"Snaking" through the water
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Triguy98 posted 11 weeks ago.
My coach had my swim with my hands further out to the side and that eliminated/ reduced the problem for me. Swim the center line, but make sure your hands stay on either side of the black.
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J.Michael posted 11 weeks ago.
Iif you are crossing over with your hands on the stretch your bicep will be very close to your ear. Try to focus on keeping your upper arm further away from your ear and that should help.
I know that has helped me in the past. When I was crossing the medial line with my hands, my bicep would almost graze my ear. When my entry is right, it feels like there is a 3"+ gap between my arm and ear. (this my be slightly more or less if you have really large/small head/arms.)
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jnrice posted 11 weeks ago.
J.Michael wrote:
Iif you are crossing over with your hands on the stretch your bicep will be very close to your ear. Try to focus on keeping your upper arm further away from your ear and that should help.
+1 or "high elbow" drills thinking about brining your elbow out of the water first. Be careful you don't shorten your stroke with this one though. also, it helped me to spend some serious time with a pull bouey and do no kicking to help me feel when I had hip flection.
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fawcettenator posted 11 weeks ago.
A "zipper" drill might help you. Swim your freestyle, but on your recovery keep your hand in contact with the side of your body until you pass your head. Once you have done that extend your arm straight and repeat. When doing this you should concentrate on keeping a high elbow. (Sorry if I did a bad job with explaining the drill)
Tired is a state of mind, exhaustion is a state of body.
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em_me posted 11 weeks ago.
i would try the "catch up" drill
use fins cuz you'll need a steady kick, as your swimming leave the right arm out in front while you make a complete stroke with the left. then as the left arm comes around and "catches" (touches) the right hand will start a stroke (leaving the left arm in place). you will always have one arm out in front so it works your balance really well and it will help you learn where to put the hands on the center line with out crossing over. it will also make sure you are extending as much as possible to get the must out of your stroke.
good luck
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jenez_world posted 11 weeks ago.
a stroke correction coach would be the best bet as you could also be rolling too much. see this page from swim smooth. has a great picture of someone 'snaking'. the info is in the intermediate section under bilateral breathing. keeping your entry on each side of the black line does give you a good guide.
good luck
http://www.swimsmooth.com/bilateral.html
the journey is the reward
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jenez_world posted 11 weeks ago.
This is also from the Swim Smooth web page. Hope it helps.
6. Crossover - How Do I Remove It?
Crossing over the centre line at the front of the stroke is bad for your swimming: it will disrupt your catch and cause you to fish-tail, increasing your drag. The standard solution from coaches seems to be "Think about placing the hands in the water wider and despite it feeling wide you'll actually be entering much straighter". We've lost count of how many times we've heard swim coaches say this.
Cross-over!
We fundamentally disagree with the 'just enter wider' approach. Doing so will cause a swimmer to become much flatter, removing that all important body roll. There is also a tendency to start entering very wide, so creating another problem!
A far better approach is to get each hand entering directly forward in front of its shoulder by developing your Swimming Posture - i.e. swimming with shoulders back and chest forward. We call this 'Swimming Proud'! Once this has been achieved the hand will naturally enter and reach with good alignment.
Read a little more on how to do this in our article on Shoulder Injury In Swimming.
the journey is the reward
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SAchris posted 6 weeks ago.
A life guard at the gym today told me I was crossing over too and suggested that I should pretend there is a square in front of me and that I should reach for the corners rather than the center. It felt funny, like I was swimming with my arms really wide, but he said it looked good. I guess when I add my body roll to it, it wasn't wide, it was where it was supposed to be. Did feel odd though, but it straightened me out.
Chris Holohan
holohan.blogspot.com
Hi guys
Yesterday my girlfriend came and videoed me swimming - wow the difference between how I think im swimming and the reality was a bit of a shock! During drills (I was practising leg kick and body roll drills with one arm extensions etc) I look like I have quite good extension and swimming long and straight but on the return lap when i swim normal freestyle I have a really ugly snaking movement - where the bottom half swims to swish from side to side as I swim. I remember seeing this on my swim smooth DVD as a "What not to do" (no surprises there!) but dont remember any particular tips on correcting it. I seemed to be a little better when I concentrated on trying to make myself "stiff" along the length of my body but this seems to go against the swim "relaxed" advice.
I´m also guilty of crossing over with my hands and arms passing right across in front of my head on extension - any tips on correcting that would be appreciated as well.
Many thanks
Simon