Volker, you swim well and some tweaks to your technique can aid in providing more power and momentum. You keep your head low and parallel to the water when breathing which helps to reduce the drag against the water, and your arms enter parallel to your shoulders.

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You made a very good observation that swimming is not just about the arms, but a whole body motion with rotation and the rotation combining with the arms.

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Remember, just focus on one thing at a time or on one side of your body and practice the drill a few times, then a series of 1 x 25m drill, 1x 25m freestyle focusing on the drill component.

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Key points...

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1. Rotation: Initiate it from your hips, and rotate on both sides of your body, especially the side your don’t breathe on. You should feel like you are continually rotating throughout your swimming. Link your hips and shoulders to rotate these together. Rotation also helps to lengthen your stroke by extending your arm forward.

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You rotate well on the side you breathe, as you are getting your head into position to breathe, remember to rotate more on the opposite side to the side you breathe on.

 

2. Body and Head position: You have a good head position when breathing, keeping your head low and parallel to the water. When practising looking down to the bottom of the pool, we were aiming to get the lower half of your body higher in the water to reduce the drag, however you tended to struggle with breathing.

 

Reflecting upon this and as we addressed other areas of your swim stroke, rotation and arm shape had a great benefit to your body position. Keep adjusting your head position, however you may find greater benefit in arm shape, rotation and adding a small kick as you breathe to help maintain momentum and body position as per your final swim video.

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3. Arm shape: Your arms enter the water parallel to your shoulders well, we worked on maintaining an angle downward in the water (like a spear fisherman) to help keep your elbow higher than your wrist throughout your stroke and as you extend forward. This enables you to get your arms into a better shape earlier to get more power earlier and to help focus on combining with your rotation. This was a good development in the session.

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4. Combining arm shape and rotation: The single arm drill really helped to understand the shape required and combining it with your rotation.  Combining your rotation with your arm stroke helped gain more power and momentum and also helped to keep your legs narrow and together creating less drag in the water rather than splaying apart and creating more drag.

 

Additionally a slighter quicker motion and a more flowing nature helped raise your lower body higher in the water.

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5. Kicking:  a small flutter kick helped to lift your lower body higher in the water to create less drag, especially when breathing. A small movement is better than a bigger booming kick, and remember to push down and pull up on the water.