Comments for Effortless Swimming

Comment on Three Steps To Better Freestyle by swarve_man

swarve_man — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 04:56:20 +0000

Work on stay high in the water and imagine yourself breathing towards your armpit, so your head doesn’t raise, it turns to the side.

Make sure you blow out all your air before you take your next breath.

Comment on Three Steps To Better Freestyle by Jennylouw

Jennylouw — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 05:10:02 +0000

I have now been slowly improving my freestyle over the past 6 months, thanks to your videos! But my question is, I seem to sink a little when taking my breath. I breath every 3rd stroke, but seem to lose momentum and sink a little. How do I stop this?

Comment on Body Position in Freestyle – The 3 Steps to Achieving Correct Body Position in Freestyle by swarve_man

swarve_man — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 03:37:57 +0000

@Reg – Work on staying high in the water, so rather than being ‘in’ the water you’re sitting ‘on top’ of it. Once you make this shift mentally swimming will become much easier.

Comment on What Is Your Most Pressing Question About Swimming? (Plus Freestyle Breathing Tip) by swarve_man

swarve_man — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 03:35:02 +0000

@Frank – Long distance (over 200m) doesn’t use much leg propulsion, it’s only in sprinting where kick power is highly important. Shoulder rotation and your ‘catch’ are more important in anything over ‘200m’.

Video on how to flip turn – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmxmKaYpAYc

@James – Great effort with your results. To improve your stamina in the 100m, breath control sets will help. An example set would be 8×50 on 2 mins where you don’t breath at all for the first 15-25m, and on your last 50m see how far you can go without breathing.

@Vince – Explosive swimming helps increase stroke rate and build up fast twitch fibers in the body. An example of an explosive set would be 6×15m sprinting with a stroke rate higher than you normally would in a race.

@ Stephen – Vertical kick will improve your kick – http://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle/swim-kick-technique/
Ankle, hamstring and lower back flexibility is important too.

How to stop choking on water – http://effortlessswimming.com/freestyle/breathing-in-freestyle-how-to-stop-choking-on-water/

Comment on What Is Your Most Pressing Question About Swimming? (Plus Freestyle Breathing Tip) by Stephen Harris

Stephen Harris — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 19:09:11 +0000

I’ve studied the kick of good swimmers but it doesn’t seem to take. Mine’s very weak, although I’m in good shape and fairly strong. I’d love to improve it.

And, Bilateral breathing. Your diagrams and explanations are excellent, but I still tend to get water instead of air about 50% of the time on my left (unused) side.

Comment on Body Position in Freestyle – The 3 Steps to Achieving Correct Body Position in Freestyle by Reg.Gunthorpe

Reg.Gunthorpe — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:25:50 +0000

How do you ‘get flat’? I press my chest down,arch my back, pull my stomach in, with minimal results – so frustrating! I can feel the drag from my lower half with every stroke I take, any more suggestions?

Comment on What Is Your Most Pressing Question About Swimming? (Plus Freestyle Breathing Tip) by vince

vince — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:22:16 +0000

hey brenton

what tips do you have to building and achieving a high and consistent stroke rate and what benchmarks do you set for younger swimmers say 9-14 years

Comment on What Is Your Most Pressing Question About Swimming? (Plus Freestyle Breathing Tip) by James

James — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:48:34 +0000

Hi Brent,

I am 25 years old. Have been swimming now for 2 1/2 years and been competing for 2 years now. I competed in a 100 metre freestyle event and knocked 1 second off my P’B and achieved a time of 1.00.04. However i am struggling with my breathing patterns and wondered if you could help me out?. I find when i hit my third length i really feel as if im losing my stamina and when i hit my fourth length i am breathing every 2 strokes- do you have any drills i could try to control and improve my breathing and stamina?

Thanks Brent

Regards

JAMES O’BRIEN

Comment on What Is Your Most Pressing Question About Swimming? (Plus Freestyle Breathing Tip) by Frank

Frank — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 11:37:08 +0000

Hello Brenton,
While using ‘free-stroke’ what % of forward motion comes from the kick and how much comes from the arms? I ask this because l’m beginning to realise that my kick is non-existent. How to correct this?
Now about turns,a really basic question,how to turn?
Thanks a lot. Frank

Comment on Advanced Technique Strategies For Swimmers by swarve_man

swarve_man — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:38:26 +0000

@ Rajesh – Great to hear she’s going well. I’ll be putting together some new drills in the next few months for other strokes. In the meantime it’s worth looking at the Swimfast DVD’s, they’re good value.