The Swimming Expert

QUESTION:

Hi, in freestyle my child has a short stroke both at entry & at the end of the pull.

How can this be corrected? Are there drills they can work on?

Thank you Jenny

ANSWER:

Hi Jenny,

For swimmers who short stroke at the beginning and end of their stroke I would recommend taking a video of them swimming and letting them view what they look like and see what they are doing wrong.  This will assist them to correct it.

With the hand entry, encourage the swimmer to enter the water at least two thirds of the way forward and extend their hand forward until there is a slight bend remaining and the elbow is in a high position.  From this position, they can press with their hand,  downwards and slightly outwards at the beginning of the arm pull.

With the back part of their stroke, ask them to brush the outside of their thumb past their thigh on every stroke.  By doing this, you are providing them with a reference point that their hands must push back further and their thumb must touch their thigh.  They will find this difficult and after a lap or two will need to be reminded to brush their thumb past their thigh.  The swimmer will often complain that it feels like they are going slower because their hand is pushing through further however explain to them that they will actually be moving forward through the water more and once they get good at it, will actually be swimming faster.

In regards to drills, one is to do single arm freestyle with the second arm holding the board at the end and enter the other arm just in front of the board and extend it forward under the board.  They can do 25s or 50s with one arm and then swap to the other.  This is a teaching drill and provides them with time to practice the correct stroke technique.

If anyone has other suggestions, please feel free to include them below.

Regards

Gary

The Swimming Expert

QUESTION:

Hello Gary, I bought your book ‘Swimming for Parents’ and understand that by 13-18 years, technique plays a great role in whether the swimmer will excel or not.

My son who is 13, currently,  was winning every race at 12 years old during championship meets, now he seems to be faltering in every practice, and at every competition because he cannot focus on his under waters and breathing at the same time to “get the process right”.

He forgets to breath every 3 at times, and falls back into the same habit of the wrong technique in an effort to win, out of habit.

This is very frustrating as a parent who spends 8 times a week at the pool.  Are there any suggestions that you can give to help him to focus on achieving these techniques during daily practices, without falling back into the same old bad habits?  I am ready to take him out of swimming, as it seems he is unable to focus on technique, thus not get better, and we don’t want to invest the time and money into swimming, he can’t get the technique correct.

Thank You, TR

ANSWER:

Hi TR,  As children grow up they will go through stages were they will train and race well and other times were things just may not come together.

It sounds like your sons coach is focusing on the right things with ensuring he has correct technique, developing his underwater skills and working on correct breathing action and timing as a priority.

Teenagers will go through stages were their focus and concentration may not be as good as it may have been in the past and then at other times it will be really good.

As a parent, it is important that we remain patient and supportive when we get that feeling of frustration when our child may not be doing what they are asked to do.

Habits are hard to break and often take time, patience and lots of reminders.  Over the years I have found it useful to provide young swimmers with ‘triggers’ to help them to remember to do something.

An example may be that every time your son pushes of the wall he needs to use the push off as a trigger to do 6 or 8 fast hard butterfly kicks underwater in freestyle, backstroke and butterfly.

Another solution to help him improve is for the coach to provide him with only one key thing to focus on, for example breathing at the right time in relation to his arm stroke.  It is important then to provide feedback on the single skill he has been asked to concentrate on not on another aspect of his stroke.

You are right to say that technique is important so keep encouraging him to focus on this and over time, he will improve.

Regards

Gary

The Swimming Expert

QUESTION:

I have a 8 year old girl and a 9 year old boy.

They get entered into galas having to swim 800m as well as 200m IM, 100m freestyle, up to 7 or 8 races at a time. Is this very good for them?

As a parent I would like to ask the question, at what age is it healthy/unhealthy to make kids swim such big distances so young?

Thanks AJ

ANSWER:

Hi AJ,

Seven to eight races in a single day is a lot for a young swimmer, especially if there are one or two longer distance swims in there.

“Is this good for them?”  It really depends how they cope on the day.  To me the number of races seems a bit excessive for this age group and in my coaching experience I often found 4 to 5 good quality races would be the right number.

In regards to young children swimming 800m swims, I believe this is fine and so long as they are using correct technique, will be beneficial for them over time.  I’m not sure they need to do them all the time, as swims like this can also have the opposite affect and turn some children away from swimming – especially those who just like to race short distances or have short concentration spans.

The other benefit of doing a few 800m races is that those swimmers who practice on a regular basis will often perform better and see improvements in their times than those swimmers who turn up for practice irregularly and do not always put in a solid effort.

Some swimming coaches would even argue that children at a young age should only be allowed to race 200m events upwards because the 50 and 100 metre events can often reward the early developers who are stronger  at a young age, whilst the distance events reward the children who put in a consistent effort at practice.

Regards

Gary

The Swimming Expert

QUESTION:

Hi Gary,

My 9 & half year son is a decent freestyle swimmer.  One very major fault he carries is ” Spreading / Bending legs while breathing – he also turns his head more than required”  he breaths every 3 strokes. How to fix this?

Thanks, Divakar

ANSWER:

Hi Divakar,

In freestyle, many young swimmers will spread or bend their legs while breathing.  From my experience they do this for a few different reasons.

One is to stay balanced in the water as their body is turning to the side to breath. Some children feel as though they may “tip over” so they widen their legs when they are breathing to remain stable in the water. To correct this they should maintain a kicking motion up and down right throughout the breath.  While this will feel strange initially, it will help them very quickly to fix the problem.

A second reason is that some children who really like breaststroke, tend to do a wider kick whenever they take a breath (sometimes even a breaststroke kick).  Once again, maintaing a freestyle kick up and down throughout a breath, even if it feels strange at first, is what they need to do.

You also mention that your son turns his head more than required when breathing.  Encourage him to look along the water with his top eye and keep his cheek and ear well in the water when breathing.  Experienced swimmers also keep the corner of their mouth in or very close to the water.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Gary

The Swimming Expert

QUESTION:

Hi Gary,

I am wondering if you can help me out with my freestyle stroke?

Something is going on with it which has slowed my 800m time from a 9:12 to a 9:29 (twice) – over a period of a month. I am 13yrs old.

I have attached a link to a short movie of my stroke.

Thank you very much for any tips or advice you may have from watching the movie. I really enjoy your teaching videos etc.

Regards,   PH

ANSWER:

Hi PH,

There are a couple of things you can do to improve your freestyle.

1. As your left hand enters the water, your head should be turned to the right side to take a breath. You turn your head too late to breath (well after your left finger tips enter the water) which means that your head also goes back to a streamlined position late too. Your head is still breathing after your right hand has recovered past it.

2. It also appears that you lift your head a touch before breathing and turn your head off centre to the right to take your breath. This throws your body out of alignment.

For more hints I suggest you and your parents download the free ebook www.50SwimTips.com which will help you with some more freestyle tips and tips for the other strokes.

Regards

Gary

The Swimming Expert

QUESTION:

Hi Gary,

My 15 year old son only has the benefit of school swimming for training, there being no dedicated swim squads where we live and nobody with sufficient knowledge to advise on stroke.

I have noticed in his freestyle sprints that he seems to have moved to more of an open water stroke where his head is often quite a bit out of the water, especially when breathing and taking his long stroke. He says it helps him catch the wave but I am not sure whether it might in fact create resistance. He swims a 56sec 100m.

Any ideas on whether this is an acceptable head position.

Thanks Mike, Thailand

ANSWER:

Hi Mike,

If your son is swimming 56 seconds for 100m freestyle at 15 years without any dedicated swim squad, he is doing well.

When a swimmer lifts their head out of the water (or looks more forward), they will often drop their hips slightly which causes more resistance.  The high head position may also create more frontal resistance, so I would say your concerns are valid.

In freestyle, the face should be looking downward and slightly forward when it is underwater between breaths.

Your question is hard to answer without seeing your son swim however it may be worth suggesting to him to look a touch more downward when he is swimming to see if this helps his body to be more streamlined in freestyle.

Regards

Gary

The Swimming Expert

QUESTION:

Hi   I am 58 and have been swimming all my live unfortunately without any formal training. I have developed over the years a right shoulder injury due to only breathing to my left side. I have read all your articles related to breathing on both sides but still find it very difficult to breath to my right. Every time I force myself I concentrate to much on it that I completely forget to exhale underwater. I swim 8-15 km per week. Any advice?   Thank you   Hugo, Pretoria, South Africa

ANSWER:

Hi Hugo, Often when a person breathes on one side (for example your left side) the right arm tends to come right under the body and complete a powerful stroke and therefore has alot of resistance against it.  The left hand tends to stay a little bit wider during the underwater pull (because there is no breathing on the right side) and does not have quite the same pressure on it.  When this is done often enough over many years, one shoulder may get a little sorer than the other.

Yes, breathing on both sides would help you, however if you have tried this and cannot do it then work on making sure that both arms and hands do exactly the same stroke pattern underwater so that they take equal responsibility for moving you forward in freestyle.  Also make sure your right hand enters in a fairly flat position out in front and not angled so that the right thumb goes in first.  Hope that makes sense!

Regards

Gary

The Swimming Expert

QUESTION:

When starting to teach children freestyle arms and breathing could I please have your opinion whether we should teach 2,3 or 4 arms.

Is there any reason why all swimmers should bilateral breath? Or can they breath two & four strokes and  be just as strong and smooth in the water as a bilateral swimmer?  Any feedback back would be greatly appreciated.  Regards K

ANSWER:

Hi K, When teaching children freestyle I believe when armstrokes are introduced that 4 strokes is a good number to start with.  The reason for this is that it will often take them one, two or even three strokes to get the stroke pattern right each time.  If they only do 2 or 3 strokes they may struggle to do it correctly or make any necessary changes in just a few strokes.  I would also just practice 4 strokes with the right arm OR 4 strokes with the left arm initially before beginning a combination of one arm after the other.

In regards to breathing, I believe that they should learn to breath on both sides.

Drill 1: An initial drill would be freestyle kick with the board with the right hand holding the board and left hand by their side.  Ask them to do freestyle kick whilst blowing out bubbles and then turn their head to the left side to breath in and then turn it back down, then repeat each time they need a breath.  This can also be done with the left hand holding the board and breathing on the right hand side.

Drill 2: A similar drill can be used next with the right hand holding the board out in front and the left hand sitting out in front under the board, ready to pull through.  Every time the child needs a breath they should begin an armstroke with their left hand and turn to breath on their left side and then place their head back into the water until they need another breath in.  This can be practised on both sides of the body too so that the child learns to breath equally on both sides.

Drill 3: Single arm freestyle is a good drill to do next.  This can be done initially with the left arm and breathing on the left hand side and then with the right arm breathing on the right hand side.

When a child starts swimming at least 15 to 25 metres freestyle, they should learn to breath with various breathing patterns.  This includes breathing every 4 strokes, both on the left hand side and the right hand side.

It also means introducing breathing every 3 strokes so that they learn to alternate which side they breath. Bilateral breathing is a good skill for swimmers to be able to do as it teaches them to rotate equally on both sides of the body and to breath on both sides. It also means that if they choose (or their teacher/coach chooses) to breath on one side only, they can put in a 3 stroke breath every now and then to see what is happening on the other side of the pool.

Over time young children will like one breathing pattern over another.  Some will choose breathing every 3, others will choose every 2 or 4 (I prefer breathing every 4 for young children as it helps them to keep their head still rather than moving it all the time, and also helps to build up their lung capacity and breath control) and some will do a combination eg 4 4 3 3 4 4 where they will do a majority of breaths on the one side but still stick some 3′s in every now and then to provide balance.

Overall, a swimmer who breaths on one side can be just and strong and smooth as a swimmer who breaths bilaterally so it is worth teaching an experimenting over time with both.

Regards

Gary