That is great news! It will indeed reduce pain and allow a free flowing recover arm

Yep! That previous video we were very much oriented towards a 2 beat 'kick', more knee flexion and press down - now subtle change, to a more upper leg / glute based press; our swimmers have found this incredible shift to a smoother, lighter cleaner stroke. More balanced and streamlined. Those previous exercise's can still be applied and practiced with more of a press application. We're taking them down and re - doing them

@@SWIMLABAustralia I like the idea of the split: I saw the same leg movement in other videos of prominent long distance swimmers. My legs go into the stacked position that you mentioned (similar to Terry's, I guess, but much more splayed) and tend to sink. And I don't feel what you describe in the video, this pressing up and down. I tried the exercise a few times with no success. Is it a matter of practice?

@@mister-kay If the body over rotates, the legs will tend to stack. Swim flatter 30-40deg max! They will split wide to counter balance over rotation, or some swimmers use the scissor (quite late) to initiate rotation. If the leg movement has been a prominent 'kick' ie coming from a knee flexion 'wind up' and then extension, flicking down with the foot; it can take a while to shift to a straighter leg glute kick. The movement comes from the glute, not knee, (there is the smallest of knee bends) Try some vertical kicking - if you knee bend you'll sink. You will quickly problem solve a more glute based kick. Kicking in super man, focussing on lifting the leg up, the hamstring area... is another possible exercise.

@@SWIMLABAustralia Yes, using the scissor kick (and a very wide one!) to initiate rotation is probably about me. I've tried vertical kicking a few times and I'm not sinking, which is good! There's something I don't understand about the angle of rotation though. During recovery, when the bent at the elbow arm passes the shoulder, it forms an equilateral triangle with the surface of the water. This means that the angle between the upper arm and the surface of the water is 60 degrees. If the shoulders are turned at an angle of 30 degrees to the surface of the water, then it means that the upper arm should go behind the back by 30 degrees, which is bad, bad, not good...

@@mister-kay Everyone has different proportions in terms of arm length, torso length, shoulder mechanics. Rather than 'set' angles, work at a body rotation of 30-40 deg max. Upper arm needs to stay in the front portion of the frontal plane to avoid shoulder impingement or stress on the rotator cuff.

That is great news! Hope you feel improvement

The legs will split a little, sometimes this depends on the pace of the stroke. Reducing knee flexion or a big wind up from the knee is key but, there will be some small kneed bend.

The water will support the head in a neutral position; gaze can be directly to the bottom of the pool or a couple of degrees forward. With neutral head / spine line… there will be a small portion of the head just above the water. But… there are many postural and skeletal individualities where we will suggest the best position. The head, rib cage and torso are connected- if the head position is too high, or chin extended out and forwards… it ‘can’t cause a posterior tilt of the rib cage… and anterior tilt of the pelvis which isn’t a great mechanic for swimming. Lengthening through the top of the head, and the spine is key! Hope this helps

We scale it up using the tempo trainer... sub 1:00 per stroke. The principles are mainly drag reduction and front quadrant timing... I swim 1 hr 15 m 5k in open water. We are non competitive swimmers ie not Masters swimmers, most of our community want injury free, pace holding stroke. Many of our squad swimmers are sub 2:00 pace - what is your current pace?

@SWIMLAB I am about 2 minutes per 100 but still working on keeping that pace over 200 meters in the pool otherwise it starts to drop over 230 per 1600.

@@chrisdm1703 Is that 2:00 aerobic effort 60-70% or are you working at it 'threshold' more like 80%? drop me an email and tell me more about your structure for improving pace. 2:00 /100m is a real water shed pace; margins for improvement in swimming get harder sub 2:00 for what we call adult onset swimmers. There could be some technique help needed, and an idea of how to structure your pool conditioning. The other important question is how many strokes is each length taking... this is a big factor in pace holding

thanks for the feedback; pull too far passed the hip and many swimmers will stress their rotator cuff

A fluent, efficient stroke with good head and body position will 'push' the water evenly, creating a bow wave; just one small aspect to keep in mind

That's great news! Glad it helped. Keep your lower arm passive. It will also protect your shoulders from injury

Helen - let me know what challenges you have with your swimming. Contact us through the website or sms

Thank you for your comment Scott! Remember this is a static practice, so there is no bow wave produced. This practice gives the swimmer an idea of the feel of the head position; keeping the head - spine line neutral.. head rotated, not lifted to breath. When stationary, we must bubble through the nose to prevent water going up. I also keep my mouth closed, as it's merely a 'position' demo. A good breath should be seamless, and integrated which means a low head, I nearly always get water in my mouth, just a habit. But it just comes out of my mouth when the head returns back.

Thanks for the feedback, very useful. I also read that moving the mouth to the side as in pursing the lips helps prevent swallowing water but that is very interesting to know that you can take in water but export it out under the water. Yes the breath has to be a quick inhale before going back underwater. I don’t think front crawl is for me but will give it another go. I think to get the bow wave you have to have momentum in the water as well? Thanks for your help

@@scottbarclay6 if you're 'learning' freestyle, try to keep you distance's short and build a stroke rhythm over 8-10 strokes with no breathing (slow exhale and diaphragm control), before adding breathing. Where are you based? We have a really good 6 session video series available with practice cheat sheet included. Are you following the Total Immersion 'method'? Drop me a line on swimlab.com.au

I am in Scotland UK Thanks for the tips 👍

Thank you for the feedback. Just terminology to encourage swimmers on programs to get the idea of front quadrant. Our swimmers are non competitive, many, more mature aged who do not come from an age group swimming back ground with the 1'000's of hours of muscle memory embedded. You're right, it is a 'drill' and emphasised coaching cue.. and we have move our terminology and emphasis away from the words 'patient' as it was not serving. We are not high level competitive swimmers, but long distance, ocean swimmers, and lean towards stroke length work, over stroke rate. When conditioned I swim a 1:30/100m pace open water 5k, which for me is a happy place.

@@SWIMLABAustralia I like how you differentiated your work as for less competitive people. I'm not even sure my comment isn't right for many competitive people. There are a who's who of world class freestyles using this catch-up sort of rhythm. I like what you do. I will say though that even some of the non competitive people I work with respond well to sort of windmill strokes where the core is more involved and they are almost off balance when the lead hand enters and pull almost immediately to "swim downhill". It's different for many people and the combination of what we both have presented gives us both a larger toolkit :). Steve Friederang, Publisher, Competitive Swimmer Magazine.

@@SteveFriederang nice! Horses for courses as they say! Happy laps💙👍🏊‍♀️

@@SWIMLABAustralia Happy laps indeed! I got in today with one of my toughest 13-year-old swimmers and swam while she kicked a thousand. She averaged 1:27 and I had to work to keep up. She goes 1:04's for the mile full swimming but I thought I might have a chance to stay with her in endurance kicking. No way! I can kill her in running, cycling, basketball, and even most non-specific things in the SWMGYM I own and run. But in actual swimming, you have to actually do it to be fit for... swimming! So, I need more happy laps. Thanks for the fun and the reminder. Keep up the great work.