DIY: How I Breathed My Smoothest 100 Meters in 1:05

On this video I'll show you a set of exercises that take 20 to 30 minutes and will help you start swimming like this. By the end of the video you'll know how to do at least one stroke that looks and feels like these ones. This video has 5 parts. This 100 meters freestyle swimming demonstration. 5 key points of the theory of this freestyle swimming technique. 5 common problems when trying to swim like this. Exercises to help you swim smoother in 5 steps. And a giveaway. Theory. Basics. There are many ways to swim freestyle or front crawl. This technique is efficient and moderately fast. I did a total of 50 strokes in 100 meters in 1 minute and 5 seconds. From now on we will call it aero freestyle. The key of the technique is that there are not a lot of extra movements. The only movements there are are optimized to help you move forward. It's almost catch up swim. Catch up is a popular drill used by coaches to help swimmers glide and make their body longer. The kick is a two beat kick, which means one kick per stroke. It helps save up energy since the legs have big muscles that use a lot of energy and oxygen. Advantages and disadvantages of the aero technique. This is by no means the fastest way to swim, but when you perfect it, it can be pretty fast. Once you start swimming and practicing with this aero freestyle technique, you can build up a lot of endurance and you'll be able to swim long distances at a constant pace. That's why this technique is often used by open water swimmers and long distance pool swimmers in the middle part of their swim. It may seem easy to swim like this, but it does take a lot of effort, especially if you're not used to it. 5 key points The legs need to be synchronized with the arms. You kick down with your right leg at the same time that your right arm is pulling. The body needs to be as horizontal as possible. Your legs need to be very straight. Your breathing needs to be quick. Breathe faster than me for optimal results. Your arm should always wait for the opposite arm to almost finish before it starts moving, especially when you're breathing. Since your arms are producing most of the forward movement, they should be very efficient meaning high elbow, vertical forearm as soon as possible, using the rotation to pull with bigger muscles and having barbie hands. Common problems You should expect 5 things to be your main obstacles. First, legs kicking fast instead of a 2 beat kick. Second, splashing water instead of smooth swimming. Third, not enough glide. Fourth, balancing problems. Difficulty maintaining a horizontal position. Fifth, kick and pull not synchronized. Exercises to help you fix up One stroke at a time. If I told you to swim at this pace with this technique and you have never done it, you would probably think that I am asking too much. But if instead I ask you to spend 20 to 30 minutes trying to do just one stroke that looked and felt like this, you'd probably be up for the challenge. So let's do that. One arrow stroke. Why only one stroke? Many coaches try to correct technique while swimmers are at full speed swimming many laps. This is probably the worst time to try and correct technique since you are tired, focused on other things and probably in autopilot. At least in the beginning of changing your technique or trying out a new one, we believe that you need to slow things down and break things up into manageable pieces. Then build your technique while you put together those small pieces. What does it take? This arrow freestyle looks easy. But you actually need to master 5 things. And you can improve 4 out of those 5 things in just 20 to 30 minutes with the exercises I am about to show you. Balance You need your body to be horizontal. You need your legs to not sink. This is a bit easier if you are moving, kind of like riding a bicycle. Practice this. Push up and stay still. Keep gliding with that horizontal balance by pushing your chest down and having a tight core and tight legs. Mobility This is unfortunately the one that you won't be able to fix quickly. In order to put your forearm like this, you need to be able to move your shoulder like this. Stop this video and try to put your arms like this. If you can't you'll need to do these stretches daily for a few weeks. Control We naturally have a tendency to move our legs fast in order to move faster. But for this technique you need to control that tendency. You need very straight knees and pointing toes. You only bend them when you kick down once every stroke. And you never stop the plantar flexion. This is relatively easy to correct. To force yourself to stop kicking like crazy, put on a pull buoy between your legs, or a kickboard or wrap a stretch band around your ankles. Anything that stops you from kicking. And swim 4 x 25s like this. Listening A good hand entry should sound like this. One kick per stroke sounds like this. If you hear this instead, it means that you are doing something wrong. Find out what it is and do 4 to 8 x 25s listening carefully to try and swim smoother. Then listen to your sense of touch. We have a lot of nerve endings in our skin. Use them by feeling how the water moves around you, around your hands and around your torso. Feel the pressure against the top of your feet when you kick down. Notice that feeling of knife through butter when you have pointing toes. Feel how the forearm uses leverage to move you forward when it is perpendicular to your body. Do 2 x 25s focusing on one part of the body. Hands, forearms, torso and feet. For a total of 8 x 25s. Coordination The final step is to coordinate the previous 4 steps. One arrow freestyle stroke like this is all that we are going for right now. Remember? Push off as horizontal as possible and feel the water speeding up on your skin and then slowing down as you start to lose speed. Before you stop moving, pull water with your forearm, trying to have it as perpendicular as possible and glide on the side of your torso. At the same time that you are doing your powerful pull, your leg of the same side of your body should be kicking down quickly. What's next? If you can coordinate at least one stroke and one kick on arrow freestyle while the other side of your body doesn't move, you've done the hard part. The next time you practice you'll try to go for 2 arrow strokes, one on each side. You may stop after each cycle. Then you can start connecting them in a row. After that, your next challenge will be to learn when and how to breathe. And if you want to swim 100 meters in 105 with this technique in a 25 meter pool, you'll also need to learn underwater kicks and flip turns. We have covered those topics on other videos.