What can i do to help with my breast stroke and freestyle?

Question

I'm a very weak swimmer i can swim maybe 33 yards without stopping. I need help with my technique. (this was pointed out to me by other swimmers) What excercises can i do to help me swim? Freestyle i stop because i just stop floating after taking a breath. Then breaststroke i cant match up the frog kick when i'm supposed to do it, so i do the freestyle kick instead. help please! i want to be able to swim 500 yards in about a month

Answer 1

Ok, with your freestyle, the reason you are sinking is because when you are breathing you are lifting your head by looking in front of you and you will sink everytime you do that. Pick a side to breathe to and breath to that side by keeping your ear in the water (i.e, if you are breathing to the left hand side, the left ear stays in the water) and your whole left side of your face stays in the water. You will not look up in front of you at all because you will automatically sink. With your breaststroke, remember : pull breathe kick glide. That will get you to do your breaststroke correctly. Pull will look like an upside down heart and goes to your chin and back up. Does not go below your waist (I tell the kids not to go below your chin). With your kick, the technical part of the kick is pretty straight forward but needs a lot of practice to get down. With the kick, you do not want to scrunch up your legs so you look like a ball. You want to keep the upper part of your leg straight and bend your feet behind you like you are kicking your own butt (you won't be able to do that, but the concept is there). Once you bend your legs as much as you can, you will point your feet out like a duck or frog and kick all the way around and whip your legs together. After every kick, your legs and feet will be together because if they are not, you will not glide correctly. The way I teach it is to try to get the individual to push water out with your legs. It is called many names, but the kick is mostly called the whip kick because you literally whip your legs around to force you to go forward. The only way you go forward is mostly from your kick and to do that is to push water behind you. With your freestyle kick, you push water behind you by kicking up and down and with your breaststroke, the same thing. That should help and just remember the breaststroke is the hardest stroke to do mentally, not physically. Physically, butterfly is the hardest to do, but breaststroke because you have to remember the phrase: pull breathe kick glide

Answer 2

Well it may be very hard to explain how to swim. I have been swimming competitively for a couple of years now and i still have trouble to teach my little brother how to swim faster.
But dont worry i found a good web site for you where you can see professionals swim underwater. You can try do like them and this will be a big improvement. Just dont forget to keep your body honrizontal (the best way you can: for example in freestyle kick faster and in both breat stroke and freestyle you bum should almost be at the surface)
on this website:
http://www.swim-city.com/media.php3
you can download for free videos of every 4 strokes as well as videos on turns and dives. Some of them (most of them actually) are in slow motion so youll have time to understand a bit of their technique. You wont be able to swim like them but with some time you'll surely be able to swim 500 yards.
jsut dont forget the kicks, its one of the most important thing in swimming

Answer 3

I can offer a few pointers but your best bet is to enlist someone to help you. A swim instructor, coach or lifeguard should be able to offer on-the-spot advice after an evaluation of your form.

Freestyle Tips
- Remember to continue kicking when you breathe. Alot of people stop kicking and lose momentum when they breathe.
- Breathe to the side by turning your head backward to look over your shoudler or "smell your armpit" as I tell my kids. Your water-side ear should remina in the water, as should your cheek. To practice this, you can do "goggle-in, goggle-out" drill which means you concentrate on turning your head to breathe while keeping one eye in the water (goggle-in) and the top one out (goggle-out).
- Don't stop your arm motion or slow it down to breathe. Practice continually stroking and breathing. Push yourself forward as you breathe to maintain velocity.
- Look down at the bottom of the pool slightly in front of you when you stroke. By keeping your head down you are helping to elevate your hips which will help your body stay horizontal.
- Reach out as far as you can when you are recovering. The further you reach, the more water you pull and the less effort you use to cover more distance. Always THINK TALL!!!
- Remember to get your elbows high out of the water on your stroke to allow for the most efficient recovery. Think about this when you swim some of your laps.
- Make your breathing regular and rythmic, this will help you maintain a consistent stroke technique and increases productivity of the stroke

Breast Tips
- Here's a visual helper: Imagine there is a rope tied to each of your wrists. Each rope connects to one of your ankles. The rope is taunt when your arms are at your sides and you are standing. When your arms go up, your feet must also go up. Keep this in mind when working on your breastroke
- Breastroke should be learned slowly and relaxingly. It is a slow stroke and you will only gain speed if you learn proper technique. Take your time! Watch the old ladies, they usually have lovely breastroke ( =

Good luck!!!

Answer 4

In freestyle, just keep moving and breath every other stroke.

Answer 5

................yea.....................i would have to see u swim and teach u that way...........there is no way i could explain this on the internet, and anyone who tries, u shouldnt use wat they have to say(sorry ppl)bcuz no matter wat it is u WILL get something just a little bit off and it will make it worse for u in the long run. The only way for u to get better is practice and listen to ur coach and tlk to ur coach about ur problems and ur plans for the next month and wat u hope to accomplish, bcuz thats really the only thing that anyone can tell u to do on the internet...................................