Coaching Resources:
Introduction Planning and Delivery Best Practices Evaluation Limiters and Fixes Drills Analysis Workouts Video Analysis
How to look at a swimmer:
feet - hips - shoulders - head - hands
Look at the movement pattern of each body part in order and see if there is evidence of a limiter.
Feet
Kick from hip (ie not excess knee bend)
Width of feet and legs (eg splay or generally too wide. If splaying it's likely they cross-over)
Finishing the kick or ending before full extension of knee
Tempo relative to distance (ie not overkicking)
Ankle flexion (ROM limitation)
Hips:
Rotating sufficiently for hip driven kick
Rotating evenly (often the back side hip stays too flat)
Under-rotating can lead to short finish
Shoulder:
Sufficient rotation
Even rotation (again, the back side sometimes under-rotates)
Shoulders and head turn together on rotation (catch is trigger to initiate both in movement)
Head:
When inhaling there is water on the bottom goggle
When inhaling swimmer isn't looking backwards but instead directly to the side
When exhaling the head/eyes are down (not looking too far forward under water)
Head rotation is smooth and not whipping over
Breathing cycle suits intensity and exhalation is complete by time head is back above surface
Hands:
On full extension to front underwater the fingers are below shoulder (ie downsloped arm)
No cross-over, pulls to hip
Entry point is approximately half full arms length and with hand first (ie no over reaching)
Enter and extend underwater to lose air
Wrist is neutral till start of catch when wrist elevates slightly to initiate
Fingers aren't overly separated
Patient in catch (ie slow in catch then increased tempo into pull)
Early vertical forearm
No dead spots (front quadrant or full opposition, not catch up)
Finish past the hip
Recovery leads with elbow not hand (hand first can be mobility issue)
Palm not externally rotated at finish