OK, that I can work with…Thanks.
Oh and before you all go out and buy the tome; I would recommend it to all coaches as it’s the swim coaches bible BUT its massive, 800 pages, hardback and ~A4 in size. It weighs a ton. Loads of science and obviously the 4 strokes with starts and turns all included so much of it isn’t applicable to tri in general.
I love watching Florian Wellbrock swim.
Especially in triathletes with running background, who’ve adapted nice stiff Achilles tendons for running.
When I joined tri club here I turned up for first swim session and was asked standard to know what lane to put us in. I was a little non-committal (having not swam for 12 months, and knowing there was potentially pros in the club) but enough to say I used to swim well as a kid and was likely for top lane.
Apparently as soon as I pushed off the wall they all said oh he’s a swimmer just from seeing ankle flexibility and streamline.
Whereas runners with toes pointing to the floor go backwards on kick only.
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See how your palm is facing to the right pool wall - I think it should point towards the wall behind you much more (pretty much the whole way through the stroke). The ‘S pull’ some describe of in-sweep + out-sweep + push back is generally over-exaggerated, and comes more naturally from body rotation rather than you trying to make it happen with your hands.
I know @Hammerer wrote this in relation to kick, but it’s the same idea. Moving your hand side to side isn’t propelling you forwards.
Newtons 3rd law!
oh and this, the Maglischo photo I posted mentions in sweep out sweep which may confuse some people. This relates to the “S” pull theory. This motion shouldn’t be exaggerated, just pull straight back, the body rotation does the rest.
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We do an exercise from time to time where we draw a spot on the palm of our hands with a marker pen and the idea is that the spot should be pointing to the back of the pool at all times, or you’re not pushing water backwards to go forwards.
It’s nothing you can’t do without a spot, and just think of the palm of your hand, but somehow the spot seems to focus attention better.
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Thank You!! That makes sense and I hadn’t at all noticed I do it… Something clear and simple to “mantrasize”
Do feet point and flex during kick, or do you just point them?
point them, dont worry about the rest. The water pressure from the kick will cause flex in the ankle naturally, trouble is they don’t move on a typical adult and an adult cant point them far enough so they create a lot of drag, like two big anchors.
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Point them (plantar flex), but there is a tendency when try to kick hard that the feet dorsi flex which increases drag
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Just sharing some thinking around my swim stroke, (that would be much better evidence or informed with some associated video, but I don’t have that, or easy means to get that… ) so in the absence of the video, here’s some symptoms, my diagnosis, plus planned work to address for your (as best as can be given in the case) feedback…
Some weeks back, while taking more time to analyse my swim, I realised that, post swim, I felt a lot more tiredness in my deltoids than my lats, and working it through, it suggested that I wasn’t even close to rotating enough, and therefore not using my back muscles anywhere close to enough, and thus losing a lot of power and tiring too quickly…. so i’ve spent a few weeks really working on rotation, and can clearly feel the soreness shifting to my upper back…. so far so good….
However, i’ve had a lot of feedback from people that I have quite a significant scissor kick too…I can’t feel it myself (apparently that’s not unusual), but enough people have mentioned it that its hard to deny…
And last night, a decent swimmer mentioned to me, while watching from the pool side that my right recovery is lovely, high elbow, elbow led, and my left is a wide swing out, hand first…. this lends itself to suggesting that I am still not rotating enough on one side (I don’t really breath bilaterally which might not help), and don’t have enough shoulder flexibility, plus probably ending up crossing over a bit, or pulling in rather than back to get my arm into the right place… and that is probably what is causing my scissor kick.
I am also notably faster with a pull buoy… not I suspect because it raises my legs (that’s at least one thing that’s not too bad), but because it stops me scissor kicking.
So…….
My plan is to keep working on rotation, make another concerted effort on bilateral breathing, and much more core work on land, along with shoulder flexibility… and then lots of drills to work on leading with my elbow (not fussed about high elbow, just stopping leading with my hand, and in effect throwing my hand forwards and flattening my swim, and inducing more incorrect rotation/twist). I’ll back this up with a bit of pull buoy work to try and isolate my legs and relearn to keep them in line, as well as kick board (that I hate like most others)….
Thoughts?…. is that a rational analysis?
I am no swimmer so won’t advise on that. On Mobility it’s easy to focus on the shoulders but I would think thoracic spine mobility could influence this too. It’s simple enough to work as part of core or weights session if so.
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Usually a scissor kick is as a direct result of other issues with balance. I prescribe 400m of 0 arm drill (nad or no arm drill) .
JK but 400 of 0 to full will work, so nad (breath every 3 , 6 beat kick) for 100, single arm l / r (arm by side breath non stroke side) then into full stroke breathing every 3.
Great drill
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Thanks @Hammerer that looks like the sort of drill that takes a while to be able to do without drowning when you swim as badly as I do….
Will take your advice and give it a good shot!
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You will drown , even the best swimmers do 
but its a drill that if performed badly doesn’t have a negative as you learn to do it better. The 100 FC at the end you will feel awesome. If it’s too hard, try with fins to start and progress.
I’ve had/have similar issues with the hand leading on the left recovery. I’ve always struggled on the left with this & that but the root cause turned out to be not patient enough with the lead arm on the right so the recovery on the left gets rushed.
Just throwing that out there as sounds quite similar.
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That no arm drill looks impossible 
I’d just nosedive to the bottom. Might give it a go for a laugh if it’s quiet one time though.
Maintaining an elbow led recovery is something I struggle with too. I can feel it happening especially as I get tired and your arms end up just spinning round like a windmill. I’ve not got the best flexibility so have quite a straight arm recovery too which doesn’t help. Annoying as when it clicks it makes such a huge difference.
Don’t overthink the recovery, just keep it as economical as possible, and try to avoid swinging around as it can cause a crossover.
There’s something about doing fingertip drag drill that calms and relaxes me ( so I’m probably doing it wrong).- It’s meant to be a good recovery drill though isn’t it?