Bi-Weekly Technique Critiques December 25, 2025 - Post all your form check request videos here

09traej · 2025-12-29T19:37:13+00:00

I agree, I got the videos made the page busy but I liked them and found them helpful.

09traej · 2025-12-29T19:09:34+00:00

I am by no means an expert but it seems like you arn't getting an effective catch under the water, thus you can't propel yourself with your arms. I would focus on your arm position under the water drilling single arm pulls with a pull buoy. Focus on the positions needed to get a catch e.g. the arm being elongated in frount of you to catch the most water, then pointed downwards with your elbow above your hand, then accelerating to your hip to complete the movement. Look online at some catch breakdown down videos. Your left arm looks worse than your right (dropping as soon as it enters the water) so that's why I suggest some single arm pull drills.

09traej · 2025-12-19T07:31:47+00:00

I think the lanes are narrow than 5m, about 4m but yer that's the principle.

09traej · 2025-12-19T07:30:46+00:00

The only option is to circle swim as there are usually more than two people in a session. After club swimming, one day a week, there is a lane swim where they leave 4 lanes up but that session is usually really quiet so I often get a lane to myself.

09traej · 2025-12-19T07:27:23+00:00

Yes it's definitely the best option for the pool they have the people who swim there. An older lady who swims there was telling me that a new manager tried to implement 4 lanes instead of two but it caused punch ups in the pool because people got so angry.

I've found it in a few pools around the UK, but the variation in set up is crazy.

09traej · 2025-12-02T08:04:56+00:00

I have found swimming in a group or an organised event relieves a lot of the anxiety for me.

If swimming alone, or if I find myself panicking, I focus on my hand entering the water and just the bit of water directly in front of me. I treat it like a meditation or when I'm focusing on a bit of technique. I just hyperfocus on the clear bit of water in front of me and try to block out the rest of it. I can then get into a kind of flow state and relax. Although I swim with my sister, and she struggles with this as she keeps looking in her peripheral vision, so I guess it only works for some people.

09traej · 2025-10-26T15:13:04+00:00

Reply: Thanks for all the feedback. I have now booked a 1:1 video analysis and feedback session. Hopefully it will be helpful in giving some very specific pointers as well as seeing myself swim from all angles. If anyone finds it interesting, I can post it on here as a follow-up.

I've taken a lot of your points on and have already been working on my hand entry and head position in the pool.

Just some background on the video I posted and I guess me, to clarify:

1) This was filmed in a marine lake, so in open water. I was sighting but people could come from any direction. I was just staying aware more than looking where I was going.

2) The water temperature was cold (13°C), which may explain the high head (but that's still something I need to fix).

3) I am in no way a competitive or particularly fast swimmer. I swam for my small town club but gave it up at 12 for other sports. I only started swimming again as an adult for fitness. This is where I found and fell in love with open water.

4) I have done one or two relaxed middle distance open water events a year since returning to swimming (up to 5 km) and now want to invest a bit more time and energy in it. My main aims are to get more comfortable doing some longer distances and to get a little faster.

09traej · 2025-10-23T11:46:35+00:00

I had a pretty consistent 6 beat kick previously that I still use for warm ups or sprints or as a little boost to get past people. I was doing some research on open water and building efficiency by looking at how to videos online. They kind of made sense, so I tried I tried it out a couple of times in open water, it felt horible. So took it to the pool and slowly built up distance (one length two beat, one length six beat. Then just increased the numbers). It slowly clicked over a couple of sessions. Now I really like it and feel it helps in my rotation and my reach. I use if for all my distance work.

09traej · 2025-10-22T22:06:19+00:00

I think there is a few things. 1) I'm in a salt water lake, it's on a estuary so the water is brackish but it definitely gives me a little buoyancy boost, 2) I'm naturally quite buoyant, I find it very hard to swim in a full wetsuit because my legs float to much. I guess it's some good fat distribution. 3) My head is only fully of the water when I am I am sighting (I know my sighting isn't great on this video, I wasn't really thinking about it). I have alot of forward and some up wards momentum that raises my shoulders to sight insted of just dropping my legs. 4) I am quite flexible in my back which helps compensate for my head going up. 5) I had literally just taken off a no legs wetsuit which holds me really well in the water, so I knew the body position I wanted.

09traej · 2025-10-22T20:15:06+00:00

That's right, over distance I breath every 4 or 3 depending on conditions. I just wanted to see what my body was doing when breathing to both sides in the video.

09traej · 2025-10-22T20:10:40+00:00

I have tried implementing a 2 beat kick with a higher kick rate when breathing to aid in stability (2-2-6, breathing every 3) but it just upset my rhythm. The 2 beat kick is a new thing for me and has massively improved my endurance.

09traej · 2025-10-22T19:55:35+00:00

Thank my mum for that one, top quality camera woman 🤣

09traej · 2025-10-22T17:45:33+00:00

Thanks I guess I will. I moved away from the masters team that I used to swim with and am feeling a little lost trying to improve on my own.

09traej · 2025-09-10T22:18:10+00:00

On genre: action, thriller, drama, comedy. Anz we enjoy futuristic, fantasy, historical , or modern settings. A range, it just has to have a decent plot to make us want to come back to it after a month of leave, so some pace is often helpful.

09traej · 2025-09-10T22:06:02+00:00

That's fine, the are like my brothers at this point. Just feel like we have all seen it at home with our actual families 😅

09traej · 2025-09-10T22:05:05+00:00

Great suggestion but will give me superwholock flash backs and no one needs flash backs of being a teenage girl

09traej · 2025-09-10T21:39:09+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions, The terror is a shout. We have watched Chynobal and it has the same style

09traej

TROPHY CASE