:
hands, forearms, torso, feet - for a total of 8 x 25. 5- Coordination The final step is to coordinate the previous
4 steps. One arrow freestyle stroke like this is all
that we are going for right now, remember? Push off as horizontal as possible and feel
the water speeding up on your skin and then slowing down as you start to lose speed. Before you stop moving pull water with your
forearm trying to have it as perpendicular as possible and glide on the side of your
torso. At the same time that you are doing your powerful
pull, your leg of the same side of your body should be kicking down quickly. What’s next? If you can coordinate at least one stroke
and one kick on arrow freestyle, while the other side of your body doesn’t move, you’ve
done the hard part. The next time you practice you’ll try to
go for two arrow strokes. One on each side. You may stop after each cycle. Then you can start connecting them in a row. After that your next challenge will be to
learn when and how to breathe. And if you want to swim 100 meters in 1:09
with this technique in a 25 meter pool, you’ll also need to learn underwater kicks and flip
turns. We have covered those topics on other videos
and will be uploading updated tutorials on future videos. The exercises outlined on this video are meant
to be done after you finish your swim practice and the coach has left, leaving your technique
to your own device. But if you want a full arrow freestyle workout
go to this website or click on this square at the end of the video. Giveaway! This video is sponsored by … our own merch. Specifically this t-shirt. If you figure out what this drawing is, I’ll
heart your comment in the comment section. To have a chance of winning a t-shirt and
video chat with us, no matter where you are in the world, share this video on your swimteam
chat group, take a screenshot and send it to us to this number via WhatsApp. Finally here is Einstein NT with a joke: “Sarah Sjostrom is so fast, that every time
she races she gets younger.” “because relativity” “You get it?” swim fast!
I feel like I would have to retrain myself completely to kick so infrequently. I enjoy kicking more and don’t feel like it drains me but I was a sprinter. Even now, I don’t do sets of higher than 100s 😆
Not my video, found this the other day and wanted /r/swimming's thoughts. I think it helped me figure out a few things!
I've been swimming 3x a week and not getting much in the way of coaching. This summer, I'm about ~1:10 / 100 yd at a moderate pace (older triathlete, former swimmer times, yay!). After watching the video, I noticed two things immediately when imitating the style. First, my natural two beat kick was counter-rotated, meaning my larger/first kick was my left foot with my right arm in front. I always felt a little disjointed between my lower and upper body, and now I know that's why. Second, one big kick made a noticeable difference in speed when combined with the pull. I doubt I was generating any power with my kick before. I think it will take some time to train the muscle memory and coordination, but initial results are good.
Weird - just posted the same thing. I’ll delete my post and watch this one