If anybody is wondering about ads appearing, I didn't change anything since publishing the video. This remains a labor of love; I'm not making any money from it and I'll keep it that way. UA-cam must have changed their ad-showing-policy in the meantime. Sorry about that, but there's nothing I can do. 🐳
Hola, no se preocupe por anuncios, en mi país Costa Rica no salen 🤣🤣. Lo que me da lástima es que ese trabajo de amor se acabó, Estamos a 2024 y no veo videos nuevos
@@heilynchinchilla7083 Hola, gracias por tomarte el tiempo para dejar un comentario. Me alegra saber que los anuncios no son un problema en Costa Rica. El trabajo me ha mantenido muy ocupado y alejado del agua, ¡pero espero que sigas disfrutando de tus nados! 🐳
I read the book, liked it, but was too abstract to implement. Then, I came across your video. I saw many videos about swimming, but this is the best one! Thank you for taking the time in creating it. I'm sure it helped many swimmers, like it helped me. Huge thanks!
I'm happy to hear that my video could achieve that. I created it, hoping it would have that effect for some swimmers. Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
Best swimming video on youtube. A highly detailed catalog of all the touchpoints to focus on. Answered several questions about the feeling of the propulsive phase that I have wondered about, but that no one else has addressed.
What a masterpiece! Incredible level of detail shown of the proper technique but after reading his responses to comments, I'm equally impressed with the level of humbleness of the creator of the video. Such a kind and generous gentleman...thank you sir, much appreciated!
@@fernandomartinhofurtado4088 for two, reasons, I think: It prevents injury (golfer's elbow) and the change of direction from back to forward becomes more rounded. (Check out this link: tenniselbowclassroom.com/exercise/swimmers-elbow/)
What a gem. I have been looking at swimming videos for several years and this is by far the best and most complete stroke analysis I've ever seen. Bravo.
I have been swimming incorrectly all my life and just in the last few years swimming is my main form of exercise. I have been slowing learning how to swim correctly, watching tutorials and practicing. I have improved tremendously but I really wish I could have viewed this awesome instructional from the start of my swimming journey. This explains and shows with reason the freestyle stroke! 👍💯
You got me as soon as you mentioned Weissmuller, this is the best freestyle instructional video on the web..thank you as it will be a constant reference for me as I continue to re-train myself at age 72. I was coached some bad habits on my high school and college swim teams, your video has already started to bring me up to date.
Wow! That is huge praise from an experienced swimmer. I only told in my own words, and showed with the pictures that I saw in my mind, what others - more knowledgeable than me - have taught me. Thank you so much! 🐳
I'm a 70 year old who used to swim 1 km a day 1/2 a life time ago. Just returned to swimming on doctor's advice for knee arthritis and MAN I wish this stuff had been around 35 years ago. Brilliant.
The best video I've watched so far that explains arm movement and covers every details. I tried my best to follow the focus point during swimming today, got surprising improvement. The "going over a hump" is such a brilliant analogy that made me suddenly figure out the transition between catch and pull phase. Thank you very much!
I'm always most interested in hearing what particular visualization or analogy clicks with different swimmers. Thank you for letting me know what worked for you and also for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
After taking freestyle instruction from elite coaches for 5 years, I hit upon Sheila's book on freestyle only a month ago. Since, I have been re-reading the chapters on the stroke several times. The book is a source of inspiration, but hard to read. Your video says it all in just 20 min. An absolute masterpiece!
I am 68 yrs old woman to challenge for Triathlon for the first time. Never learned swimming and I have confidence, believe that after study and practice of this video I can swimming well ! Thank you and God blessing your spirit, kind heart and family
I'm glad to hear you like it! Thank you! However, I only focused on the movement of the arms. Even there, some might debate the "completeness", and I probably wouldn't argue too much. There are so many, many more relevant parts like body position, kick mechanics, kick timing, head position, breathing... It never ends. 🙂🐳
I'm 73 and I have been swimming for 5yrs. After both knees , hips, split femur with 18 inch rod and and shoulder replacement. Oh did I mention 21yrs in the Air Force as a jet mechanic. This is the best video I have seen. Thank you
Wow! I'm glad you're able to swim after so many surgeries. It's really impressive that you picked up the sport after all that and relatively late in life. I always thought I was a late bloomer but now it seems I was spring chicken when I started. 😊 Have fun and thank you for the comment! 🐳
best freestyle CATCH & RECOVERY I've seen... and i've seen a lot. Just recently I realized something wasn't quite right. My catch was slipping and I didn't know why. In a 25m pool, I averaged 18 strokes per length. I was really dissapointed since I thought my catch was allright hehe. Long story short, I came to the decision of feeling my catch, pull & push instead of visualizing olympic level pull (Sun Yang's) catch... happy to say I managed to bring that number down to 14 strokes @ length. Thanks to this video, i will now be able to reduce that number since I now know what to focus on so that I can catch myself making a mistake and eliminate my bad catch lol. Looking forward to trying it tomorrow. Hope my 1500m swim will feel more powerful. Thank you.
In my first pool visit since watching this, I managed to make a fundamental change to my stroke. I have struggled for a long time to get a "high elbow". Within 5 minutes, I could feel my stroke had changed. Suddenly, I could feel what I had heard many times and never been able to master - "getting an arm full of water". I was using my shoulder and back muscles to keep my arm curved instead of trying to manage it with my arm muscles. After half an hour, I got out of the pool and could feel that my shoulder and back muscles had been working - a completely new feeling after my regular, morning swim. I had given up on improving mys stroke but this video has really excited me. Thank you so much.
And thank you so much for sharing your experience! 🌻 I love those moments when something clicks and you're suddenly able to actually feel a concept that everybody was talking about but that personally seemed completely foreign for a long time. A word of warning: Don't overdo it. It is okay to feel your back muscles after swimming, those can handle a lot of work. If you still keep feeling your shoulder muscles like that after a week or two, you're probably working the shoulder too hard. Give your body some time to get used to activating unfamiliar muscle groups and then be very careful to protect your shoulder. Keep the shoulder stable, perform the catch with VERY little power. Best of luck! 🐳
I am new to swimming, and this is the most detailed and easy explained video I have found in my search, I know if's best to do the technique right the first time instead starting with bad habits. This will be my go to video, thanks.
I've seen countless hours of swimming videos over 8 months since I am just learning, this one does truly sums them up all, but there is no way that I would have understood you if I hadn't watched them all.
It certainly does help having familiarized yourself with the subject beforehand and I'm happy to hear that you find my video useful. Thank you for leaving a comment! 🐳
I've watched tons of videos about freestyle technique. This is the first one that actually takes the time to fully decompose the arm movement, which is so essential to freestyle. Congrats to you Sir!
This is the most detailed instructions for a freestyle swim technique out there on UA-cam! I've rewatched it several times and will rewatch more as I improve my technique over time. This video is super helpful and easy to follow. thank you! I also think it would be helpful to take a note from this video on a piece of a paper and take it to a swimming pool, so it will be easier to practice and checkmark the points while doing drills and not forget anything. Good luck to everyone who is swimming out there and looking to improve their swim or learning from scratch, enjoy the process! You got this!
I am an older adult trying to improve my stroke. Have been swimming 3 years and am slowly improving. Thank you thank you thank you for a truely great video tutorial. I will use this moving forward. Thank you again. ☺
Happy to hear you found my video helpful! Progress in swimming takes time, so we might as well learn to enjoy the process. 😊 Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
Excellent explanations on the "how" part. What I think is missing is the emphasis on "why" - we need to understand that we are not freestyle like a dolphin but like a turtle, that is: the propulsion is done by hands rather than tail. And if you notice these two animals, the area surface of the "paddle" is really important: 1. fingers position: if you keep yours slightly separated the palm surface increases. Water has a high viscosity, so don't worry about water slipping between the fingers (in fact you should pay attention to it, see #3) 2. high elbow: palms are not big enough, so we are increasing again the surface by using our entire palm+wrist+forearm(!). Keep elbow-wrist-palm on the same level (vertical) while pushing water back. 3. slightly relaxed forearm-wrist-palm and fingers: remember that is your back doing most of the work. As it was pointed out in the video, these needs only to be in the right position. Having them slightly relaxed allows you: feel the water flow (if if slips for instance), quickly adjust arm position and not in the least conserve energy. Excellent and very well documented video by the way!
I agree with you, it is important to know the why. I tried to provide that whenever I thought it wasn't obvious or well documented and presented in other places. Please bear in mind that this is not a video for coaches, who might be interested in discussing the intricacies of fluid dynamics and biomechanics. It is meant to help beginners and intermediate swimmers acquire a mental image of what they should be striving for, and make them aware of the things they should avoid. When collecting feedback for a few previews, I was told that the video already was much too long for a younger audience. It seems the absolute maximum attention span of the younger generation is well below six minutes. 😉 Despite that, I did not break it up into segments, which would have been relatively easy, given its structure. I had a vision of a single place that learners could come back to for themselves or use as blueprint when checking the stroke mechanics of swimming buddies. However, I tried to make it as short as I found reasonable without losing any of the information that I thought was critical or required for context and flow. I believe, I succeeded and I'm mostly happy with the result. But of course there is much more to learn and understand for those who want to gain a deeper understanding. Thank you for commenting and providing some of the why! I concur with everything you have listed so maybe those who feel that my video does not provide a sufficiently deep rationale, will find some of the answers in your list.
@@schnodopics the topic is quite vast, you cannot possible fit everything into a single video indeed. This is a wonderful clip and the right length I may add. I'm glad it popped out in my suggestion list ;)
Already many people mentionned "Masterpiece" I should add the expression "real masterpiece". I startd to learn swim at the age of 42 years old and I've swimmed for 7 years but I had always some uncertain points about crawl arm recovery. I could never solve that problem even though I tried a lot before this video. A few days ago I took courage to ask my swim teacher for help. He corrected my locked shoulder in finish phase. While trying to correct my habit, I discovered this video and I realized that comes from my locked elbow. And then everything changed. I really thank you for your share 🙏 You are great 👍 This is the best swim video I've ever seen. Moreover, I have now the images in my head when doing my crawl (Rollarcoaster, 1-2 dance ballet, jump rope & front Quad.timing circle), which make me smile because I feel no more the same but more efficient.😁
Thank you for sharing! I'm happy to hear that the visuals are useful and that my video is helping you in becoming the swimmer you want to be. Good luck! 🐳
I have been following this video for few months and can already see the improvement. As many others have noted, this is one of the best explaination of Sheila's amazing book. And not only you've done such amazing video, you're engaging with people leaving the comments and helping them. This is such a nice gesture, and I applaud you for the efforts you've put. THANK YOU!! Last week, I helped few people in my pool with the tips mentioned in your book. I feel best way for any of us to thank you is pay it forward in the community. Thanks again.
That is awesome! Thank you for sharing this. Paying it forward is a wonderful concept and I'm really happy that you're spreading the word and helping other swimmers out. Thank you for your kind words and providing support for others! 🐳
Well, thank you very much for this video. I am having a hard time trying to swim faster and this video has a lot of useful techniques and many answers to my questions. It is really a complete tutorial on freestyle swimming.
Thank you! Just keep in mind that the video only deals with the movement of the arms. And even there, you'll find more variation than I would want to discuss. For example, some very successful swimmers like Brent Hayden recommend not doing the "shrug" but instead keeping the shoulder neutral. And of course, there are the issues of kicking, kicking timing, kicking patterns, body position and breathing and breath patterns etc. The rabbit hole goes very deep. 🙂 Good luck with your swimming! 🐳
The two throw method is awesome, i used to think the 1st throw is useless and not necessary and all your forward speed is coming from your 2nd throw, you explain it clearly ,really appreciate it !
It's good to hear that my explanation makes sense. The second throw builds on the speed of the first throw. Standing on the shoulders of giants, so to speak. 😊 I used to notice that elite swimmers apparently "wiggled" their hand mid-stroke. I wondered why they would not correct what I thought was a stroke defect. Only when I read about the two throws in Sheila's book, I realized that what I saw was the transition from pressing/squeezing during the power phase to pushing for the finish. Thanking you for taking the time to mention that in a comment! 🐳
Masterpiece for sure. I came across with this video at early stage of my self-coaching journey (2:00s/50m) a year ago. Since then I have been re-watching it after some decent improvements, respectively (1:10s.50m), (45s/50m). This is my latest re-watch at (39s/50m). I get to understand more and more key points listed, cues and feelings he is talking about each time I refresh the video along with my own improvement of techniques . I am sure I will have my re-watch at my (34s/50m, my final goal I set for myself) soon! thanks very much for the work and sharing.
Another rewatch, 4 months later from the comment above. Latest record 32s/50m with 90% 4-bear kick. Refining the 1-2 rhythm and finish(water throw) and relaxing feel.
Enlightening! Clearly the best demonstration of each phase of arm and body motion in the freestyle stroke. Often misunderstood concepts (e.g., elbow pointing upward, medial arm rotation, propulsion, etc.) are clearly demonstrated and explained relative to known points of reference, which imparts understanding. Excellent resource for any swimmer, age and ability notwithstanding.
(Berny M) I commented two months ago when I 1st saw this video. Yesterday was a very special day for me. It was my 71st birthday and I set a personal best time for 70 lengths (1750 metres), about 2 minutes faster than my previous best time. This was due to me practising and improving my arm action. I am so very grateful that your video has made such a difference to my swimming. Thank you.
Wow! Happy birthday! 🌻 Hearing that my video helped improved your swimming that much in such a short time is really rewarding. But I only did the talking. You put in the actual work. 👏 Congratulations and thank you for letting me know! 🐳
Thank you! I really like Sheila Taormina’s books because she breaks the stroke down and really analyses exactly how the stroke works. But OMG you have taken it so much further. There is a ton of info here.
In addition to Sheila's great descriptions, I tried to gather analogies that I thought would help in building a mental image of the stroke. I also thought it would help to show how things can go wrong and how they should be instead. Thank you for noticing and appreciating that! 🐳
Wow, this is an excellent video! I'm a 50+ yr old, former national level competitive swimmer, now age group triathlete and masters swimmer. As we age, we lose muscle mass, so I wanted to work on my swim technique to mitigate the natural pace slowing (from less strength). I've been watching quite a few swim videos on UA-cam trying to finesse my technique. You can't capture everything in one video, but this one certainly does an OUTSTANDING job of capturing almost all the issues. Big thumbs up from a somewhat competent swimmer!
I created this video with others like myself, a few years ago, in mind: adult beginners, potentially struggling. The idea was to provide a few not-so-obvious "shortcuts" to better swimming (there really aren't any shortcuts but it helps being able to paint a detailed mental picture of what you're going for) that I would have taken gladly, had I known about them earlier. Hearing from an accomplished swimmer that I may have succeeded is huge praise. Thank you very much for your appreciation and taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
Beautifully done! The visual component is clear,varied and great to watch. The dynamics of muscle movement's and comments re coordination with arm and joint movements are elegantly presented. Thanks for such a great presentation.
Unfortunately, the demonstrations were limited by my own skill level - let's be kind and call it mediocre - and age-related flexibility issues. 😉 I did my best not to promote esoteric concepts that have very few proponents. I'm aware that some concepts like the "shrug" are disputed, with a number of valid points brought forward, but there the division seems to be 50-50 or better in favor of it. I'd love to hear what techniques you would consider outside the mainstream. Thank you for the feedback! 🐳
Was just saying to myself last night that I wish somebody would finally make a video that really puts it all together. Woke up this morning and it was right there when I opened UA-cam. Perfection!
Thank you! I will watch this several times; amazing detail. I think I now understand HOW to engage my back muscles. I knew this is important I just didn’t understand how to trigger the back. Your explanation & demonstration make perfect sense. The shoulder & scapula positioning…so helpful. I will watch your video several more times as I work on applying your techniques. I also love how you demonstrate the catch by using the tree log, then the pull concept which moves your body past the log. Brilliant!!!! Also very helpful is showing the incorrect positioning then showing the correct ones. Many instructing videos only offer a verbal narrative of what not to do. I could really see the differences with your visual comparisons. Thank you!!!
The most detailed and complete explanation for free style hand movement i ever come across on UA-cam. I practice it and it help me a lot with speed, especially on hand movement after catch before exit water part. Thank you for uploading the video 👍
@mohammadhassanjalalian8877 I'm sorry to hear about the shoulder pain. Maybe you should ease off a bit. It takes a while getting used to an unfamiliar motion. Thank you for your comment! 🐳
This is a really high-quality video, excellent instructions because it also discusses the “why”! And talks about shoulder injury risk. It has it all. Thanks so much, can’t wait to get back into the water to try these tips.
Being aware of the body in three dimensional space is paramount. His approach is in line with the Palmer Method of handwriting and the Taubman method of piano technique. Working with nature, rather than forcing. Brilliant video. Thank you so much!
@@schnodopics Palmer writing uses the arm, rather than the finger tips to move the pen and Taubman uses rotation just as you describe. Many pianists develop injuries (like writers develop cramps) by using little muscles instead of alignment and rotation to stay in alignment. And it also puts one in a better mood, as you promise at the end. The other value you share is the importance of having patience with yourself, which helps reduce the antagonism swimmers often have with their relationship to the water. I watch your film once a week so I can continue to watch myself enjoy my time in the water more.
I absolutely agree. Everything worth doing is worth doing it with patience and joy. I'm honored that you relate my little video to the works of such influential people. 🙏🏻
Thank you for your appreciation! Actually that's next on my list but it won't come anytime soon. In the meantime, check out my playlist on kicking and rhythm; especially Paul Jaeger's video is very helpful: ua-cam.com/video/HKKry7FQY9w/v-deo.html. And then keep it simple and do like Sheila suggests: For a six-beat kick, try to focus on one dominant kick and let the rest fall into place. For example when counting ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three, set the first - slightly stronger - kick with the catch on the same side: Kick with the LEFT leg when the LEFT arm catches, and with the RIGHT leg when the RIGHT arm catches.
This is so informative and much easier to understand with the live examples -quite a feat of photography for which I''m truly grateful! Thank you! I'm not very good at freestyle being mostly self-taught and have no speed whatsoever as my technique is terrible! So, I'm going to try what I've seen as soon as it's warm enough in the lake to stick my head back under water!
Thank you for the kind words! I'm happy to hear that I picked images that are helping you understand what's going on. Good luck with you swimming! Keep it fun! 🐳
Thank you so much for the video, best explanation on arm movement. When I read the book about “unrotating” and “oscillating” it was still a bit too abstract for me. But you explained it with a simple “squeeze the balloon”, that clarified the power phase for me. I finally understood where to apply the power in the diagonal phase. Thanks!
I'm glad you liked the video! I agree with you, I found the "unrotating" part the hardest to understand in the book. I even mailed Sheila about it and here's what she replied: "You ask a great question. The concept of transitioning from the catch to the diagonal is, in one way quite simple, yet in another way it is complex due to all of the ways someone can over-do or under-do the motion and be slightly "off." On top of that, choosing the specific words to describe the action is something I've spent hours considering. I ultimately chose the word "un-rotate," but Ernie Maglischo chooses "adduct," and Cecil Colwin chooses "oscillate." You chose words I think are appropriate when you wrote, "The only way I can manage to get into the proper diagonal position is to hinge my arm around the shoulder joint." That is correct! At clinics I show athletes how the upper arm changes its articulation in the shoulder joint to transition from the catch to the diagonal. So, you're on the right path. When you mention that if you think of the "un-rotation" action you end up leading with the elbow similar to Fig. 5.14, that is something that can happen very easily -- and of course it is something we don't want to happen. The degree of rotating the arm for the catch is slight, and so the degree of un-rotating for the diagonal is slight as well. It is so slight that it is difficult to feel. Don't expect to feel a massive change. The slight nature of the movement is what makes it so difficult to describe. From your email I can tell you are dialing in the details properly. Kudos to you! Let me know if you have any other questions, and let me know how it goes as you work on the mechanics." Thank you for your comment! 🐳
@@schnodopics Thank you so much for sharing Sheila’s email reply! You know I was wondering exactly the same thing about un-rotating would turn into an elbow lead stroke. But eventually I guess, for me, the trick is to consciously have the forearm vertical (perpendicular to bottom) while squeezing the balloon, don’t let the forearm and hand lag behind. And also make sure the pull path is diagonal would also help.
The most definitive swim lesson, I have ever experienced. The catch and the balloon squeeze alone led to a 20-25s improvement in my 100m pace. If you do a video again, please try and make one on the breathing mechanics, which as summed up right - puts you in good mood. Thanks and Regards.
Wow, that's a huge improvement! Congratulations! I'm glad I could help. Not sure I'll ever find enough time for another video like this one, but who knows? Thank you for leaving a comment! 🐳
I wish someone had taught me this during my early years. No wonder I never accomplished anything noteworthy in swimming despite killing myself during each practice. I did however succeed somehow in other sports such as rowing and running, which leads meto believe my technique was awful. It's never too late. Thank you so much for this...
This is the best video I have found about how to properly do free style. I wish I had access to this kind of material in my swim team days; I would have been so much better. I'm getting my 5 year old started the right way. Thanks for doing this! Can't wait for the summer to practice.
Now, that's really nice to hear! I hope your child will have fun swimming. Thank you for the kind assessment and for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
Excellent work! Your video has really helped my understanding of certain swimming principals that, to this point, were confusing to me. I owe you a beer!
A very comprehensive breakdown of the freestyle stroke which surely will result in faster swimming if followed through meticulously. Thanks a lot for the clear explanation. Your voice is also quite soothing as well. :-)
Wow, great detail and marvellous schematics throughout the complete arm movement. Excited to apply this as I re-enter the water after a considerable layoff. My journey from “Competitive swimmer to triathlete to masters swimmer back to just enjoyment and fitness” now has a more important set of goals. Thanks and cheers, great job.
I enjoy getting positive feedback from beginners to intermediate swimmers because they're the ones I created the video for, but it's even nicer and quite reassuring to receive affirmation from experienced swimmers. Thank you for the praise! 🐳
This is an amazing video as it contains tremendous amount of useful info 😊😊, I have been studied this video word by word for 4 hours, now I finished my study 🥰
Sir, Thank you so much for uploading a comprehensive video that focusses on the "Arm Cycle in freestyle". Being a self taught Swimmer, i must say that the Arm Cycle is, "THE MOST challenging element in the stroke". After watching this video, I can bet my bottom dollar, that nowhere on web one can find a similar content. Besides, I would really appreciate if you can extend the same effort (i.e. research) towards simplifying other strokes. Thank You and Good luck. Regards. Amar Majeed (India)
Thank you very much for your comment! Your assessment of my work is very kind. I felt compelled to create this video because over the years I had been given so much valuable information that I could not find gathered, structured, and presented in an easily digestible form anywhere else. Unfortunately, a lot of effort goes into such a project. Swimming is only a hobby for me and I simply don't find the time between work and everything else that is important to me. I hope that someone else will create what you are looking for! 🐳
Just a great way to communicate the core movement.. the stretching-out, and then contraction of, the latissimus dorsi Like squeezing a balloon.. genius!
Brilliant. I am trying to master the free style technique late in life for triathlon and this video really helps. Thank you for breaking down this complex stroke in such an easy to understand way.
Masterpiece!, well done and well appreciated! This video is full of relevant information from beginning to end! Thank you for producing and sharing it with so many people! I laughed so much when you said that for many people swimming fast is bla bla bla! They simply live in denial as swimming faster with proper technic is heaven! 😁😁😁😁😁!
I watched a lot of freestyle underwater action videos. However, there was no video that explained it as clearly as this video. Now I have confidence in the arm movement in the water, and I will practice right away from tomorrow. thank you.
Outstanding advice, Many thank for sharing.. I have also been researching this topic for 18 months and having this under one video is amazing. Great work and slowing the video and having demonstration on land, provides a clearer understanding. It all looks straight forward and logical until you try putting it all together. Attempting a 5k open water swim on Friday aided with these tips.. again many thanks. Visual comparison with the rowing catch, made the breakthrough for me,
@@schnodopicsYour very welcome. Do you swim long distance in the sea, would you mind sharing your PBs. I was trying to break 20 mins for 1k in the pool but in Covid this has not been possible. So resorted to the sea and enjoy a lot more and able to swim for 90 mins with ease. Will keep you abreast of 5k time in the sea.
I only swim in the sea when I'm on vacation and then usually I don't time my swims, I don't even wear a watch when swimming. I'm by no means a fast swimmer. Before the lock-downs occurred, in the pool, I could swim 100 m around 1:30, 1000 m around 16:30 and in a 4.5 km open water race, I finished in 1:24:xx, which put me in the top third of my age group. But I also don't really train. I mostly swim for relaxation and to satisfy my curiosity regarding swimming technique. In a sense, I'm my own guinea pig. ☺
@@schnodopics Thanks again for the detail. Gives me a new set of targets to work against, I keep you posted on improvements on technique. What book would you recommend if I wanted some bed time reading on freestyle technique?
If you don't have it yet, get Sheila Taormina's Swim Speed Secrets 2nd ed. Also, you might want to take a look at her Swim Speed Strokes, which covers all the strokes. It made me realize the similarities and how and why improvements in one stroke carry over to the other. That makes it more likely that you'll become a complete swimmer, which also makes you a faster swimmer. And learning breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke no longer seems like you're wasting your time while you could improve your freestyle. You're doing it swimming the other strokes. And when you get back in the pool, definitely get Sheila's Swim Speed Workouts card set. Usually, I hate going fast with short interval breaks but she designed the workouts so perfectly that they're doable, yet sometimes hard but never frustrating and always fun. That's all I can come up with at the moment. Of course there's Ernest Maglischo's Swimming Fastest but that's more like a textbook. Very complete but sometimes dry and a bit intimidating. I haven't read it completely, I only look at different topics in detail from time to time.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME MAKING THIS VIDEO. IT WILL BE MY GUIDE FOR ARM MOUVEMENT SWIMMING CRAWL. I SAW IT FOUR TIMES AND I WILL SEE IT, AGAIN AND AGAIN, EACH TIME BEFORE GOING TO SWIM. KIND OF MY DAILY ROUTINE!
It makes me quite happy that you find my video valuable enough to keep re-watching it. Thank you for letting me know! Good luck with your swimming and have fun! 🐳
Far and away, thee most informative how to video I have seen on this subject! Believing is seeing and seeing makes learning so much easier to understand and improve by replication. Thank you 🙏
within the first two minutes of the video, i was like wowww ..this just clarified my confusion about body rotation as a beginner swimmer. No doubt by far the best swimming tutorial as to freestyle swimming
If anybody is wondering about ads appearing, I didn't change anything since publishing the video. This remains a labor of love; I'm not making any money from it and I'll keep it that way. UA-cam must have changed their ad-showing-policy in the meantime. Sorry about that, but there's nothing I can do. 🐳
Best swimming video I've watched and I've seen so many.very detailed and explained perfectly.
@@lorrainephillips2895 That's a very kind assessment! Thank you for leaving a comment! 🐳
Hola, no se preocupe por anuncios, en mi país Costa Rica no salen 🤣🤣.
Lo que me da lástima es que ese trabajo de amor se acabó,
Estamos a 2024 y no veo videos nuevos
@@heilynchinchilla7083 Hola, gracias por tomarte el tiempo para dejar un comentario. Me alegra saber que los anuncios no son un problema en Costa Rica. El trabajo me ha mantenido muy ocupado y alejado del agua, ¡pero espero que sigas disfrutando de tus nados! 🐳
20 minutes, no ads, no sponser, no sale, just info. You are a great human. It would be amazing if you could do one for kicking too.
Thank you for the kind words! If I ever make another video of that kind it will definitely be about kick mechanics and kick timing. 🐳
@@schnodopics I'm an adult beginner and this video has helped me really understand the role of the arms so thank you for that.
@@schnodopics Please do one !
@@Spaxcore deyourtube
I had ads start and after few minutes minutes. I stopped
After years and years of viewing swim videos, this is the one to call, a masterpiece! Thanks for spreading the love!
I'm happy to hear that! Thank you very much for letting me know! 🐳
Aeh, ho jiak boh?
I read the book, liked it, but was too abstract to implement. Then, I came across your video. I saw many videos about swimming, but this is the best one! Thank you for taking the time in creating it. I'm sure it helped many swimmers, like it helped me. Huge thanks!
I'm happy to hear that my video could achieve that. I created it, hoping it would have that effect for some swimmers. Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
Best swimming video on youtube. A highly detailed catalog of all the touchpoints to focus on. Answered several questions about the feeling of the propulsive phase that I have wondered about, but that no one else has addressed.
This is exactly what I hoped my video might be able to achieve. Thank you very much for letting me know!
What a masterpiece! Incredible level of detail shown of the proper technique but after reading his responses to comments, I'm equally impressed with the level of humbleness of the creator of the video. Such a kind and generous gentleman...thank you sir, much appreciated!
It is very kind of you to think and say so. Thank you for appreciating the effort! 🌻🐳
Masterpiece. I can't even imagine the amount of work and time that went into making this. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You
Well, it did take me a while to get it done. 😅
Thank you for appreciating the effort! 🐳
@@schnodopics thank you!
At the end of the underwater phase, why not extend the arm completely, locking the elbow?
@@fernandomartinhofurtado4088 for two, reasons, I think: It prevents injury (golfer's elbow) and the change of direction from back to forward becomes more rounded. (Check out this link: tenniselbowclassroom.com/exercise/swimmers-elbow/)
By far, after browsing dozens of websites, the best place to correct mistakes and improving the swimming technique. Many thanks from Madrid.
What a gem. I have been looking at swimming videos for several years and this is by far the best and most complete stroke analysis I've ever seen. Bravo.
It is very nice to hear that! I certainly did my best. Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! 🌻🐳
I've watched hundreds of clips about freestyle technique. Many of them are very interesting and useful. But this video clip surely is the best!
Wow! That's a huge compliment. Thank you!
@@schnodopics You deserve many more subscribers and publicity, an amazing video.
@@faroukm4148 Thank you very much! I'm glad you like the video!
agree totally, watched also many many but that is very unique - great work
@@whocares623 It's very nice to hear that the work I put in wasn't in vain. Thank you! 🐳
Nothing can beat this freestyle tutorial video
A better video might. 😉
But it is very kind of you to think so. Thank you!
Coaching for few decades now. YOU DID SUCH A EXCELLENT NARRATIVE VIDEOGRAPHY AND EDIT TO EXPLAIN IN DEPTH WITH EASY TO UNDERSTAND WORDS OF CHOICE. 👏
I did my best. Thank you very much for your praise and for taking the time to leave a comment!
I have been swimming incorrectly all my life and just in the last few years swimming is my main form of exercise. I have been slowing learning how to swim correctly, watching tutorials and practicing. I have improved tremendously but I really wish I could have viewed this awesome instructional from the start of my swimming journey. This explains and shows with reason the freestyle stroke! 👍💯
Thank you for the kind words and for taking the time to leave a comment. I hope you'll keep improving and having a lot of fun while doing it! 🐳
You got me as soon as you mentioned Weissmuller, this is the best freestyle instructional video on the web..thank you as it will be a constant reference for me as I continue to re-train myself at age 72. I was coached some bad habits on my high school and college swim teams, your video has already started to bring me up to date.
Wow! That is huge praise from an experienced swimmer. I only told in my own words, and showed with the pictures that I saw in my mind, what others - more knowledgeable than me - have taught me. Thank you so much! 🐳
I'm a 70 year old who used to swim 1 km a day 1/2 a life time ago. Just returned to swimming on doctor's advice for knee arthritis and MAN I wish this stuff had been around 35 years ago. Brilliant.
I'm so happy to hear this from someone who has been around for a while. Thank for you for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
The best video I've watched so far that explains arm movement and covers every details. I tried my best to follow the focus point during swimming today, got surprising improvement. The "going over a hump" is such a brilliant analogy that made me suddenly figure out the transition between catch and pull phase. Thank you very much!
I'm always most interested in hearing what particular visualization or analogy clicks with different swimmers. Thank you for letting me know what worked for you and also for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
After taking freestyle instruction from elite coaches for 5 years, I hit upon Sheila's book on freestyle only a month ago. Since, I have been re-reading the chapters on the stroke several times. The book is a source of inspiration, but hard to read. Your video says it all in just 20 min. An absolute masterpiece!
I'm really happy to hear that my video is making Sheila's fantastic work more accessible. Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
I love this video so much thank you so so so much i love all your videos you guys are the best🎉❤
Thank you for the kind words! 🐳
I am 68 yrs old woman to challenge for Triathlon for the first time. Never learned swimming and I have confidence, believe that after study and practice of this video I can swimming well ! Thank you and God blessing your spirit, kind heart and family
I'm happy to hear it! Good luck and have fun with your first triathlon! Thank you for your kind words! 🐳
Astonishing! This is the most acute, complete, clear video about freestyle! I think I'll learn it by hart.
I'm glad to hear you like it! Thank you!
However, I only focused on the movement of the arms. Even there, some might debate the "completeness", and I probably wouldn't argue too much. There are so many, many more relevant parts like body position, kick mechanics, kick timing, head position, breathing... It never ends. 🙂🐳
I'm 73 and I have been swimming for 5yrs. After both knees , hips, split femur with 18 inch rod and and shoulder replacement. Oh did I mention 21yrs in the Air Force as a jet mechanic. This is the best video I have seen. Thank you
Wow! I'm glad you're able to swim after so many surgeries. It's really impressive that you picked up the sport after all that and relatively late in life. I always thought I was a late bloomer but now it seems I was spring chicken when I started. 😊
Have fun and thank you for the comment! 🐳
Just started learning front crawl and this video is excellent. I will certainly be trying these techniques out in the pool in the coming days.
Glad it was helpful! Have fun swimming and thank you for leaving a comment! 🐳
That is the most comprehensive description of arm movement I have ever heard. I will watch this video over and over. Many thanks.
best freestyle CATCH & RECOVERY I've seen... and i've seen a lot. Just recently I realized something wasn't quite right. My catch was slipping and I didn't know why. In a 25m pool, I averaged 18 strokes per length. I was really dissapointed since I thought my catch was allright hehe. Long story short, I came to the decision of feeling my catch, pull & push instead of visualizing olympic level pull (Sun Yang's) catch... happy to say I managed to bring that number down to 14 strokes @ length. Thanks to this video, i will now be able to reduce that number since I now know what to focus on so that I can catch myself making a mistake and eliminate my bad catch lol. Looking forward to trying it tomorrow. Hope my 1500m swim will feel more powerful. Thank you.
Thank you for your kind words and good luck with improving your stroke! Happy to help. 🙂
Thx very much,I have studyed swim from this video,this is the best freestyle swiming toturial.
Great to hear! Thank you for leaving a comment! 🐳
this video is a great summary of all you need to know about freestyle stroke. thank you!
It's nice to hear that you like my video! Thank you very much!
In my first pool visit since watching this, I managed to make a fundamental change to my stroke. I have struggled for a long time to get a "high elbow". Within 5 minutes, I could feel my stroke had changed. Suddenly, I could feel what I had heard many times and never been able to master - "getting an arm full of water". I was using my shoulder and back muscles to keep my arm curved instead of trying to manage it with my arm muscles. After half an hour, I got out of the pool and could feel that my shoulder and back muscles had been working - a completely new feeling after my regular, morning swim. I had given up on improving mys stroke but this video has really excited me. Thank you so much.
And thank you so much for sharing your experience! 🌻
I love those moments when something clicks and you're suddenly able to actually feel a concept that everybody was talking about but that personally seemed completely foreign for a long time.
A word of warning: Don't overdo it. It is okay to feel your back muscles after swimming, those can handle a lot of work. If you still keep feeling your shoulder muscles like that after a week or two, you're probably working the shoulder too hard. Give your body some time to get used to activating unfamiliar muscle groups and then be very careful to protect your shoulder. Keep the shoulder stable, perform the catch with VERY little power. Best of luck! 🐳
@@schnodopics Thank you for taking the time to offer personal advice. Very kind.
I am new to swimming, and this is the most detailed and easy explained video I have found in my search, I know if's best to do the technique right the first time instead starting with bad habits. This will be my go to video, thanks.
I'm happy to hear that you're finding my video helpful. Thank you for leaving a comment. Have fun swimming! 🐳
Right? I’m going to have to watch this like 100 times to soak it all in (once before each practice).
I've seen countless hours of swimming videos over 8 months since I am just learning, this one does truly sums them up all, but there is no way that I would have understood you if I hadn't watched them all.
It certainly does help having familiarized yourself with the subject beforehand and I'm happy to hear that you find my video useful. Thank you for leaving a comment! 🐳
I've watched tons of videos about freestyle technique. This is the first one that actually takes the time to fully decompose the arm movement, which is so essential to freestyle. Congrats to you Sir!
I'm happy to hear that you find my video well made! Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
This is the most detailed instructions for a freestyle swim technique out there on UA-cam! I've rewatched it several times and will rewatch more as I improve my technique over time. This video is super helpful and easy to follow. thank you! I also think it would be helpful to take a note from this video on a piece of a paper and take it to a swimming pool, so it will be easier to practice and checkmark the points while doing drills and not forget anything. Good luck to everyone who is swimming out there and looking to improve their swim or learning from scratch, enjoy the process! You got this!
I'm glad you like the video! Thank you for leaving a comment! 🐳
I have watched many freestyle instruction videos, but this is by far the best I have seen. Thank you very much.
That's nice to hear! Thank for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
I am an older adult trying to improve my stroke. Have been swimming 3 years and am slowly improving. Thank you thank you thank you for a truely great video tutorial. I will use this moving forward. Thank you again. ☺
Happy to hear you found my video helpful! Progress in swimming takes time, so we might as well learn to enjoy the process. 😊
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
Excellent teaching technique without a wasted moment. Thank you and thank Sheila Taormina for caring enough to do this!
Thank you for leaving a comment and appreciating the effort! 🐳
This is like 20 videos explaining parts of free style, condensed into one video !! Amazing job and thank you!!
Glad you liked it! Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
Excellent explanations on the "how" part. What I think is missing is the emphasis on "why" - we need to understand that we are not freestyle like a dolphin but like a turtle, that is: the propulsion is done by hands rather than tail. And if you notice these two animals, the area surface of the "paddle" is really important:
1. fingers position: if you keep yours slightly separated the palm surface increases. Water has a high viscosity, so don't worry about water slipping between the fingers (in fact you should pay attention to it, see #3)
2. high elbow: palms are not big enough, so we are increasing again the surface by using our entire palm+wrist+forearm(!). Keep elbow-wrist-palm on the same level (vertical) while pushing water back.
3. slightly relaxed forearm-wrist-palm and fingers: remember that is your back doing most of the work. As it was pointed out in the video, these needs only to be in the right position. Having them slightly relaxed allows you: feel the water flow (if if slips for instance), quickly adjust arm position and not in the least conserve energy.
Excellent and very well documented video by the way!
I agree with you, it is important to know the why. I tried to provide that whenever I thought it wasn't obvious or well documented and presented in other places. Please bear in mind that this is not a video for coaches, who might be interested in discussing the intricacies of fluid dynamics and biomechanics. It is meant to help beginners and intermediate swimmers acquire a mental image of what they should be striving for, and make them aware of the things they should avoid.
When collecting feedback for a few previews, I was told that the video already was much too long for a younger audience. It seems the absolute maximum attention span of the younger generation is well below six minutes. 😉
Despite that, I did not break it up into segments, which would have been relatively easy, given its structure. I had a vision of a single place that learners could come back to for themselves or use as blueprint when checking the stroke mechanics of swimming buddies. However, I tried to make it as short as I found reasonable without losing any of the information that I thought was critical or required for context and flow. I believe, I succeeded and I'm mostly happy with the result. But of course there is much more to learn and understand for those who want to gain a deeper understanding.
Thank you for commenting and providing some of the why! I concur with everything you have listed so maybe those who feel that my video does not provide a sufficiently deep rationale, will find some of the answers in your list.
@@schnodopics the topic is quite vast, you cannot possible fit everything into a single video indeed. This is a wonderful clip and the right length I may add. I'm glad it popped out in my suggestion list ;)
Thanks a lot! I really appreciate that you took the time to provide me with your thoughts on it!
Already many people mentionned "Masterpiece" I should add the expression "real masterpiece". I startd to learn swim at the age of 42 years old and I've swimmed for 7 years but I had always some uncertain points about crawl arm recovery. I could never solve that problem even though I tried a lot before this video. A few days ago I took courage to ask my swim teacher for help. He corrected my locked shoulder in finish phase. While trying to correct my habit, I discovered this video and I realized that comes from my locked elbow. And then everything changed. I really thank you for your share 🙏 You are great 👍 This is the best swim video I've ever seen.
Moreover, I have now the images in my head when doing my crawl (Rollarcoaster, 1-2 dance ballet, jump rope & front Quad.timing circle), which make me smile because I feel no more the same but more efficient.😁
Thank you for sharing! I'm happy to hear that the visuals are useful and that my video is helping you in becoming the swimmer you want to be. Good luck! 🐳
Outstanding..clear concise effective tutorial..a must share with students of the art of swimming
It's good to hear that you're finding my video helpful! Thank you for leaving a comment! 🐳
Thank you I have never seen something more comprehensive than this video
I'm happy to hear that! Thank you very much! 🐳
Actuellement, la vidéo la plus compréhensible et la plus intuitive que j'ai vue sur le sujet ! Merci !
Je suis heureux de l'entendre. Merci pour vos aimables paroles !
I have been following this video for few months and can already see the improvement. As many others have noted, this is one of the best explaination of Sheila's amazing book. And not only you've done such amazing video, you're engaging with people leaving the comments and helping them. This is such a nice gesture, and I applaud you for the efforts you've put. THANK YOU!!
Last week, I helped few people in my pool with the tips mentioned in your book. I feel best way for any of us to thank you is pay it forward in the community.
Thanks again.
That is awesome! Thank you for sharing this. Paying it forward is a wonderful concept and I'm really happy that you're spreading the word and helping other swimmers out. Thank you for your kind words and providing support for others! 🐳
Excellent - direct, clear, no nonsense - best I´ve seen.
I tried to avoid the fluff that I dislike in other people's work. Thank you for noticing!
Grabbing an armful of water - that's the best tip in all of this. Thanks Tarzan.
You bet! He was an incredible swimmer. Thank you for the comment! 🐳
Well, thank you very much for this video. I am having a hard time trying to swim faster and this video has a lot of useful techniques and many answers to my questions. It is really a complete tutorial on freestyle swimming.
Thank you! Just keep in mind that the video only deals with the movement of the arms. And even there, you'll find more variation than I would want to discuss. For example, some very successful swimmers like Brent Hayden recommend not doing the "shrug" but instead keeping the shoulder neutral. And of course, there are the issues of kicking, kicking timing, kicking patterns, body position and breathing and breath patterns etc. The rabbit hole goes very deep. 🙂
Good luck with your swimming! 🐳
The two throw method is awesome, i used to think the 1st throw is useless and not necessary and all your forward speed is coming from your 2nd throw, you explain it clearly ,really appreciate it !
It's good to hear that my explanation makes sense. The second throw builds on the speed of the first throw. Standing on the shoulders of giants, so to speak. 😊
I used to notice that elite swimmers apparently "wiggled" their hand mid-stroke. I wondered why they would not correct what I thought was a stroke defect. Only when I read about the two throws in Sheila's book, I realized that what I saw was the transition from pressing/squeezing during the power phase to pushing for the finish.
Thanking you for taking the time to mention that in a comment! 🐳
Masterpiece for sure. I came across with this video at early stage of my self-coaching journey (2:00s/50m) a year ago. Since then I have been re-watching it after some decent improvements, respectively (1:10s.50m), (45s/50m). This is my latest re-watch at (39s/50m). I get to understand more and more key points listed, cues and feelings he is talking about each time I refresh the video along with my own improvement of techniques . I am sure I will have my re-watch at my (34s/50m, my final goal I set for myself) soon! thanks very much for the work and sharing.
Wow! Huge improvements! 👍
I'm really happy that my video could contribute to your journey. Thank you for your comment! Keep up the good work! 🐳
Another rewatch, 4 months later from the comment above. Latest record 32s/50m with 90% 4-bear kick. Refining the 1-2 rhythm and finish(water throw) and relaxing feel.
i think this is the best swimming visualisation video I have ever seen
When I started planning it, hoped it would turn out to be a good one. Thank you for confirming that! 🐳
This will be my guide from now on. The summary points for each topic is wall poster worthy! THANK YOU!!
Thank you for the praise! It's nice to hear that the effort was not in vain. 🐳
Enlightening! Clearly the best demonstration of each phase of arm and body motion in the freestyle stroke. Often misunderstood concepts (e.g., elbow pointing upward, medial arm rotation, propulsion, etc.) are clearly demonstrated and explained relative to known points of reference, which imparts understanding. Excellent resource for any swimmer, age and ability notwithstanding.
I'm glad you think so! Thank you for the kind words! 🐳
Without question the best swimming video I’ve seen
That's huge praise. Thank you very much! 🐳
(Berny M)
I commented two months ago when I 1st saw this video. Yesterday was a very special day for me. It was my 71st birthday and I set a personal best time for 70 lengths (1750 metres), about 2 minutes faster than my previous best time. This was due to me practising and improving my arm action. I am so very grateful that your video has made such a difference to my swimming. Thank you.
Wow! Happy birthday! 🌻
Hearing that my video helped improved your swimming that much in such a short time is really rewarding. But I only did the talking. You put in the actual work. 👏 Congratulations and thank you for letting me know! 🐳
Thank you! I really like Sheila Taormina’s books because she breaks the stroke down and really analyses exactly how the stroke works. But OMG you have taken it so much further. There is a ton of info here.
In addition to Sheila's great descriptions, I tried to gather analogies that I thought would help in building a mental image of the stroke. I also thought it would help to show how things can go wrong and how they should be instead. Thank you for noticing and appreciating that! 🐳
Wow, this is an excellent video! I'm a 50+ yr old, former national level competitive swimmer, now age group triathlete and masters swimmer. As we age, we lose muscle mass, so I wanted to work on my swim technique to mitigate the natural pace slowing (from less strength). I've been watching quite a few swim videos on UA-cam trying to finesse my technique. You can't capture everything in one video, but this one certainly does an OUTSTANDING job of capturing almost all the issues. Big thumbs up from a somewhat competent swimmer!
I created this video with others like myself, a few years ago, in mind: adult beginners, potentially struggling. The idea was to provide a few not-so-obvious "shortcuts" to better swimming (there really aren't any shortcuts but it helps being able to paint a detailed mental picture of what you're going for) that I would have taken gladly, had I known about them earlier. Hearing from an accomplished swimmer that I may have succeeded is huge praise. Thank you very much for your appreciation and taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
This is an incredible breakdown! Thanks!
Glad you liked it! Thank you for taking the time to drop a comment! 🌻
The most comprehensive video I’ve ever seen detailing the catch phase. This will help me a lot.
Thank you! I'm always happy to hear that my video is helpful! 🐳
Beautifully done!
The visual component is clear,varied and great to watch.
The dynamics of muscle movement's and comments re coordination with arm and joint movements
are elegantly presented.
Thanks for such a great presentation.
Thank you for appreciating the details of how I structured the video! And thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
The cinematography of this video is unbelievably good. Some of the demonstrations and techniques may not be mainstream
Unfortunately, the demonstrations were limited by my own skill level - let's be kind and call it mediocre - and age-related flexibility issues. 😉
I did my best not to promote esoteric concepts that have very few proponents. I'm aware that some concepts like the "shrug" are disputed, with a number of valid points brought forward, but there the division seems to be 50-50 or better in favor of it. I'd love to hear what techniques you would consider outside the mainstream. Thank you for the feedback! 🐳
Realmente muy bueno
Mucha información y de calidad
De los mejores vídeos de natación que he visto
Me alegro de oírlo. ¡Gracias por dejar un comentario! 🐳
Was just saying to myself last night that I wish somebody would finally make a video that really puts it all together. Woke up this morning and it was right there when I opened UA-cam. Perfection!
That's exactly what I kept thinking. Unfortunately, nobody did so I went ahead and did it myself. 😅
Thank you for appreciating the effort! 🐳
@@schnodopics I copied the link into my Training Peaks app and I will refer to it often. Thank you!
Thank you! I will watch this several times; amazing detail. I think I now understand HOW to engage my back muscles. I knew this is important I just didn’t understand how to trigger the back. Your explanation & demonstration make perfect sense. The shoulder & scapula positioning…so helpful.
I will watch your video several more times as I work on applying your techniques. I also love how you demonstrate the catch by using the tree log, then the pull concept which moves your body past the log. Brilliant!!!!
Also very helpful is showing the incorrect positioning then showing the correct ones. Many instructing videos only offer a verbal narrative of what not to do. I could really see the differences with your visual comparisons.
Thank you!!!
I'm very happy to hear that! Thank you for pointing out in detail, what about the video you found helpful. Much appreciated! 🐳
The most detailed and complete explanation for free style hand movement i ever come across on UA-cam. I practice it and it help me a lot with speed, especially on hand movement after catch before exit water part. Thank you for uploading the video 👍
You're very welcome! I'm happy to hear that you're getting good results! Thank you for leaving a comment! 🐳
this is what i have been looking for. let's make every stoke counts, not counting every stroke.
Happy to hear that you like it! Thank you for leaving a comment!
Your instruction is exceedingly thorough, employing abundant contemplation and genuine passion.
That's nice to hear! Thank you for the comment! 🐳
Congratulations for producing such an amazing video! This is the clearest demo video on the crawl I have ever watched.
Thank you! I created it in the hope that many adult swimmers could benefit from watching it. It is very satisfying to receive such great feedback!
I have coached and seen many video's about free style. But this one with genius explanations. Log technique is the best.
Glad you liked it! Thank you! 🐳
Fantastic! I don't have words to thanks for the video. Everything is perfect❤
The information, the velocity and editing.
That's huge praise! Thank you very much for the kind words! 🐳
This is such a masterpiece, I've watched it more than 5 times and I can say I have pain im my right shoulder after a session of catching
@mohammadhassanjalalian8877
I'm sorry to hear about the shoulder pain. Maybe you should ease off a bit. It takes a while getting used to an unfamiliar motion. Thank you for your comment! 🐳
This is a really high-quality video, excellent instructions because it also discusses the “why”! And talks about shoulder injury risk. It has it all. Thanks so much, can’t wait to get back into the water to try these tips.
It's good to hear that you like the style of presentation! Thank you for commenting! 🐳
Being aware of the body in three dimensional space is paramount. His approach is in line with the Palmer Method of handwriting and the Taubman method of piano technique. Working with nature, rather than forcing. Brilliant video. Thank you so much!
I've never heard of those two. Interesting! Thank you for the praise and for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
@@schnodopics Palmer writing uses the arm, rather than the finger tips to move the pen and Taubman uses rotation just as you describe. Many pianists develop injuries (like writers develop cramps) by using little muscles instead of alignment and rotation to stay in alignment. And it also puts one in a better mood, as you promise at the end. The other value you share is the importance of having patience with yourself, which helps reduce the antagonism swimmers often have with their relationship to the water. I watch your film once a week so I can continue to watch myself enjoy my time in the water more.
I absolutely agree. Everything worth doing is worth doing it with patience and joy. I'm honored that you relate my little video to the works of such influential people. 🙏🏻
Fantastic! AGREED...this is the best arm freestyle video....Now, he should do a video on integrating the kick with arm and hip timing.
Thank you for your appreciation! Actually that's next on my list but it won't come anytime soon.
In the meantime, check out my playlist on kicking and rhythm; especially Paul Jaeger's video is very helpful: ua-cam.com/video/HKKry7FQY9w/v-deo.html. And then keep it simple and do like Sheila suggests: For a six-beat kick, try to focus on one dominant kick and let the rest fall into place. For example when counting ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three, set the first - slightly stronger - kick with the catch on the same side: Kick with the LEFT leg when the LEFT arm catches, and with the RIGHT leg when the RIGHT arm catches.
Best video I have ever seen on youtube about front crawl / freestyle technique. Pure gold.
Happy to hear it! Thanks a lot! 🐳
This is so informative and much easier to understand with the live examples -quite a feat of photography for which I''m truly grateful! Thank you! I'm not very good at freestyle being mostly self-taught and have no speed whatsoever as my technique is terrible! So, I'm going to try what I've seen as soon as it's warm enough in the lake to stick my head back under water!
Thank you for the kind words! I'm happy to hear that I picked images that are helping you understand what's going on. Good luck with you swimming! Keep it fun! 🐳
Thank you so much for the video, best explanation on arm movement.
When I read the book about “unrotating” and “oscillating” it was still a bit too abstract for me. But you explained it with a simple “squeeze the balloon”, that clarified the power phase for me. I finally understood where to apply the power in the diagonal phase.
Thanks!
I'm glad you liked the video! I agree with you, I found the "unrotating" part the hardest to understand in the book. I even mailed Sheila about it and here's what she replied:
"You ask a great question. The concept of transitioning from the catch to the diagonal is, in one way quite simple, yet in another way it is complex due to all of the ways someone can over-do or under-do the motion and be slightly "off." On top of that, choosing the specific words to describe the action is something I've spent hours considering. I ultimately chose the word "un-rotate," but Ernie Maglischo chooses "adduct," and Cecil Colwin chooses "oscillate." You chose words I think are appropriate when you wrote, "The only way I can manage to get into the proper diagonal position is to hinge my arm around the shoulder joint." That is correct! At clinics I show athletes how the upper arm changes its articulation in the shoulder joint to transition from the catch to the diagonal.
So, you're on the right path. When you mention that if you think of the "un-rotation" action you end up leading with the elbow similar to Fig. 5.14, that is something that can happen very easily -- and of course it is something we don't want to happen. The degree of rotating the arm for the catch is slight, and so the degree of un-rotating for the diagonal is slight as well. It is so slight that it is difficult to feel. Don't expect to feel a massive change. The slight nature of the movement is what makes it so difficult to describe. From your email I can tell you are dialing in the details properly. Kudos to you! Let me know if you have any other questions, and let me know how it goes as you work on the mechanics."
Thank you for your comment! 🐳
@@schnodopics
Thank you so much for sharing Sheila’s email reply!
You know I was wondering exactly the same thing about un-rotating would turn into an elbow lead stroke.
But eventually I guess, for me, the trick is to consciously have the forearm vertical (perpendicular to bottom) while squeezing the balloon, don’t let the forearm and hand lag behind. And also make sure the pull path is diagonal would also help.
The most definitive swim lesson, I have ever experienced. The catch and the balloon squeeze alone led to a 20-25s improvement in my 100m pace. If you do a video again, please try and make one on the breathing mechanics, which as summed up right - puts you in good mood. Thanks and Regards.
Wow, that's a huge improvement! Congratulations! I'm glad I could help. Not sure I'll ever find enough time for another video like this one, but who knows? Thank you for leaving a comment! 🐳
I wish someone had taught me this during my early years. No wonder I never accomplished anything noteworthy in swimming despite killing myself during each practice. I did however succeed somehow in other sports such as rowing and running, which leads meto believe my technique was awful. It's never too late. Thank you so much for this...
Thank you for appreciating the effort and leaving a comment! It is never too late, indeed. I wish you good luck and a lot of fun swimming! 🐳
By far my most favorite Video on swimming!!!!!!!
I'm honored! Thank you for letting me know! 🐳
This is the best video I have found about how to properly do free style. I wish I had access to this kind of material in my swim team days; I would have been so much better. I'm getting my 5 year old started the right way. Thanks for doing this! Can't wait for the summer to practice.
Now, that's really nice to hear! I hope your child will have fun swimming. Thank you for the kind assessment and for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
Excellent work!
Your video has really helped my understanding of certain swimming principals that, to this point, were confusing to me.
I owe you a beer!
That's exactly what I hoped it could achieve. Thank you for the feedback! 🌻
This is the most well crafted and detailed videos I have seen after watching hundreds, well done
That's very kind of you! Thank you so much! 🐳
Thank you for this comprehensive and quite helpful explanation.
Thank you! I'm glad you got something out of it! 🙂
Greatest freestyle video I've seen in 25 years of trying to swim. Thank you, thank you.
Wow, thanks! And thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
A very comprehensive breakdown of the freestyle stroke which surely will result in faster swimming if followed through meticulously. Thanks a lot for the clear explanation. Your voice is also quite soothing as well. :-)
That is very nice of you to say! I'm glad the message came through. Thank you! 🌻🐳
Hello Schnodo, One of the best videos for front crawl arm movement, thank you 👍👍👍
Happy to hear it! Thank you for the comment! 🐳
Wow, great detail and marvellous schematics throughout the complete arm movement. Excited to apply this as I re-enter the water after a considerable layoff. My journey from “Competitive swimmer to triathlete to masters swimmer back to just enjoyment and fitness” now has a more important set of goals. Thanks and cheers, great job.
I enjoy getting positive feedback from beginners to intermediate swimmers because they're the ones I created the video for, but it's even nicer and quite reassuring to receive affirmation from experienced swimmers. Thank you for the praise! 🐳
The Mother Of All Breakdowns this arm stroke. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I'm happy to hear that you like the video. Thank you for leaving a comment! 🐳
This is an amazing video as it contains tremendous amount of useful info 😊😊, I have been studied this video word by word for 4 hours, now I finished my study 🥰
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for the comment! 🐳
Masterclass, the most practical, informative and simple breakdown.. perfect 👍. Thank you
Happy to hear it! Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
Sir,
Thank you so much for uploading a comprehensive video that focusses on the "Arm Cycle in freestyle".
Being a self taught Swimmer, i must say that the Arm Cycle is, "THE MOST challenging element in the stroke".
After watching this video, I can bet my bottom dollar, that nowhere on web one can find a similar content.
Besides, I would really appreciate if you can extend the same effort (i.e. research) towards simplifying other strokes.
Thank You and Good luck.
Regards.
Amar Majeed (India)
Thank you very much for your comment! Your assessment of my work is very kind. I felt compelled to create this video because over the years I had been given so much valuable information that I could not find gathered, structured, and presented in an easily digestible form anywhere else. Unfortunately, a lot of effort goes into such a project. Swimming is only a hobby for me and I simply don't find the time between work and everything else that is important to me. I hope that someone else will create what you are looking for! 🐳
Just a great way to communicate the core movement..
the stretching-out, and then contraction of, the latissimus dorsi
Like squeezing a balloon.. genius!
I'm happy to hear that the analogy works! Thank you for dropping a comment! 🐳
This is the best tutorial on this subject, thank you so much!
It is very kind of you to think so. Thank you for dropping a comment! 🐳
Brilliant. I am trying to master the free style technique late in life for triathlon and this video really helps. Thank you for breaking down this complex stroke in such an easy to understand way.
Thanks! Good luck with your upcoming races! 🐳
The best freestyle video that I've ever seen!
Thank you for the praise! I really appreciate it.
I agree
Great video, great help in teaching my 68 yr old wife to swim .!
Good to hear! I hope she enjoys the process. Thank you for the comment! 🐳
Masterpiece!, well done and well appreciated! This video is full of relevant information from beginning to end! Thank you for producing and sharing it with so many people! I laughed so much when you said that for many people swimming fast is bla bla bla! They simply live in denial as swimming faster with proper technic is heaven! 😁😁😁😁😁!
Thank you for the comment! It's good to hear that you found my video helpful! 😊🐳
I watched a lot of freestyle underwater action videos. However, there was no video that explained it as clearly as this video. Now I have confidence in the arm movement in the water, and I will practice right away from tomorrow. thank you.
Really happy to hear that you liked my video! Enjoy your practice and thank you for the comment! 🐳
Outstanding advice, Many thank for sharing.. I have also been researching this topic for 18 months and having this under one video is amazing. Great work and slowing the video and having demonstration on land, provides a clearer understanding. It all looks straight forward and logical until you try putting it all together. Attempting a 5k open water swim on Friday aided with these tips.. again many thanks. Visual comparison with the rowing catch, made the breakthrough for me,
Thank you very much for the detailed feedback! I'm really happy to hear that my video is helpful. Enjoy your 5 k swim! 🐳
@@schnodopicsYour very welcome. Do you swim long distance in the sea, would you mind sharing your PBs. I was trying to break 20 mins for 1k in the pool but in Covid this has not been possible. So resorted to the sea and enjoy a lot more and able to swim for 90 mins with ease. Will keep you abreast of 5k time in the sea.
I only swim in the sea when I'm on vacation and then usually I don't time my swims, I don't even wear a watch when swimming. I'm by no means a fast swimmer. Before the lock-downs occurred, in the pool, I could swim 100 m around 1:30, 1000 m around 16:30 and in a 4.5 km open water race, I finished in 1:24:xx, which put me in the top third of my age group.
But I also don't really train. I mostly swim for relaxation and to satisfy my curiosity regarding swimming technique. In a sense, I'm my own guinea pig. ☺
@@schnodopics Thanks again for the detail. Gives me a new set of targets to work against, I keep you posted on improvements on technique. What book would you recommend if I wanted some bed time reading on freestyle technique?
If you don't have it yet, get Sheila Taormina's Swim Speed Secrets 2nd ed. Also, you might want to take a look at her Swim Speed Strokes, which covers all the strokes. It made me realize the similarities and how and why improvements in one stroke carry over to the other. That makes it more likely that you'll become a complete swimmer, which also makes you a faster swimmer. And learning breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke no longer seems like you're wasting your time while you could improve your freestyle. You're doing it swimming the other strokes.
And when you get back in the pool, definitely get Sheila's Swim Speed Workouts card set. Usually, I hate going fast with short interval breaks but she designed the workouts so perfectly that they're doable, yet sometimes hard but never frustrating and always fun. That's all I can come up with at the moment. Of course there's Ernest Maglischo's Swimming Fastest but that's more like a textbook. Very complete but sometimes dry and a bit intimidating. I haven't read it completely, I only look at different topics in detail from time to time.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME MAKING THIS VIDEO. IT WILL BE MY GUIDE FOR ARM MOUVEMENT SWIMMING CRAWL. I SAW IT FOUR TIMES AND I WILL SEE IT, AGAIN AND AGAIN, EACH TIME BEFORE GOING TO SWIM. KIND OF MY DAILY ROUTINE!
It makes me quite happy that you find my video valuable enough to keep re-watching it. Thank you for letting me know! Good luck with your swimming and have fun! 🐳
Excellent work!! Professional explanations made easy
Happy to hear you liked it. Thank you for the praise! 🙂
This is the best shot explanation I have seen after watching quite a few now!
I'm very happy to hear that! Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! 🐳
Far and away, thee most informative how to video I have seen on this subject! Believing is seeing and seeing makes learning so much easier to understand and improve by replication. Thank you 🙏
I'm really happy to hear that my video makes sense to so many people. Thank you for the praise! 🐳
within the first two minutes of the video, i was like wowww ..this just clarified my confusion about body rotation as a beginner swimmer. No doubt by far the best swimming tutorial as to freestyle swimming
That's good to hear! Thank you for leaving a comment! 🐳