Logo
    MARKETPLACECOLLEGEFEATURESPRICINGBLOGLOGIN

Freestyle - Kara Lynn Joyce

Important Note to the Viewer

LESSONS: 38 VIDEOS

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

How to Get the Most from this Video

How to Get the Most from this Video

The best way for you to improve as a swimmer is to listen to your coach. But not even the best coach can watch every swimmer all the time. It’s up to you to pay attention to details, and to the focus points that will make you faster. In this video, I’ll share with you the six most important things I think about when I swim freestyle. These are the six key focus points that work for me – and that I hope will work for you. I learned these focus points and techniques from some of the best coaches and teachers in swimming, including Jon Urbanchek of Michigan; Jack Bauerle, my current coach and head women’s coach for the 2008 US Olympic Team; and of course my mother, Kathy Joyce, who coached me for the first ten years of my career. As you watch the video, remember that I didn’t learn these skills overnight. I’ve spent thousands of hours perfecting each one, and I’m still learning. Every time I go to the pool I work on technique… so that I don’t have to worry about it when I race. When I’m on the block before a race, I like to have a clear head. In the 50 and 100 free, I don’t have time to think about technique. When I hear the signal, I just go. The technique has to be automatic. When you try these focus points for yourself, it’s best not to think about all of them at the same time. Try to focus on one specific thing each day. When you work on these techniques, it should always be in addition to what your coach is asking you to do… not in place of. All great swimmers will tell you: Don’t just do what’s asked of you. Always do just a little bit more. If you do this every day, you’ll step to the blocks with confidence in yourself and your training. OK. Let’s look at the six key focus points that work for me in freestyle.

Balance - Kara Lynn

Balance - Kara Lynn

When most people see me swim like this… they would never guess that it all begins with… …this. Balance. Perfect balance is impossible – almost no one can float perfectly flat or horizontal in the water. But trying to stay as balanced as possible is extremely important to fast swimming. If you can keep your body horizontal when you swim, you create a lot less drag, and all your energy can be used to send you forward. A good way to find your balance is to float face down on the surface of the water without moving. I’m using a snorkel to help me relax as I do this, but you can try it just by holding your breath. When your legs and hips start to sink, make slight adjustments at the top end of your body to help stay afloat. Look down with your eyes. Your best head position should be similar to your natural posture when you’re out of the water – looking straight ahead. Press in -- or lean in -- on your chest and lungs. And press in with your hips, working with the feel until you find your optimum natural balance point. Once you find your balance point, you can start to kick a little bit, trying to maintain a horizontal position as you move forward. This is your starting point for everything in freestyle. But balance is way more than leaning in and staying horizontal. For me, balance means keeping your right side and left side equal and symmetrical. In this clip, try to focus just on my arms. Notice how the angle of the elbows is the same on both sides and how my hands enter at the same point on both sides. From under water, you can see how I try to balance the path of my hands on both sides, and how I try to rotate an equal amount on both sides, from one hip to the other. Being balanced side to side helps me move in a more direct line down the pool, and that’s critical in a 50 or 100 free. Balance also means keeping your upper body and lower body equally efficient. In this clip you can see that I’m in horizontal balance, but also that my kick doesn’t overpower my pull… and vice versa. When I pick it up to race pace, the balance is still there. The kick and the arms are working at the same level of intensity, and this helps drive me forward with steady, even speed. Here’s one more clip at race pace. Look for the horizontal balance, the side-to-side balance, and the balance between kick and pull. When you work on balance at the pool, don’t be afraid to slow down, and work on just one aspect at a time… Horizontal balance… …side-to-side balance – or symmetry… …and a balance of effort between kick and pull.

Sprint Breathing

Sprint Breathing

Knowing when to breathe and how to breathe is important no matter what kind of freestyler you are. But to excel at sprint freestyle – 50s and 100s – you have to take it one step further. You have to learn how often to breathe, and then train for this at every practice. First, let’s take a look at when to breathe -- and this is a timing thing. I like to start the breath the moment my opposite hand enters the water. And then finish the breath by the time my recovering hand is just about to enter. By being patient and waiting until my hand enters, I can hide the breath behind the bow wave. Because I wait for the bow wave, only a slight turn of the head is necessary in order to catch a breath. Let’s watch it again from another angle. The breath starts here…and the breath is connected to the hands. If we freeze-frame it right here, you can see the lead hand extended in the water…the bow wave just above my head…and the breath. When you look at my stroke from head on, you can just barely see the breath, and this is something I work on every day. When I breathe, my goal is to keep one goggle eye in the water. If we freeze it right here…you can see that I do this by keeping my head low and by looking slightly back when I breathe. Here you can see it again – the water covers exactly half of my head. From under water, you can see that the breath does nothing to upset my horizontal balance. Even during the breath, you could run a straight line from my fingertips to my toes. This kind of low breath is essential in sprint freestyle because you don’t want to do anything that makes you deviate from traveling in a straight line. Which brings up the topic of how often to breathe. When I race the 50 free, I take only one breath, and it happens right about…here. In a 100, I try to breathe every 3 for the first half of the race, which helps me stay in control during the second half of the race. In the second half of my 100 I breathe whenever I need to – probably every 5 or so – and then not at all the last 15 meters. In this underwater clip, try to ignore my pull and kick and focus just on my nose and the bubbles that are coming out. In sprint free, it’s very important to be constantly breathing out. The urge to breathe comes from the build-up of CO2, not from the lack of oxygen. So if you are always exhaling, and getting rid of CO2, you have a better chance of delaying oxygen deprivation. It can take many years to learn to control your breathing in this way. My coach works on hypoxics a lot with me in practice because for the races I swim it’s important to be able to control my breath. We do drills where I breathe every 3 strokes all the way up to every 9 strokes. I also do a set of 50s after practice a few times a week where I don’t breathe at all. I try to lower the interval every time it gets comfortable for me. And on race days I usually do some laps under water, kicking with no air just to get my lungs ready and expanded for my race. Always be cautious when you add any type of hypoxic work to your training. Don’t do too much at once. But the one thing you can focus on during every length of freestyle is the timing of your breath, and keeping one goggle in when you breathe. That’s the starting point for a really fast freestyle.

Take Advantage of Every Angle

Take Advantage of Every Angle

The catch is the most technical part of your stroke, and an area where small changes can lead to large improvements. The most important thing about your catch is to take advantage of every angle. The idea is to find the angles that let you grab as much water as possible during every part of the pull. In this clip, try to ignore everything except my hands. Look for the angle of the hand as it enters…catches…pulls…and exits. If we slow it down, you can see that the angle of attack is low. I try to be precise, and think about slicing my hand into the water – fingertips first. As the hand goes in and extends forward, right near the surface, I send the pinky out to the side. This helps me to engage the lats – the muscles in my back – and sets me up for a high-elbow pull. From head on, you can see how flaring out the pinky gives me a wider pull, and gets my back muscles into the stroke. Sending my hands out helps me pop the elbow and keep it high. If we freeze-frame it here, you can see another set of angles that helps give me power in my stroke. Notice the straight line across the shoulders from elbow to elbow – and the 90-degree angle at each elbow. I like to try for this kind of balance – or symmetry – from side to side. I also like to have a wide pull, where the hands never cross the centerline of my body, and never really come inside the line of my hips. Still looking at the hand, notice that as it reaches full extension, I separate the thumb to initiate the catch. This gives me a bit more surface area with my hand, and it causes my hand to start to come in toward the centerline of my body. As the pull begins, notice that I keep my elbow high and point my fingers toward the bottom of the pool. I try to form a straight line from my elbow through my wrist, across the palm, and all the way to the fingertips. Here’s a different angle. Watch for the elbows to remain high, and for the fingertips to be pointing down. This angle gives me the most surface area for a powerful pull. I try to grab as much water as I can with my palm and forearm, and then hang on to all of the water through the pull. In this next clip, notice the angles that are formed as I begin the final part of the pull. If we freeze it here, you can see that the elbow is still high, but that the forearm, wrist, and hand are still forming a straight line, with fingertips pointing down. I’m still holding on to the water with as big a surface as possible. As the clip continues, notice how I try to maintain this big surface area – this big paddle – all the way through the pull, till the hand exits the water. A common mistake swimmers make is to let go of the water too early, either by collapsing the elbow or the wrist, or by exiting too early. I try to maximize my angles. I keep the elbow high, the wrist straight, and I try to follow all the way through and exit at the hip. In this next clip, try to ignore the hands and focus just on the angle formed by my elbow. I try to maintain a high elbow at every point of the stroke. Here’s another view where you can see how the high elbow helps me take advantage of the muscles in my back. It allows me to apply more pressure to the water. In this clip, you can see another way I try to take advantage of angles. I try not to let my hands cross the centerline of my body during the pull. My hands enter right above the shoulders, then go wide, then come slightly in, but they don’t go across the centerline. By not letting my hands cross the centerline, I can swim in a more direct line. When you work on your catch, try to think about just one angle at a time. Focus on hand entry one day. High elbow the next. Straight wrist the next. Remember, it’s small changes that can add up to big improvements.

Take Advantage of the Turn

Take Advantage of the Turn

The fastest part of your race is the start. The second fastest is your turn. I work on starts and turns at every practice, so that I can learn to take full advantage of the speed generated by pushing off a solid surface. We’ll cover starts in the bonus section of this video. In this section we’ll focus just on the flip. Let’s watch it first at full speed. Then slow it down so we can focus on the details. For me, the key ingredient to a fast turn is not looking up at the wall before you flip on it. If you look up, you lose most of your momentum, and this slows you down on every part of the turn, including the pushoff. You want as little a pause before you flip as possible. Try to take your last pull and follow it immediately with your tuck. Flip straight over, and keep your body in a tight tuck. The smaller the ball you are in, the faster you can get over. Try looking for your knees to help you get in a tight tuck. Try not to use your hands and arms when you flip. Flip from the abs – from your core. Once you take your last pull, leave your arms at your sides and they’ll be right above your head, ready to go into streamline, when your feet hit the wall. I like to let my knees go apart when I flip because I think this gives me a better base when I push off. It’s kind of like jumping to dunk a basketball…you get a stronger push if your feet are apart rather than together. Once I push off – and I push off on my back rather than angled on my side -- my feet immediately come together into streamline. I aim slightly deep so that I can take a few dolphin kicks before I start to flutter kick into the breakout. To go a bit deep, make sure your legs are planted a bit high on the wall. You have a lot of speed and momentum coming off the wall. To hang on to this momentum, you don’t want to start your kick too early. Get a good streamline, then take a few quick dolphins before you flutter kick into your breakout. My favorite drill for practicing turns it to take 3 to 5 strokes down the pool and then go right into a flip. The good thing about this drill is that you can imagine the wall is always the perfect distance away. Take your strokes and immediately flip, making sure you’re in a tight tuck and your knees are a good distance apart. Then push into streamline and end up on your back. We do this over and over again down the pool, and it really helps to perfect the technique without tiring your legs out with constant pushes off the wall. Remember: Sprints are all about speed, so you need to take advantage of the parts of your race that will give you the most speed.

Learn to Swim Soft to Go Fast

Learn to Swim Soft to Go Fast

When I’m swimming at race pace, my stroke is anything but soft. But in order to race like this… …I spend a lot of time swimming like this. When I’m practicing I’m focused on a lot of things. And to really focus, I have to slow down and swim softly. At slow speed, I can tune in to how well I’m balanced in the water, and whether I’m reaching full extension on every stroke. I can experiment with how my hand enters the water… ...or where it exits. I can feel what happens when I do different things with my fingers and hands during the catch. I can play with where I start the catch and how high my elbows are… …or how wide my hands go. I have time to think about the difference between the recovery (which should be relaxed)… and the pull (which should be intense). I can control the height and quickness of my kick – practicing a low, resisted kick at race cadence… …so that when I race and the kick is high and out of the water, it feels easier. I work on a 6-beat kick at practice -- kicking with my feet just barely breaking the surface… …so that I can maintain a 6-beat kick throughout my races. I put a lot of emphasis on my technique when I practice, as well as following what my coach tells me to do – whether it’s to descend or negative-split or anything else along those lines. I practice going fast, for sure, but I spend a lot of time swimming softly so that I can think about what I’m doing. I do this so that when I race, I can turn off my brain and go into autopilot. If you can’t do something at a soft, slow speed, you probably won't be able to do it at race pace. But if you spend the time to learn things at a soft pace, you shouldn’t need to think about anything when you race except getting your hand on the wall before anyone else in the pool, which is the topic of our next focus point.

Get Your Hand on the Wall

Get Your Hand on the Wall

If you’re a sprint freestyler, you know that most races are won or lost by hundredths of a second. In a close race, everything comes down to who can get their hand on the wall first, so this is something I work on every day. The first step – and I bet your coach has said this a million times -- is to finish every interval at the wall. If you coast in from the flags, and stop before you reach the wall, you’re training yourself to finish that way in a race. The next step is to find your ideal body position at the finish. For me, it looks like this. I’m on my side, my head and eyes are down, my arm is stretched out as long as I can make it, and I’m touching the wall with the tips of my fingers. The most common mistake that I see is swimmers who lift their head before they get their hand on the wall. Lifting the head makes you de-celerate, and that’s just the opposite of what you want to do at the finish. I also see swimmers who touch with the palm of the hand rather than with the tips of the fingers. Or they finish up on the ledge rather than hitting the touch pad. Or they let the arm come across their body as they lift the head to look back and get their time on the scoreboard. These are small mistakes, but any one of them can keep you from getting your hand on the wall first. To get a feel for the correct finish position, try finishing in slow motion. Start by swimming easy. When you get to the flags, keep swimming easy but don’t breathe from the flags in. Keep your eyes and head down. Finish with a full extension of the shoulder. And finish by sending the tips of your fingers into the wall and not up over the gutter. Once you get a feel for your body position at the touch, you can start to add some speed. But don’t lose sight of the basics. No breathing from the flags in. Eyes down. Reach and extend. Fingertip finish. As you start to add even more speed, you can add the fine points. The kick should become more intense. Pick a target on the wall and adjust your stroke so that you hit it just right. Keep your head down and give it every ounce of energy you have. Get that last stroke over and your hand on the wall as fast as you possibly can. If you finish every interval with this kind of focus, you will win more races. And if you view your races in this way – that it’s all about getting your hand on the wall first, rather than about your time – you can take a lot of pressure off yourself in big meets and you’ll swim more instinctively. In every race – whether it’s a small dual meet or the Olympic Games – there is only one thing to do and that is to try to get your hand on the wall before anyone else!