Ok, guys, I have decided to go a little more high tech on this one.

Just kiding.

What is a good swimming lesson without a proper demonstration?

So, here you have it.

Watch the Australian olympic distance swimmer Grant Hackett do his thing.

Now, while you are watching the freestyle swimming video, I'd like you to think about a few key points.

a.) Look at the head position and the breathing.

Not much movement there.

Head is neutral and you can barely see his goggles coming out of the water.

Basically, it is almost like he is sneaking a peek in there. :)

b.) Watch how smooth and relaxed he looks.

This is the key to fast and efficient swimming.

Looking at the underwater video, this is from his 1500m swim (I guess you can see that on his time :)).

c.) When underwater, check out how he grabs so much water with his forearms up front and then anchors his forearm to move past it.

He also stretches out of his shoulders forward and finishes his stroke all the way below his butt.

d.) There are more key points that you can get out of the video, but these are the main ones.

Feel free to comment on this and give us your opinion.

Underwater freestyle slow motion
Swimming slowly underwater is the next challenge

The next perfect freestyle stroke is from Sun Yang.

It is just so so so so efficient.

I really want you to pay attention to his front forearm catch. It is just amazing.

Of course, he is the top athlete, so his early vertical forearm is very early and very vertical.

Most swimmers cannot keep the elbow so high, but it does not hurt to have a look at how it should be.

As you can imagine, the inner shoulder rotation and proper flexibility plays a big role in achieving an effective catch.

Of course, it does not hurt to be 2 meters all :).

Did you learn anything?

Swim Advice Topics

Freestyle Slow Motion (Grant Hackett and Sun Yang - The Ultimate Distance Freestyle Stroke) is part of the following categories: Freestyle, Swimming Videos, Top Swimmers and is meant for swimmers in: Level 3 - Intermediate, Level 2 - Beginner

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Comments (3)

Andrew Vit said...
What I find interesting is his kick. He kicks for 4 out of 6 beats, then glides the last 2... He glides on the side opposite his breathing. I have not seen that done before. Any insights on this?
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Anonymous said...
Good observation. I would say that this kind of a kick is very typical for distance swimmers. If they were to kick 6 out of 6 beats, they would get tired too early in the race, this way, they keep a good steady rhythm with a nice glide for recovery. However, that being said, if you notice he bops up and down a little due to the fact that he is not kicking evenly, so this causes some of his forward momentum to be deverted into vertical up and down motion. I would say his is very minimal, but when swimming, you should avoid going up and down as much as possible. Everytime you drop back down from the up position, you go underwater and create more drag that way.
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RisingSunOfNihon said...
It looks very smooth. I am a sprint mid distance swimmer and I am a ferm beleiver of DPS. the way he sets on the water and slide through the water is what i aim for. ofcourse the kick tempo for me is aroun 8 beat kick.
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