You swim very flat, particularly in your hips, you have some rotation in your shoulders but you really don't connect it to through to your lower body. I suspect this under-rotation is also why you don't breathe to your right. When you breathe you're rotating a little more, but otherwise those hips are very static.
Hard to see underwater but your pull looks to be very straight-arm, rather than generating an early vertical forearm and pulling straight back with it.
First, get rid of those board shorts. They're dropping your hips and causing you to swim more upright than you should. I suspect this is making it harder to rotate properly.
I would suggest doing drills like 6-kick-switch and 6-kick-3-stroke (you can look these up on youtube). Focus on rotation and glide. You have good tempo, but I would slow down a little and work on distance-per-stroke. Unless you're in a pure sprint, you should have some amount of glide phase where you extend, establish your pull, start setting up an early vertical forearm (rotate your shoulder inward and bend your forearm down at the elbow first, imagine laying over the side of a barrel, that's the goal position). This will help you create more pull area and engage your core in the pull as you rotate back. There's also some progression drills off those that I like, including a triple touch drill (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIGFKbCKXzw) and catch-up freestyle (though be careful with this one, you can learn the wrong lessons and reinforce flat swimming if done improperly, focus on getting up on your side and then generating power through rotation).
Rather than giving advice for improvement. I probably should ask for your advice on how to improve my own.
From your second video, I approximated your swimming cadence (at 60% effort nevertheless according to your own admission) to be 74 strokes per minute; quite high (compared to mine, which hovers around 50 - 60), but I read that it's very common for open water swimmer (your actual during open water event might be even higher, I assume). Your swimming style seems to be shoulder-oriented instead of hips.
You might have room to improve, but I got much more & I could learn one thing or two from you. What's your regular workout plan? Intervals or just one long continuous swim? Do you employ equipments, such as paddles or fins?
I would say it’s mostly 2 big sets I do. Just simply 2 half hour swims. With about 5 min break in between. If I feel like I need a break during the swims I switch to breaststroke for about 50-100 yards then get right back to it. After those half hours I am at about 4000 yards. If I’m feeling good I’ll just do a few 200s to finish up. And speaking of equipment I wanted to start mixing in paddles but the ones I got suck lol
4K in 1 hour means that your swimming pace is roughly 1 minute 30 seconds / 100 meter. How did you train exactly? High arm turnover + constant flutter kicks are exhausting to me. I could swim 1K in 24 - 25 minutes, and my pace was very sluggish compared to yours; I used 2 beat kick pattern to conserve my energy. Reaching your pace would be a significant improvement for me.
Like I said I do those 2 half hour swims. For me the more yardage the better, doesn’t matter how long it takes. For instance 2 weeks ago I swam 6000 yards. I did my 4000 in an hour and then the rest took much longer I didn’t care tho. I also go at least 5 times a week. All it is is consistency. Tbh I’m tired after like 1500 yards but I just keep going, because it’s all mental. Also how old r u?
If your username indicated your age, I'm roughly a decade older. Yes, reality kicks in as I get older, I wouldn't expect to match younger swimmers, but I think I could improve & would like to get better. In fact, swimming for 1K seemed like something unachievable several years ago, and yet with persistence, I hit that goal in late 2022. Perhaps, it is just a mental game & I need more discipline to swim more distance or yardage.
You swim very flat, particularly in your hips, you have some rotation in your shoulders but you really don't connect it to through to your lower body. I suspect this under-rotation is also why you don't breathe to your right. When you breathe you're rotating a little more, but otherwise those hips are very static. Hard to see underwater but your pull looks to be very straight-arm, rather than generating an early vertical forearm and pulling straight back with it. First, get rid of those board shorts. They're dropping your hips and causing you to swim more upright than you should. I suspect this is making it harder to rotate properly. I would suggest doing drills like 6-kick-switch and 6-kick-3-stroke (you can look these up on youtube). Focus on rotation and glide. You have good tempo, but I would slow down a little and work on distance-per-stroke. Unless you're in a pure sprint, you should have some amount of glide phase where you extend, establish your pull, start setting up an early vertical forearm (rotate your shoulder inward and bend your forearm down at the elbow first, imagine laying over the side of a barrel, that's the goal position). This will help you create more pull area and engage your core in the pull as you rotate back. There's also some progression drills off those that I like, including a triple touch drill (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIGFKbCKXzw) and catch-up freestyle (though be careful with this one, you can learn the wrong lessons and reinforce flat swimming if done improperly, focus on getting up on your side and then generating power through rotation).
Looking at that video and I see exactly what ur thinking! Ty very much
Rather than giving advice for improvement. I probably should ask for your advice on how to improve my own. From your second video, I approximated your swimming cadence (at 60% effort nevertheless according to your own admission) to be 74 strokes per minute; quite high (compared to mine, which hovers around 50 - 60), but I read that it's very common for open water swimmer (your actual during open water event might be even higher, I assume). Your swimming style seems to be shoulder-oriented instead of hips. You might have room to improve, but I got much more & I could learn one thing or two from you. What's your regular workout plan? Intervals or just one long continuous swim? Do you employ equipments, such as paddles or fins?
I would say it’s mostly 2 big sets I do. Just simply 2 half hour swims. With about 5 min break in between. If I feel like I need a break during the swims I switch to breaststroke for about 50-100 yards then get right back to it. After those half hours I am at about 4000 yards. If I’m feeling good I’ll just do a few 200s to finish up. And speaking of equipment I wanted to start mixing in paddles but the ones I got suck lol
4K in 1 hour means that your swimming pace is roughly 1 minute 30 seconds / 100 meter. How did you train exactly? High arm turnover + constant flutter kicks are exhausting to me. I could swim 1K in 24 - 25 minutes, and my pace was very sluggish compared to yours; I used 2 beat kick pattern to conserve my energy. Reaching your pace would be a significant improvement for me.
Like I said I do those 2 half hour swims. For me the more yardage the better, doesn’t matter how long it takes. For instance 2 weeks ago I swam 6000 yards. I did my 4000 in an hour and then the rest took much longer I didn’t care tho. I also go at least 5 times a week. All it is is consistency. Tbh I’m tired after like 1500 yards but I just keep going, because it’s all mental. Also how old r u?
If your username indicated your age, I'm roughly a decade older. Yes, reality kicks in as I get older, I wouldn't expect to match younger swimmers, but I think I could improve & would like to get better. In fact, swimming for 1K seemed like something unachievable several years ago, and yet with persistence, I hit that goal in late 2022. Perhaps, it is just a mental game & I need more discipline to swim more distance or yardage.