To swim smart and swim fast, you must first learn and practice the proper stroke techniques
and fundamentals.
Just as important is how you start, turn, and finish.
The precious hundreds of seconds you gain in these areas can give you the competitive
edge.
Just like stroke technique, there are fundamentals and practice routines that can make you a
smarter, faster swimmer.
Hi, I'm Richard Quick, Stanford women's swimming coach.
Hello, I'm Skip Kenny, men's swimming coach at Stanford.
Today we're going to have some fun with starts, turns, and finishes.
Skip, you know that 25% of your race involves those techniques.
We're going to start with the very basic and then take you through and show you the
quickness in the starts, including relay starts, and streamlining off the wall on turns.
Then we'll take it to the end of the race to allow you to see how to win your close
races.
And we're going to do this with some great world-class athletes, as well as some young
developing age group swimmers.
This should be a great session.
Streamlining, an essential part of all great starts and turns.
It starts with your finger alignment.
You want to make sure that your fingers are lined up with each other and your thumb is
wrapped around your wrist.
If your hands are in this position, you can't get your elbows close together and you can't
streamline through your shoulders.
So make sure that your fingers are lined up and your thumb is wrapped around your wrist.
Then squeeze your biceps against the back part of your head, trying to get your elbows
as close together as possible.
That streamlining through the shoulders is extremely important.
If you have loose shoulders, you're going to catch water resistance.
So streamlining through the shoulders, trying to get your elbows absolutely as close together
as possible.
Another important factor is your head position.
If your head is too far forward, you're going to catch water resistance on the back.
If your face is too far forward, like this, you're going to catch water resistance in
the face.
Keep your head lined up with your arms and your body.
Another important factor is your back.
You want to have as flat a back as possible.
You do that by rolling your pelvis forward, tightening up your stomach muscles, and squeezing
your hips together.
That way you're as straight as possible.
Think all the time about the elimination of resistance, streamlining, pay close attention
to it.
It's part of all great starts and turns.
Let's talk a minute about the start.
You're going to see too tight.
You're going to see the conventional grab start.
Some of the important things to think about.
Before the race starts, you'd be in a relaxed state of concentration.
Don't be looking around at your parents or be looking up in the stands or even at the
competitors.
You'd be concentrating on your race and the instructions the starter's giving you.
You're standing either relaxed or you might even be slightly bent over in this kind of
a position, relaxed, concentrating on your race.
Now, when the starter says take your mark, you step forward in a smooth movement, curling
your toes over the edge of the starting block so that you have a good grip.
And remember, you can grab outside your feet or you can grab between your feet.
The main thing is that you get a good, comfortable stance.
I suggest that your thumbs be forward and not back on the starting block.
When they're forward, your hands are stronger.
You want to, when the gun goes off, you want to have a quick flex of the arms to pull your
center of gravity forward and then throw your arms out as hard as possible, trying to jump
to the other end of the pool, but also jumping your hips up so that you can get your body
through the same hole.
You want your hands, elbows, head, shoulders, hips, knees, and feet all to go through the
same hole.
You'll notice that the best starters don't give us too much splash.
All right, freestyle, breaststroke, and butterfly starts.
The technique of getting off the block is essentially the same.
You may want to be a little bit deeper in the breaststroke start, but in butterfly and
freestyle, you want to be just under the surface of the water and in streamlining with the
fast feet, good dolphin kick, or whatever the case may be.
Take your mark.
Now when you're in this position, be relaxed as possible with tension on your fingertips
and a slight, ever so slight bend in your arms.
You don't want your arms locked out straight.
A slight bend in the arms.
Okay, stand up again.
Okay, this time we'll go on the go.
So flex our arms quickly and throw our arms out, stopping them at about a 45-degree angle
with the goal of being getting through the same hole.
You want your hands, your elbows, your shoulders and head, your hips, and your feet to go through
the same hole in the water so that that's as little resistance as possible.
Okay, take your mark, go.
Take your mark.
Have your weight forward on the front part of your feet, but don't have your heels off
the deck because you'll be in a position where you might lose balance.
Take your...
Let's sit back again, Derek.
All right, here we go.
Take your mark, go.
Through the same hole.
He had the momentum of his jump, he had the momentum of his weight going down and streamlining
and carrying forward as far as possible underwater before he started his first stroke.
He didn't want to lose the momentum from the start.
Good job.
Sometimes, Jason, you might want to bend over a little bit.
You might want to be down in this position right here, okay, just before you walk up.
Take your mark.
That looks good.
That looks good.
Make sure you hook your toes so you have a good grip on that block.
That looks great.
Okay, stand.
All right, let's try that again.
That's good, relaxed here, concentrating.
That's good.
Take your mark, go.
The track start has become very popular as a swimming start.
Let's have the stance, Janelle, first.
Take your mark.
Now, you have your hands about shoulder width apart, maybe a little wider.
I suggest that your thumbs be forward, hook over the edge because your hand is stronger.
Point your toes forward and have the front foot hooked over the edge well.
Now, your weight in the track start is back so that you can use your arms to catapult
yourself over the surface of the water.
All right, stand, Janelle.
All right, track start.
Take your mark, go.
The advantage of the track start is that you're a little quicker getting into the water and
you have to really concentrate on throwing your arms out hard so that you get as much
distance as possible.
But the advantage is you get in the water a little bit quicker.
All right, Derek, take your mark, go.
But you'll notice that there wasn't much splash on Derek's entry.
That's because he got his hands and his head and his shoulders and his hips and his feet
through the same hole.
Excellent start.
All right, Brooke.
Take your mark, go.
All right.
Backstroke start.
Let's break it down.
Hand position.
Your hands are about shoulder width on the starting bar.
Your head is looking straight back between your hands or maybe a little bit down.
And your feet are placed on the wall so that your toes are right at the surface.
Let me give you a hint.
If you're on a slippery wall, you may want to stagger your feet.
So if one foot slips, maybe the other one stays in place.
So stagger your feet just a little bit if it's a slippery wall.
Otherwise, have both feet up because you can jump better with both feet together.
All right, when the starter says take your mark, pull your body toward the bar.
A little bit up and pull your body in.
Your hips kind of go away from the wall.
You only want about a 90-degree bend in your knees.
So you're in that set position.
Now, when the starter shoots the gun, you push against the bar, explode with your arms
against that bar.
You want to jump up and out.
Your arms swing at about a 45-degree angle up this way.
Or maybe they're bent and go this way, but the important thing is that you get your hands
back in a streamlined position as fast as possible.
Remember, it's a backward dive in the water.
So you want your arms streamlined back this way.
You throw your head back, and you're going for a backward dive in the water.
You try to jump your chest and your stomach up, and as your feet leave the wall, kick
your feet up so you have a chance to get through that same hole.
Again, when you're underwater, you streamline several quick dolphin kicks underwater, depending
on what you've trained for.
You have 15 meters to get your head up, and then you use the breakout stroke with a lot
of power, keeping your legs driving into that breakout stroke.
Take your mark.
Now, Jeff's style is looking down.
You can look straight forward, or you can look down.
That's the important position right there.
He's coiled and ready to go.
All right, relax, Jeff.
All right, this will be a start, Jeff.
Now notice he'll throw his arms back and jump at the same time, and his goal is to get his
whole body through the same hole.
Try to jump out of the water and back, and to streamline through the same hole.
Take your mark, go.
All right, you'll notice with the younger kids that they don't have quite the power
that the world-class athletes have, but the principles are still the same.
They want to be in a great position beforehand and concentrate on quickly getting their hands
back in a streamlined position and trying hard to dive through the same hole.
But the lack of power in their legs makes it a little bit harder for the younger kids.
Now the idea on a perfect relay start is to be stretched out over the surface of the water
with your toes still in contact with the starting block when your teammate touches the wall.
Now it's the responsibility of the swimmer swimming in to have a great finish.
Notice Derek follows her in with her hands, and this is an arm swing relay takeoff.
With the arm swing relay takeoff, he can take advantage of the momentum he can create by
a backwards swing of the arms and swinging through powerfully.
She follows in with her hands and starts a good relay takeoff.
This is becoming a more popular relay takeoff because of the momentum you can create by
stepping forward, and so you get not only the momentum of an arm swing, but of your
body moving forward at the time your teammate touches the wall.
So this will be the running relay takeoff demonstrated by Janelle Jorgensen.
Derek will be swimming in for her, steps forward, and uses the momentum of her arms the same
way, and the key to that start is to have the timing down right so that you're stepping
forward as your teammate approaches at just the right time.
Butterfly turns.
Let's improve your butterfly turn today.
Every great turn, every fast turn begins about five to seven meters from the wall as you
anticipate your stroke count into the wall.
We would ideally like to work every single turn with that perfect arm stroke right on
the wall, but it doesn't always work that way.
Sometimes we come up short, and if we do come up short, we want to be able to streamline
into the wall, one hand on top of the other, the same way you'd streamline off the wall.
Sometimes as you reach for the wall your hands separate, it's not a real tight grip, but
a firm grip on the wall.
In fact, your first hand just barely touches the wall and then comes right into your side.
You bring that first hand into your side to make for a smaller turning racer, a smaller
ball turns faster.
That second hand then comes off behind your ear, comes off the wall behind your ear.
It does not come up over your head.
You're looking for a faster, straight line from point A to point B.
We would like the head position to travel into the wall and back out of the wall on
the same path and not go around the corner.
Let me see if I can show you that.
Your first arm comes off the wall, tight into your side.
The second arm then comes right behind the ear as the head looks straight up to the sky.
The hands then meet, streamline off the wall as the head's tucked between the arms.
We would like that push off to be deep.
Remember, deeper water is faster water.
Then your break out.
That can be three kicks, possibly four kicks, depending on how great your dolphin kick is.
Remember the tennis ball effect.
The faster you throw the ball against the wall, the faster it comes off.
You need to use that momentum into the wall to carry that speed off the wall.
Your goal, of course, is to be right on the wall with that last stroke, but many times
you're a little long.
There we are, right on.
That's a good one.
What we're looking for now is that tennis ball effect.
The faster you throw the ball against the wall, the faster it comes off the wall.
We're looking for that great acceleration into the turn to carry that speed and acceleration
out of the turn.
There we are, right on.
Good streamlining with that hand coming right behind the head.
As we make contact with the wall now, we need the knees to come up in a nice tight ball
with a lot of speed.
That looks good.
And good speed into the wall, that momentum to get around with a quickness coming around.
There we go.
Let's see how quickly we can get our knees up and get a nice, tight, small ball and get
around quick.
Good streamlining.
Start our kick.
Once again, about 10 yards out, we're starting to anticipate the turn.
We want to carry speed into the wall to make the turn quicker.
There we go.
Getting around with a lot of quickness.
One of the favorite drills we have here at Stanford is our fast feet kicking drill.
This allows the kicking set to become important to help our turns.
As we approach the wall, we're asking the athletes to say, fast feet, fast feet.
And as their hand reaches for the wall, we ask them, how fast can you bring your heels
from behind you to on the wall to off the wall?
Our goal on this drill, as soon as our hand touches the wall, is to see how quickly we
can bring our feet and legs through the water and get our feet on the wall.
It's the exact same movement as you'd find in breaststroke and butterfly turns, and we
have a chance to work on that movement every kicking session that we have in practice.
Remember now, in all of your turns, to improve the quickness, your feet need to touch the
wall and push off the wall in the same motion.
Now, let's see if we can watch Lori as her feet touch the wall and push off at the same
time.
Boom, there we go.
Very, very good.
Okay, fast feet.
This is called our fast feet drill.
We want to see how fast we can move our feet from behind us to on the wall.
Freestyle turns.
Again, you don't have to touch the wall with your hand, so the most important thing is
to get your feet in position to push off as quickly as possible.
Let's break it down.
As you approach the wall, you're five meters out, you start building toward the wall.
You want to have quicker tempo there, so you carry the momentum of the swim into the turn,
then you carry the momentum of the turn back into this first breakout stroke.
When you're freestyle, you approach the wall, be looking at an angle toward the target under
the surface of the water.
Don't raise your head to see the end.
Look at that target.
Focus on the target.
As you approach, throw your head down between your knees, pike your chest against your thighs
and tuck up as quickly as possible.
As you're coming over, use your hands to back skull, to back skull against the water to
get your body around.
And then just before your feet touch the wall, plant them at a 45 degree angle, then you
streamline off on your side and you pull with the lower arm first.
And on that first pull, you want your body to rotate around your spine with a power move
into the breakout stroke.
Bring momentum to the wall, head toward your knees, chest against the thighs, great breakout
stroke.
Streamline.
You actually push off on your side, pull with your lower arm first, then take a full stroke
breakout.
Notice on the push off that Janelle pushes off on her side, pulls with the lower arm
first and rotates hard around her spine on that stroke.
Building momentum.
Good turn.
Quickness there.
That's better.
That is, that's a great turn.
Again, it's so important to build momentum going to the wall.
And once you make your turn, once you begin the turn, quickness is important.
Getting your feet to the wall as fast as you possibly can and then getting off the wall
as fast as possible.
Quick head, down for the tuck, tucks up quickly, getting his feet on the wall.
You don't want to come around in an open position.
You notice when divers want to do a three and a half off the board, that they tuck up
tight.
The same thing is true with the freestyle turn.
If you'll tuck up tight, you'll get around much quicker than if you do it in an open
semi-pike position.
So we think it's extremely important that you tuck up tight and streamline off the wall
pulling with the lower arm first.
Remember, you don't breathe the last stroke going into the turn or the first stroke coming
off.
You might breathe the first stroke coming off in a distance race, but certainly not
in a sprint.
The freestyle turn drill is a four-step lead-up drill to great freestyle turns.
It takes into account the approach, the rotation, and the push-off and the streamlining off
the wall along with the breakout.
It's a great lead-up drill to great freestyle turns.
On this drill, you're practicing tucking up in a tight ball, throwing your head toward
your knees.
Your head chases your knees.
You don't want to bring your knees toward your head.
All right, Janelle, ready, go.
Get around much faster in a tight tuck than you do if you're opened up a little bit.
Ready, go.
Much better.
Much better.
One more time.
Ready, go.
All right.
Now, the next part of this drill, you'll swim in and do a somersault at the wall, but do
not push off.
In fact, have your feet pointing down toward the bottom.
Good, good.
Notice the submerging of the head and shoulders going in.
In other words, you do not raise your head and look at the wall.
You start submerging your head and shoulders into the tuck even before the end of the last
stroke.
All right, now, in the next part of this drill, you somersault straight over and push off
on your back, directly on your back.
Notice the submerged tuck up straight over.
There she goes.
Flutter kicks off the wall in a streamlined position.
Now, in this part of the drill, you're learning to get off the wall as fast as possible from
that tucked up position.
Now, the next part of the drill, you actually push off on your side.
You come straight over right at the last instant.
Your feet turn sideways at a 45 degree angle.
You push off on your side.
Pull with the lower arm first.
Pull with the lower arm first.
All right, Janelle.
Bring it in as she comes straight over the top.
Push off on her side.
Excellent, excellent.
Wonderful job.
This freestyle turn drill is a step-by-step learning process that leads to great turns.
Brush stroke.
Let's touch the wall as if it were a hot plate, getting off that wall as soon as possible.
The arm you pivot on will be on the wall a little bit longer, but the first arm barely
touches the wall, just a brush.
Bring that leading arm as close to the body for less resistance and more quickness in
your turn.
Cross your feet as you bring them up underneath you so you displace less water.
Let's talk about a very important part of your breast stroke race, the underwater pull
out or the long pull breast stroke.
You can improve this area by working on shoulder flexibility to enable you to catch the water
sooner as you reach to start that pull out.
As you go through the hand motion with your pull out, your hands need to accelerate.
Then you need to cut out resistance by bringing your hands in close to the body.
This is what we call sneaking the hands back up for less resistance.
As they come by your face, you can then lift your head and be ready to take that first
stroke on top of the water.
You can also improve on this stroke by doing short repeats of butterfly.
The butterfly stroke is basically the same as the underwater breast stroke pull out.
Once again, look into that first hand to just touch the wall and get right off.
You don't have to grab the wall, it just has to be a touch to make that turn legal.
The arm you pivot on will stay on the wall just a little bit longer.
That lead arm that comes off the wall comes as close to your body as it possibly can to
help make that turn smaller and quicker.
Now let's see how quickly we can bring our knees up.
There we go, good speed.
The knees come up fast to small tight tuck and get the feet on the wall as fast as we
can.
Let's watch Lori here.
Lori has tremendous quickness and we should see that on this turn.
This is walling off.
As we slow this turn down, there's one part where you can tell there's nothing on the
wall.
The hands have gone, the feet are just coming in and the whole body is rotated.
We're looking for the head to travel in and out on the same path, follows right in, comes
right out.
We want that last stroke, that reach for the wall to be streamlined.
Make the turn with as much quickness as possible and streamline as well as we possibly can
off the wall to maintain the speed that we use in our push off.
Very good.
As the breaststrokers approach the wall, they start to anticipate the turn, they reach out,
they streamline the body, they leave the hands on the wall as short a time as possible, quickness
in the turn, good streamlining coming off the wall.
Very good.
Tyler, tell me why your turns are as great as they are.
Well, I try to think of about three things.
First being quick hands, not wasting time grabbing the wall.
Hands come on and come off as quick as possible.
Secondly, I try to think of getting into a tight ball and being streamlined all the way
through the turn.
Elbow comes back close to the body, knees come up, hit the wall, they're tucked.
And lastly, and most importantly, I try to plant my feet so I'm in a powerful position
to push off what sets up my pull out.
Backstroke turns.
The backstroke turn is very similar to the freestyle turn.
As you're swimming backstroke and you approach the wall and you need to count your strokes
so that you don't have to look, on your last stroke you drive your hand deeper and the
other arm comes across in front of your face and in the same motion you submerge your head
and shoulders so your hips are already starting over.
We're finding that the people with the fastest backstroke turns are the ones who count their
strokes and do not look for the turn.
You've got to turn with one motion.
As you turn onto your stomach, if you float you may be disqualified.
You need to be going into your turn on your last stroke.
And then when you push off the wall, you push off on your back, streamline with real fast
flutter kick or dolphin kick off the wall.
If you're a great dolphin kicker, you need to make sure that your dolphin kick off the
wall for 15 meters if you can.
That's the rule.
That has to be up by the 15 meter mark.
But use that dolphin kick, develop that skill.
Again as you approach the wall you don't want to lose momentum going in and the last stroke
going to the wall is the most important one in this turn.
As you reach for the wall, take a great long, a great powerful pull on that last stroke
so that you turn to your stomach, throw your head down between your knees and tuck up tight
getting off the wall.
Don't get too close because you don't want to have to uncoil for a long time.
Notice Lee's quickness on her last stroke.
Her head's going down right there, there, quick, streamline off the wall with quick
feet on the dolphin kick coming off, break out into the swim.
Little momentum going to the wall.
Last stroke is important.
You turn to your stomach, throwing your head down between your knees, tucking up tight.
Pike your chest against your thighs, throw your head between your knees, tuck up tight
and streamline off that wall.
The advantage to this turn is you can turn farther away from the wall than you used to
have to in backstroke.
The backstroke rules are as you approach the wall, your last stroke as you're turning over
onto your stomach must be part of the turn.
It must be part of a continuous motion into the turn.
If you float for a long time on your stomach or kick or dolphin kick into the wall, you
may be disqualified.
Then when you push off on your back and dolphin kick underwater, you have 15 meters that you
can be underwater streamlined and dolphin kicking.
But your head has to be up at the 15 meter mark or before.
That's off of all walls, starts and turns.
Good turn, yeah.
Beautiful stroke, building toward the wall, once you see the flags, build the momentum.
Good turn, streamlining off.
Jeff as world champion, your turn is among the best in the world.
Can you tell us what you think about to prepare for your turns?
I think the first thing you need to think about when you're going into the wall for
a backstroke turn is building speed into the wall.
It's really important, once you hit those flags, not to relax any, you want to build
into the wall so you can shoot off that wall as fast as possible.
The second thing about the backstroke turn is timing.
You have to have your strokes down from the flags in and make sure that you know exactly
how many strokes you take from the flags in.
I think that the next thing about the backstroke turn that I would think about, especially
with a new turn, is getting my feet over as fast as possible and onto the wall as quick
as I can.
The last thing you need to remember is your push off, you need to get your feet off the
wall as soon as you can.
You want your feet on the wall the shortest amount of time as possible.
Don't let them sit on the wall or else you're going to get stuck there.
Push off just strong and hard and get a few strokes as fast as possible.
Jeff, that's great.
Is there anything you do on a dry land training that would improve your turn or any drills
that you might have?
I think jumping rope is really good for ankle flexibility and ankle strength and getting
off that wall as fast as possible.
Any kind of lunges or leaps, like vertical leaping, is really good for leg strength,
for quad strength.
Again, just to get off that wall as fast as possible and sit-ups are always important.
They're really important so you can get around as fast as possible.
So those three things really help a lot, I think, on the turns.
Individual medley turns.
Let's start with butterfly to backstroke.
On the butterfly turn, you touch at shoulder's width and you want to put your hands in the
gutter so that you have a little pressure on your fingertips.
But as soon as your hand touches, one hand comes away.
If it's your left arm, you bring your left elbow down next to your side and turn your
palm up.
And the right arm comes in behind your head so that you can streamline from this position.
Your head goes straight up where you're looking at the sky and during that whole process,
you bring your knees up so you tuck up as quickly as possible.
Quickness is important in every turn and it's no different from butterfly to backstroke.
Get your knees up quickly so that you can be in position to streamline off that wall
directly on your back.
You want to approach the wall strong, concentrate.
If you miss the turn a little bit, that is if you're a little bit too far out, you want
to make sure you streamline.
One hand over the other, streamline into the wall and then just before your hands touch,
separate for the touch.
I think one of the keys to good turning is that last five meters going into the wall
ought to be the fastest five of the length.
Knees up right away.
You want to get it in a tight tuck as fast as you can off the turn.
Last five meters, aggressive.
Knees up, head back on the same path it went in on.
Head back, actually you can look at the sky, driving your hand in next to your head and
streamlining from that position.
You're short on the wall, streamline going in, there you go, streamline.
It's best if you work out the timing and make an adjustment as you approach the wall.
But if you miss the wall, be streamlining.
And the last five meters of every length be the fastest, most aggressive.
Knees up, good job.
Good job on the turn.
Good butterfly stroke, aggressive at the wall.
Good timing.
The next individual medley turn we're going to be concerned with is backstroke to breaststroke.
You're going to see three different styles.
You're going to see what we call the conventional style.
That's where you swim backstroke into the wall and as you approach the flags, you need
to pick up your tempo so that you have momentum going into the wall.
You touch the wall by putting your hand with a light touch, fingers in the gutter and you
just bring your legs under your body and bring your hand behind your head and streamline
for the breaststroke pull, taking a great long pull.
That turn's very popular for the beginning swimmer and the one that is swimming maybe
the 400 individual medley where oxygen is extremely important.
A little bit more of an advanced technique is swimming into the wall, touch the wall
and you bring your knees toward the shoulder of the hand you touch the wall with and your
face goes away and forward and then the hand that touches the wall comes forward in front
of your body and you streamline from that position.
Now that turn is also very good because you get oxygen throughout the turn.
Your face doesn't go under water until you're ready for your long pull.
Then the next turn looks like the conventional rollover turn in backstroke only you come
out on your stomach for the long breaststroke pull.
That turn will be demonstrated by Derek Weatherford.
Again, as you approach the wall the last five meters need to be aggressive.
Touch the wall there, streamline, your head's above water.
This is a more popular turn for the 400 individual medley because you get as much air as possible
that way.
That long pull off the wall you're going from being the best backstroker you can possibly
be into being the best breaststroker you can possibly be immediately.
As you reach for the wall be careful that you don't stop kicking.
You want to drive your legs into the wall.
You notice Summer's knees come up and her head stays out of the water and her arm comes
across in front of her face.
As she approaches the wall she brings her knees toward the shoulder of the hand she
touches the wall with and then brings her head around to the side and forward.
And then the arm comes across in front of her face to the streamline position.
This will be back to breast with more of a backstroke type turn.
His knees come out of the water but notice his head.
Now that turn is a lot more popular for the 200 individual medley.
This is more like a regular backstroke turn.
Notice his knees come up but he's coming off on his stomach right away.
Alright the final individual medley turn we're going to be concerned with is breaststroke
to freestyle.
Really important if you're ahead in the race you want to try to be swimming freestyle while
your opponents are still swimming breaststroke.
If you're behind you want to get to that wall quickly so that you're swimming freestyle as
soon as possible so you can catch up.
So pay close attention to the breaststroke freestyle technique.
As you approach the wall pick up your tempo again so you have great momentum going into
the wall.
You touch with your hands at shoulder width slight pressure on your fingertips.
The lead hand comes off immediately with the elbow driving in next to your side.
The hand still in the gutter drives in by your ear behind your head so you streamline
from that position.
Your head goes straight in and straight out.
Be careful that you don't go around to the side.
Your head goes in on the same path and comes out on the same path.
Straight in straight out while your knees are tucking up quickly so that you get your
feet in position to have a great jump and streamline off the wall.
When you come off that wall streamlining into freestyle make sure you have a small fast
feet kick coming off the wall.
On the breaststroke to freestyle again if you miss the wall a little bit you want to
streamline going in.
Knees up.
Your lead hand comes off the wall driving in next to your side.
The hand on the wall last comes in behind your head and you streamline that from that
position pushing off on your side then to your stomach.
Again approach the wall aggressively the last five meters.
Knees up.
Hand behind your head streamlining off the wall.
Aggressive going into the wall.
Knees up.
Good, hand drives in behind your head.
Notice how quick Jason is getting his knees up getting his lead hand off the wall.
Good job.
Let's finish our races.
Close races can be won or lost on how well you work on finishes.
We're looking for two things here.
Number one how quickly can you get your hand on the wall and number two can you do it in
a streamlined position that allows less resistance.
As our freestyler sprints in watch him throw his hand right at the wall.
The important thing when you're working on finishes is not to pull the head away from
the wall but to allow the head to lie on that arm as it reaches for the wall.
On the breaststroke finish we're looking for Laurie to be able to really streamline that
last stroke into the wall.
Very good.
Okay on this butterfly finish we'd like to take that last breath of the flags go hard
to the legs reach and streamline as you get to the hands on the wall.
On the backstroke finish you want to have the same philosophy that you have on the freestyle
finish and that is you want your body to travel as little distance as possible close to the
wall and finish at a full arms length with your head back.
You want to build momentum from the flags in and count your strokes so that you don't
have to look.
On a backstroke finish you want to make sure that you don't pull your head or shoulders
away from the wall as you reach.
Dive back into the finish on your last stroke.
Get your hand there as fast as possible.
From the flags to the wall you want to pick up as much momentum as possible.
Skip we've had a great learning session with these athletes today.
Yes we have Richard and if you'll watch this video and learn these drills and use them
in your daily workout you can reach your potential in the sport of swimming.
We'd both like to wish you the very best of luck in your swimming career.
Keep up the great work.