50 Free Critique

At a swim meet a few summers ago, my daughter was disappointed with her performance in the sprint freestyle events. While she didn’t look slow off the blocks, it seemed like she was giving some of her competitors a head start. In today’s video, we’re going to break down her 50 free race and see if we can pinpoint areas for improvement.

My daughter is in lane two. Her reaction to the starter was good. While lane five had a great start, my daughter is in second place at that point. As they’re about to enter the water, it looks like some of her competitors got a stronger push off the blocks and have caught up. Also, they are getting in to their streamline positions quicker than she is.

As they enter the water, she’s probably still in third place at this point, but she loses some ground as they dolphin kick out past the flags. On the breakout, lane three really seems to jump out in front of her. So after two strokes, she’s in 6th place which is ultimately where she finishes. She seems to gain ground on the leaders in the middle of the race, but runs out of steam the final 10 meters.

So, what can we learn from this? My daughter was quick off the blocks, and overall she had a really strong swim. However, she needs to get a little stronger push off the start. In addition, she needs to get into her streamline position sooner. Finally, her underwater dolphin kick needs to be stronger and her breakout needs to be more explosive. Ultimately, the faster you get as a swimmer, the more the little things matter. Attention to detail may sound cliche, but in the sprint events there is little to no room for error.