Swimlabs- What I Learned

After much frustration from lots of swimming and little progress over the last couple years, I finally decided to have my stroke analyzed by someone who knows what they're doing. For this, I went to Swimlabs in Denver for a complete stroke analysis and video. What I found is this:

1. My catch is good. What I thought was the single biggest flaw in my stroke was perfectly fine. I was performing a good high elbow catch with decent starting hand position (need to go a little deeper) and getting a grip on a good amount of water.

2. What followed was not good. I kept my elbow high, almost to the very top of the water, and was thus not able to grab much water through the rest of my stroke. In order to get still water to grab onto I needed to pull at a much deeper level.

3. From there, it did not get better. Instead of pushing hard out the back with strong triceps I chopped my stroke short and exited the water with no final push. This is likely a throwback from my high school days as a sprinter where that final push wasn't necessarily as useful in my high cadence, no form thrashing that somehow wasn't slow.

4. The final problem with the pull phase was that I simply did not have the strength to accelerate through the swim stroke time and time again. Because of the good form of my catch, large paddles were recommended to help develop this strength (it should be noted, paddles, especially large ones, should not be used without proper form).

5. After that, out of the water, form was good, but it was recommended that a straighter arm recovery could be beneficial for optimal higher cadence open water endurance swimming as it redirected the momentum of the arm instead of stopping it and starting in a new plane of motion. I had previously wondered why so many professional triathletes did this and now I know. However, since it deals with out of the water movement, it is last on my priority list to attempt to change. Though I am definitely not doing any more "fingertip" drills.

6. The final major flaw on my swim stroke was a tendency to occasionally flail the legs apart on my two beat kick. Though this maneuver is like a parachute for drag, simply swimming more seems to keep this from happening and is not currently a concern.

So with all those problems fixed or being worked on I now finally feel like I'm swimming properly. Now I just got to do a crap ton more of it...