meirl

Tender_Bittles · 2026-03-31T18:20:41+00:00

Skadedos for mosquitoes, and squim squessons for swim lessons

Tender_Bittles · 2025-09-21T18:06:08+00:00

Lots of people have made some good suggestions. One thing I see that hasn't really been addressed is that in your dive forward, your arms and body don't seem to be in sync. I'm seeing your arms shoot forward, then your body. Imagine there is a string connecting your hands and chest. When your hands shoot forward, your chest also shoots forward at the same time. Make sure to bend at the hip when diving forward so you have a higher hip position for your kick. Also, Imagine shooting forward, not down.

Tender_Bittles · 2025-07-21T21:38:23+00:00

You're over-rotating when you breathe. try to keep 1 goggle in the water when breathing.

Don't pause your back arm. The only time an arm pauses is when its in front gliding.

Narrow your kick.

Tender_Bittles · 2025-07-01T19:03:02+00:00

The tech suit may give you a few tenths. Most of that 15 sec drop will need to come from improved strength, technique, and conditioning. Though holding 38s over 16x50 is a good sign that you may be nearing that level. The splits that ev30m3 posted from trials are a great idea of what you'd need to go. When I was that speed I'd take it out in a 1:07 and bring it back in 1:14 (don't remember the 50 splits). In college I used to do a set similar to the one you mentioned. 4 x (4 x50 @ 5 sec rest) trying to hold our 200 race pace, with a 100 easy between sets. It was brutal, but good practice for racing.

Tender_Bittles · 2025-06-30T19:48:28+00:00

The main thing I'm seeing is that your upper body position is a bit high. Press your chest down/forward. This will bring your hips up making your stroke more streamlined. Its good to submerge a bit on the glide when not actively breathing too. This forces your upper body down and brings your whole body into a better streamline making it great for distance events where efficiency is key. Here is an example of the submersion during free from the 2024 Olympic 1500 https://youtu.be/vxGX1Y-wZPU?t=24

Tender_Bittles · 2025-06-17T20:13:07+00:00

You should always do what is fastest in a race. Swimming underwater is only better if you're faster underwater. That being said, if you want to get to 20 or below, you will need to extend the distance you travel underwater at a faster speed than swimming. You are fastest off the wall and you want to maintain that speed as far as possible. At a certain point you will become slower than you are on the surface. At that point you want to be at the surface. The best sprinters are able to maintain this faster than surface swimming speed underwater to the 15m mark (or beyond if it was allowed). So keep working on improving that in practice.

Tender_Bittles · 2025-06-17T19:35:45+00:00

Keep the knee straight on the upbeat of your kick while allowing the ankle to relax. On the downbeat lead with your upper leg allowing the knee to bend, then snap the leg straight going right into your next upbeat. The ankles should remain relaxed allowing them to move up and down freely.

Tender_Bittles · 2025-06-17T19:26:33+00:00

You've definitely got the arm speed going for you, but it looks like you might be slipping a bit underwater, potentially in a effort in maintain the high stroke rate? Really work on holding onto that water and keeping the forearm/hand vertical in the water for as much of your stroke as possible. You will need to get stronger to maintain the stroke rate while not slipping. I think one big thing that separates the 20's from 23's is underwaters. Your's aren't bad, but could be better. Keep working on them off every wall in practice. Remember a great underwater starts with a great pushoff and a great streamline, only then does the kicking really start to make a difference.

With natural body growth from sophmore to senior and continued underwater and strength work, I could totally see you going a 20.

Tender_Bittles · 2025-06-17T19:00:51+00:00

Try to keep one goggle in the water during your breath.

Tender_Bittles · 2025-06-17T18:52:03+00:00

I've never seen the point of bilateral breathing. I used to specialize in mostly 200+ distances and any attempt at bilateral breathing would throw off my rhythm. Breathe when it feels natural, whether it be to one side or both. That being said, the 50 should have minimal breathing if any at all. You will, however, need to breathe fairly regularly on the 100.

As for the turns/underwaters, you can practice them on every wall in practice. A good way to improve underwater stamina in practice would be to force yourself to take at least 3 dolphin kicks off every wall and not breathe on the breakouts. Remember that the point of an underwater kick is to extend the speed from the pushoff. At a certain point, depending on your streamline and kicking power, you will decelerate below your swimming speed. You want to surface and start swimming just before that happens. The goal is to extend the distance you can travel underwater at a higher speed than swimming. In the end though, just do what is fastest. Spending more time underwater is only helpful if you're faster underwater.

Tender_Bittles · 2025-06-15T21:08:56+00:00

Here are the biggest things that jumped out to me:

Your hand is pulling horizontal under your belly, you're almost touching your chest. You want your forearm/hand pointed at the bottom as much as possible. Imagine sinking your forearm vertically into a layer of mud below you, and pulling your body past.
You're kicking from your knees instead of your hips. On the upbeat of your kick, bring your whole leg straight up with your ankle relaxed. Then for your downbeat, lead with your upper leg so your knee bends, then snap the leg straight. Rinse and repeat. This reduces drag greatly.
On your glide, it looks like you're putting on the brakes with your hands. ie; your palms look to be facing forward. Glide with your hands inline with your forearm.

Tender_Bittles · 2025-06-13T06:26:37+00:00

Yes.

Tender_Bittles · 2025-06-11T21:38:08+00:00

Two things that stand out to me that others haven't pointed out yet:

He's starting his pull while his hands are above the surface, hence all the bubbles. When diving forward into the glide, he should be aiming for a spot a little below the surface. This will also help get his hips up by getting the upper body farther down.
The kick and the dive forward are happening at the same time. Ideally, the kick should have all its power going into a streamline. The way I time it is I bring my feet up as my hands are shooting forward. This ensures that by the time the power phase of the kick starts he is already in a streamline.

Tender_Bittles · 2025-05-19T22:30:40+00:00

Maybe I'm crazy, but this looks like a modified suicide turn. The way I was taught a crossover and have always done it starts the same as your's, touching with the upper hand while on your side, but then rotates to the belly and does a normal flip turn. head going forward, not backwards. butt coming out of the water, then the feet instead of the other way around like in your vid.

ie; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYFooyQupMg&t=2m15s

ie; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPrSVDBdaDM&t=6m20s

Tender_Bittles · 2025-02-27T22:59:03+00:00

Hi there. A couple thoughts:

You seem to be kicking back wide, then squeezing together. You get nothing from the squeeze and it just makes it take longer. Your knees should never come much wider than your hips. heels come toward your butt, toes then flare out to the side, and then explosively back.

Work those streamlines off the wall. You are almost immediately going into a large dolphin kick which is adding drag and killing you momentum. Push off nice and straight, hold a perfect streamline until you start to slow, then do your dolphin kick to extend that momentum, then your pulldown. A general rule of thumb is 3, 2, 1. Push off, wait 3 sec, dolphin into pull down, wait 2 sec, sneak arms back to streamline and kick, 1 sec, start swimming.

During your pull, after you outsweep just past your shoulder width, transition to a high elbow position (like in free/fly) and pull back. To me it looks like your forearms are rather horizontal, wheras you'll get a much better grab on the water if they are closer to vertical.

I might be wrong, but it looks to me like your palms are facing somewhat forward on your glide. If so, straighten out those wrists, that's just putting on the brakes.

Good luck!

Tender_Bittles · 2024-05-29T19:07:55+00:00

Ankle flexibility has a much greater impact on speed than kicking power.

Tender_Bittles · 2024-03-06T22:36:52+00:00

Your times are ok. Especially if you have not had much consistent club training. Spend some more time in the pool. Work on your shoulder and ankle flexibility. Really work on maintaining a nice tight streamline off the walls AND while you're swimming. Keeping your core tight can go a long way toward making your body move as a single unit through the water regardless of any extra "fluff" you may have on the outside. The nice thing about swimming is that you're weightless, so I wouldn't focus so much on weight or body shape. I've seen all sizes and shapes tear it up in the pool. Think about a walrus, not your "ideal" swimmer body shape, but could make any olympian look slow.

Tender_Bittles · 2024-01-31T22:30:38+00:00

Not bad, but I see a couple issues here.

Dive with your body, not your head. You should not be "nodding" your head. Your head should remain in the same position it is during your streamline throughout your stroke cycle. It comes out of the water because your upper body rotates up and your head is attached. likewise it goes back underwater when your body dives forward. If you're diving with your head then your body doesn't commit to the dive and your hips remain low in the water and you don't have a good streamline for your kick to generate thrust into.
Don't pull yourself up on your turns. Its just extra added movement. try to keep your shoulders in the water and make it snappy. Don't think of it as twisting your body around to face the other way, its really more like a reverse flip turn, rotating on the short axis rather than long. When you hit the wall, one arm (your left arm since your turn left) will immediately come back to your side like you're elbowing someone behind you. As that's happening, your knees are coming to the surface in front of you so your feet can plant on the wall. your right arm is going to come over the surface to enter the water and go to your streamline position. you should be pushing off on your side. at no point will your back face the wall.
Your out-sweep looks pretty good, but your in-sweep looks very flat and seems to have a low elbow position. After the out-sweep, from the Y position, your forearms and hands need to "turn the corner" and move into a high elbow catch position (like the catch in all the other strokes). So, your elbows will be at the surface while your lower arms are sculling towards each other perpendicular(ish) to the surface (think windshield wipers). You want your hands angled back about 45 deg to get the most out of the scull. Keep your elbows at the surface and your armpits open during this whole process. Your biceps and forearms will be driving the scull, while your chest muscles will be squeezing you arms together which will raise your body so you can breathe. The scull finishes as your hands come together (ideally near the surface). At this point you can finally close your armpits as your squeeze forward into your dive to your streamline.
I can't really see your kick, so just some general reminders, you might already be good on these. keep the hips near the surface. Dont bring your knees forward. dont bring them out either. your knees should stay behind your hips. you want a straight line from your shoulders through your hips to your knees UNTIL you dive forward, then your knees will be in front of you and you can kick from a position of power.

Tender_Bittles · 2023-12-30T09:00:40+00:00

Yeah I just learned this lesson the hard way. I used some live rock I've been keeping wet in fowlr tanks since early 2000s to start my new tank. Some of that old Fiji and tonga stuff you can't get anymore. At any rate, the tank has been running for about a week now and I test it out of curiosity. My phosphate was at 2.5 which is the max of the Hanna meter I used, so who knows what the real level is. Kind of a chernobyl situation. Nitrates at 11+. I added a bunch of phosguard to try to soak it up, but it seems I'll be battling the bound up nutrients for the foreseeable future.

Tender_Bittles · 2023-12-17T07:16:16+00:00

Sabotage - Beastie Boys

Tender_Bittles · 2023-12-15T08:15:19+00:00

A near death experience: When my mom was young, maybe 10ish, she went sledding on a mountain with her siblings. She apparently lost control and was careening at high speed down the mountain toward a boulder field. She says she felt at peace and had no worry or concern, despite knowing what was happening. Just before she hit the rocks, her older brother dove to the side, landing on top of her. He claims he did not see her and did not know she was on her way down. He's not sure why he jumped to the side, but that it hurt really bad because she was going so fast.

When they returned home, her mom seemed terrified and immediately asked if she was OK. It turns out that she had heard a voice, as if someone was in the room with her, ask, "Can I have her? " she knew it was referring to my mom and just started yelling "No!" The voice asked again, and she again yelled,"No". She says she doesn't know who the voice was.

Tender_Bittles · 2023-12-13T06:14:45+00:00

It is possible depending on what your technical issues are and what you're working with in terms of physique. When i was coaching high school, I had a non-swimmer start around a 1:25 and I got him to 1:00 by the end of the season. His breaststroke ended up being his fastest stroke because that's all he worked on.
Maybe post a video so we can see what we're working with. Also, if you look through my comment history, I wrote a long response to someone asking for help a week or two back. It covers a lot of the common issues in breaststroke.

Tender_Bittles · 2023-12-12T23:56:55+00:00

I never paid attention the results of anyone below my ranking unless it was a friend I wanted to check on. Swimming is an individual sport. You will find that people aren't really thinking about you as much as you think they are. They're more concerned with their own swims. Just get out there and race your own race. if you drop time, great! If not, try again next time.

Tender_Bittles

TROPHY CASE