Fixing This Beginners Stroke In 1h (30% better) ft. Brett Conti

I've never swallowed so much water in my life. I don't think I'll drown. The hardest thing for me right now is breathing. To know when to breathe and how to control it. So that's been probably my least favorite part about swimming. I want you to stop using your legs. Have you ever used one of these? Nope. Be more patient and stretch every single stroke. Still getting out of the survival mode of like how to swim to like swimming. I'll try and implement that right here though. I'm gonna stretch as far as I can. I feel better than before I met you. There are three things that it takes to be good at swimming. In today's live swim lesson, I'm gonna show you how we took Brett from struggling to swim just one length of the pool to feeling confident in the water. He took 30 strokes per length the first time I saw him swim. And now he's taking less than 20 strokes. Brett is training to swim from Asia to Europe in Istanbul this summer. And my plan for him is to not only survive this 6 kilometer iconic international swim, but to enjoy the journey as well. I am a little nervous, but hopefully after what I learned from you, I won't be anymore. You know, I love doing challenges. I'm a big runner. And now I wanted to take on the next challenge. So now I'm trying to learn how to swim. And there's a lot of correlation between it, how I used to hate swimming when I first got into it. Right now I'm at the part where I'm still getting new to swimming, so it's not my favorite, but I'm hoping I get it dialed, get my techniques down, and I love it soon. The hardest thing for me right now is breathing because I used to swim kind of like more like this where my head was above water, which was nice so I could breathe. Almost like a doggy paddle. And then when I started doing freestyle, it became a lot more harder to know when to breathe and how to control it. So that's been probably my least favorite part about swimming. I don't think I'll drown, but more I want to make sure I finish this. I signed up for it, paid a decent amount of money. I don't want to let myself down, so I want to make sure I give this everything I've got. So what we're going to do is I'm going to have you get in, I'm going to analyze your technique, give you a few pointers, show you what you look like while you swim in the water, and then some things that you can work on to take into your training for the next few months so we can be successful. All right, I hope so. I trust you. Feels like I've got a condom on my head. So again, I'm still like working on my technique and there's so much going on. Feeling out of breath and getting tired is what most beginners struggle with, and Brett is no different. One eternity later. It's okay and important to stay focused on what you can control. And that's not even the pace clock. Instead, count how many strokes you take every length of the pool. How many strokes did we take? 27 and then 26. One of the biggest things with swimming technique is what's called distance per stroke. So it's how far you travel with every arm stroke. So your number of 26, we need to get that under 20 eventually. So it's not going to happen today, maybe. Maybe it will. I want you to go another 50, and I literally want you to count how many strokes you take, and I want you to take no more than 24. Just take stronger strokes. No, not stronger. I want you to be more patient. So your fingertips enter the water, and I want you to reach. So the equivalent in running would be increasing your stride length, which is not what you want to do in running. In running you want to have a more higher cadence, but in swimming it's the opposite. It's not about how fast you can move your arms, it's about how much distance per stroke that you can get. You're making the mistake of pulling your hand down too early. I want you to be more patient with each stroke. If you remember when I was swimming, my arm is literally floating in front the whole time. And I stroke, and then this arm literally pauses. Right now you have the habit of just scooping immediately. So what we're going to do is we're going to do a drill. You're going to have both your arms out at what's called 11 and 1. So with this drill you're just going to have your arms literally at 11 and 1, and you're going to take six kicks, and then you're going to take an arm stroke with just one arm. Do you see what I'm doing? So you're going to be here, then you go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, take an arm stroke, and then boom, right here. Six kicks, and then you start with the other arm. It's going to teach you to keep your arms right here. How do I breathe? It's like when you do a normal stroke. Okay. I'll demonstrate for you. Sound good? Good form. I see your head straight, body going side to side. Do you see how long my arm is extended? Yep. Very patient, distance per stroke. All right. That's what I'm going to look like right here. Yes. 26 is a lot. How many do you think I take? Ten. Yes. Really? Yes. Be more patient and stretch every single stroke. Okay. Yes. One of the things that's holding you back is how much you're using your legs. I want you to stop using your legs. Have you ever used one of these? Nope. This is called a pull buoy, and it's a buoy because it's going to actually float, and it goes between your legs under your crotch. So go ahead and just put it with me right now, right onto your crotch, and then you're going to hug it with your legs. Okay. So what this is going to do, it's going to lift your butt in the water, and you do not kick at all. Now, what's going to happen is you're going to need to keep your core tight so that your body rotates like this. Otherwise, you're going to have this thing lifting your butt up, and then your body's going to be kind of loose. You're only focusing on the pull, and you want to rotate. Reach. Is it okay for me to, like, when you're learning how to swim like this, to go slow at first? Yeah, you don't want to go fast. Okay, so I should be focusing more on just, like, control and technique and not trying to just... Control, technique, and stability. All right. Don't go too slow, though, because I don't want you to train... Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I want to try and at least make sure I'm getting the technique. Rotation. You're not shaking the hips. Yeah. That's for later. You got to rotate the hips. Rotate the hips. So you want to feel like you're swimming downhill. Okay. And that starts with a good body position. Okay. So that's why I was telling you it's so important to keep your eyes looking at the bottom. Now, the second thing that you need to do on this 11-in-1 drill to improve, you have to make sure you're finishing the strokes. There are three phases to the pull. So this is phase one. This is the initial catch. This is the power phase. And then this is the finish. You're not reaching here, so that initial part is really important. And then once you're here, this is power. And then you have to literally finish out the back door. So it's a stretch. Yeah, so this is the stretch. This is what I was saying in the beginning. It's like right here. Pull, pull, pull, pull, and then push. Here comes Brett. Way better on finishing the stroke. Finish the stroke. Good, good, good. Yeah, that was a lot better. Do you feel the difference when you finish? Yeah. It literally doubles the length of your stroke. Okay. Because, like I said, three phases. You were only pulling at one. That's the difference why you were taking 26 and I took nine. Okay. Because the first part and the last part was way more optimized. Then when you add in a good body position where your eyes are looking down, your butt's going to be higher in the water and you're going to go a lot faster. The biggest mistake that I see swimmers make that prevents them from reaching their goals and improving their technique is doing the same thing over and over again. You can't just rock up to the pool and swim the same set over and over expecting to improve. Instead, you have to follow a specific training protocol. This is why we developed the MySwimPro app and it's why tens of thousands of people all over the world have not only crossed the Bosphorus, but accomplished a number of swimming goals, whether it's losing weight, swimming faster, further, doing a triathlon, or anything in between. If you're serious about taking your swing to the next level, just like we've helped Brett and thousands of other swimmers, you've got to download the MySwimPro app. There are three things that it takes to be good at swimming. The first is technique, which we just focused on a ton, increasing your distance per stroke. The second is how you actually train because you want to teach your body how to swim fast. If you go to the pool all the time but you have bad technique, you're just reinforcing the bad technique over a long period of time and you're training your body to move slowly through the water. That's why it's really important the way you break up your workouts and the way that you structure everything. That's why all the stuff that we do when we work with people with the app or in person or whatever, it's very systematic. We're going to go 25 of this, 50 of this, this is how long we're going to rest, this is how fast we're going to go, all that stuff. Then the third to swimming fast is consistency. Being able to do it consistently over time, having the good technique, having the training. The biggest issue, I think, for you that you'll have to work on in the next few weeks is getting used to keeping your hands extended, which ties into the rotation part. Right now, you have the habit of having a bias to keeping both your hands down. If you notice, when I was swimming, my hands are almost always in front of me. When I take the stroke, it's out here and I don't take this stroke until this arm is almost touching it. Then I take the next stroke and then this arm doesn't move until this arm is almost there. Since this is my first ever swim race, my number one goal is to just finish and not drown. I just want to finish it. I don't care about the time. That's why I want to give you this book, How Not to Drown. It's actually my newest book. I don't think you're going to drown. I don't think that's really a risk. You know what's crazy is one in two people can't swim at all. This book is for everyone who does not know how to swim and looking for a way to get started. I'm giving it away for free. Check out the link in the description, hownottodrown.com. Just pay for shipping and handling. I want you to have this copy. You get the autograph version. I love it. Thank you. Now you're ready to crush it. Yeah, of course. I'm fired up. Number one goal right here. Your hands are down here the whole time. You take a pull and then you take another pull. You're biased here, but you're trying to optimize for stroke length. You want your body line as if you're seven feet tall. Actually, we're going to do something called ketchup drill. You're not allowed to take the next stroke until the hand actually touches. Let's see it. I'm going to show you before we start. Basically, we're going to take off the buoy. Take the buoy off for a sec. What we're going to do is you're going to have your hands here. You take a stroke and then you place your hand, your thumbs almost tag each other. Then you take the next stroke. Tag. Yeah, that does look a lot different than mine. Okay? Yeah. Can I watch you, though, do another? Let me watch you from up there. The biggest thing you need to do is maximize your distance per stroke. That starts when your fingertips enter the water. Reach, reach, reach. There's no reach. You immediately start pulling. Okay. It's got to be like hand enters the water. Reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach. Then you pull with this arm. See, you never got to full extension. You never even straightened your arm. Okay. That's like a foot per stroke that you're missing. Then on the finish, look at that arm. Do you see how you're not finishing? Yeah. I think I'm currently still getting out of the survival mode of how to swim to swimming. Yes, I understand. Yeah, yeah. I'll try and implement that right here, though. I'm going to stretch as far as I can. If your body's rotating, your head doesn't move, though. Okay. Let me try that. I forgot about the other thing you told me about keeping my head straight. There are a lot of things to think about. A lot going on. Brett is doing a 25 catch-up drill. I told him to kick less, really focus on all three parts of the pull. Let's see how he's doing. It feels really uncomfortable when you're doing a new drill for the first time, but it's really important that you stick with it and try and find ways to improve. He probably feels really uncomfortable, but when he goes back and watches this in the future, he's going to realize that this is actually making progress, and he's doing a way better job than before. Very good. Yeah. Okay. We have some good ones. Yeah, that was pretty good. The biggest thing is trying to figure out how do you use less of your legs, how do you get the rotation going, and that will increase your distance per stroke. One of the problems you're having is your butt's not rotating. Yeah. You're trying to rotate with your upper body, but you're connected all the way through. If my arm is your body, the whole thing is rotating. Right now, you're trying to just do... Do you see how I can't not get my whole arm rotating? Yep. You're trying to just do this part, and your hips need to rotate as well. Everything's got to rotate. Okay. Let's try eight, nine, ten. Wow. How do we look? Almost as good as me. I mean, I can try. One day, I'm going to swim, if you remember. Oh, man. What was the biggest thing you noticed when I was swimming? That your strides were so big. Distance per stroke. Yeah. Distance per stroke was really good. And how do you think I was doing that? How was I getting that kind of distance per stroke? I don't know. You're just like a fish. No, so it comes from rotation. Okay. Because if you put your arms out here, right, and you only swim like this, you don't have very much distance. Okay. If you rotate, do you see how much more you can get? Yeah. If you're here, rotate. Okay. Rotate. So, like, go to your side and side? Yeah, your whole body. So, if you, I want you to, here, give me the mic. I want you to literally rotate your body without moving your head. No, no, you, you, no, no. So, I'm going to hold your head, and you're going to do this. Okay. Yes. Pretend now your arms are doing the, do you see how, yes. You're not doing that at all. Okay. So, your head, your head stays still, and the rotation happens independently of that. Okay. Okay? So, I want you to try again, and I want you to count your strokes. Again, just go two lengths like that. When are you breathing? I breathe every two strokes. Okay. So, like, one, two, breathe, one, two, breathe. Yep. Okay, should I try and do that? Yeah. All right. That way you get into a rhythm, like a cadence, you get into a rhythm. But the most important thing, I just want you to get more distance per stroke. Okay. More distance per stroke. All right, I'm going to try that. Name of the game. And we have Brett coming off, going for 22 strokes. Let's see what he can do. He's off the wall. He's not in streamline. We can work on that. One. I've never swallowed so much water in my life. This is normal in the process, so don't get frustrated. But I will tell you, when you did that drill, that was the best swimming that you did. It probably didn't feel like it. You're like, oh, my God, I feel like I'm drowning. The timing of your mechanics was, like, five times better than the first time I watched you swim. Really? So, it's tag, catch, pull, and then finish, and then tag. Despite you thinking you were drowning, like, you were so much better on that one than the last ones that you did. You got this. Show me the magic. Show us the magic. Tell me what I want. Okay. Next drill we're going to do is called fist drill. You're going to swim with a fist. Normal freestyle. And so, the goal is to increase your feel of the water right here. Okay. And so, what's happening is I'm taking away the surface area of your hand, so it's going to force you to catch the water with your forearm. So, this is the first third of that stroke. So, you're going to go the whole... I don't want you to punch the water. Okay. You're just going to place your hand in the water, reach, and pull. So, to make this somewhat difficult for you, you're going to do this and the catch-up drill at the same time. Because I don't want you to just fight the water. So, you're going to be right here. And so, you're going to place your hand, tag, and then try and be fluid. Don't, like, punch your hands. All right. Try and be fluid. Big strokes. You're going to feel slower, but once you open up your hand again on the second one, you'll feel way better. Okay. So, fist drill. All right, let's see it. And he's off. Overall, you have a decent foundation in the sense that you're not completely sinking. Like, some people, their legs are, like, two, three feet underwater. Your legs are only, like, a foot underwater. That's actually not that bad. You're relatively high in the water. Despite your head position, if you lower your head position, that'll make it a lot better. There's a couple times when I'm doing a lot of laps where I'm, like, so out of breath. Like, my body still feels fine and I have the strength, but I'm just like, oh, I need, like, to really come out of the water for a second. So I need to work on that, which I think just comes with practice. I feel more confident. I feel like I'm getting more of my technique and form down. Things are starting to make sense because before I didn't know how I was going to get, like, such big strokes every time. And now with the techniques you're teaching me, I'm like, oh, it's all adding up. It makes sense now. You know, if you're running for a marathon, but you don't run for two weeks, and then you start running every single day, and then you take two weeks off, like, it's not going to work. Swimming is even worse if you do that because you can take, like, one step forward and then two steps backwards if you stop swimming. And that feel of the water compounds over time, which is different than, like, running because in running, like, you're probably walking around. Like, you're using the same muscles. You're just not running. In swimming, you literally don't touch the water any other time other than you're swimming. The feel and intentionality that you have when you swim is so important. The way you finish a workout is the most important part of any swim because the way you finish a swim is how you start the next swim. I feel more confident. I'm feeling good. I was really nervous the past couple weeks about how in the world I'm going to do this swim. And now I'm excited to keep practicing everything that you've been teaching me and crush it. I need to work on the strokes. I need to work on keeping my head down more. Like you always say, pretend like you're swimming down. Swimming downhill. So I need to work on that. My feet. Kind of like everything. I know how to do each little thing, I feel like, but now doing it all together is what's going to make this, the whole package, to be a good swimmer. You're going to swim and you're going to listen to the noise that your fingertips make when you hit the water. And you want to use all of your senses. Like, even your smell. Like, before you push off, breathe in through your nose and be aware of the environment that you're in. Obviously, you're going to feel. That's the sense. You're going to listen. And you're going to... Don't taste. Don't drink the water. We're not using the taste sense. But you want to put it all together and then swim a 25 and feel and hear everything that's happening. I'm starting to realize now too how good of a workout this is. And I think that's what's making me, even after this session we're doing, enjoy it more. Where I'm like, oh yeah, this feels good. I'm feeling the burn in my arms, my feet, the core of my body. So I think this is such a fun activity that even if you're not trying to swim cross-continental like I am, it's really cool to just jump in a pool if your gym has one or if you have one in your backyard because it's becoming fun. Thanks to Ferris. Let's go.