Correct Swimming Technique

In this series of “Break Your Bad Habits” from http://triswimpro.com, I discuss how to correct one of the most common technique issues many triathletes face- an elbow dropping at the start of the pull. Pay special attention in this video as the swimmer has a high stroke count and appears to be using a lot of energy- not something you want in an open water or triathlon swim. I’ve also included a video of the correct technique for a more efficient freestyle.

Transcript: Hi, it’s Kevin with Triswimcoach.com and I’m going to talk today about one of the most common problems with freestyle swimming that I see, and that is swimming to flat in the water. I’ll show you a video of an example of someone that’s doing that and also how to correct it.

You can see here that she’s not doing a whole lot of rotating. You should see some rotation from the hips. There’s a little bit, but her stroke you can tell she’s flailing a lot, kicking really hard, and her stroke rate is really fast. A lot of that is just to stay up on the surface of the water, so with the hip rotation, it will be a lot easier for you to glide, get a lot more out of your stroke, and stay up at the surface without using a ton of energy. That’s a key element to learn here with swimming and that’s the first thing we teach with the side kicking and the shark fin drill.

Okay, now this is going to be the correct technique in freestyle with rotating hips. You’re going to want to pay attention to how my arm goes straight and my hips rotate. So every time my hand enters the water I am rotating my hips. It’s a long stroke and generally what you want to try to do for triathlon swimming and you want to try and keep that arm straight and no elbow dropping when you enter it in the water. It’s a straight arm and then a bent elbow.

Here is a shot from the front. You can see my hand is entering straight into the water and then my hips are rotating.
Thanks for watching and I hope that was helpful.

For more resources like this one and to get the edge in your swim for your next triathlon, check out triswimcoach.com.
See you soon!