Vidlune
Analysing your swimming technique on video
What to look for in a swimming video: body line, head position, catch, kick timing and breathing, and how to film it from the poolside.
Swimming is hard to self-correct because you can't see yourself and the water hides a lot of what you feel. A short video from the poolside shows things no amount of thinking in the water will reveal.
Filming from the side of the pool
Ask someone to film you from the side, walking level with you if possible, or set the phone on the deck and swim past it. Film at least three or four strokes so you see a full cycle. A front-on or underwater view is useful too, but a simple side view from above the water already shows body position, head position and kick.
A higher frame rate (60 fps or more) makes it far easier to step through the stroke frame by frame.
Body line
Pause the video when your body is at its flattest. Draw a line from head to heels. In good freestyle the line is close to horizontal, with the hips near the surface. If the line slopes steeply downwards towards the feet, the hips and legs are sinking, which adds a lot of drag. Common causes are lifting the head to look forward and kicking from the knees.
Head position
Look at where your eyes point. In freestyle the head is usually neutral, looking down and slightly forward, with the waterline around the top of the head or hairline. A head held high pushes the hips down. Compare one stroke with another: does the head move up and down each time you breathe?
Breathing
Step through a breath frame by frame. Ideally the head rotates with the body and returns quickly, with one goggle staying in the water. Lifting the head forward instead of turning it, or holding the breath position for a long time, shows up clearly in slow motion.
The catch
The catch is the moment the hand starts to hold the water at the front of the stroke. On video, check whether the elbow stays higher than the hand as the forearm turns down, or whether the elbow drops and the hand pushes down on the water. A dropped elbow is one of the most common things coaches look for, and it is easy to see when you pause at the right frame.
Kick and timing
Watch the legs at normal speed first, then slowly. A compact kick from the hips with relaxed ankles stays inside the body's shadow. Big knee bends or feet coming far out of the water create drag. In slow motion you can also see how the kick lines up with the arm stroke and the body rotation.
Compare with a reference
Put your video next to a reference of a strong swimmer filmed from a similar angle. Sync both on the same moment, such as the hand entering the water, and play them together. Differences in rotation, head position and body line become obvious when the two move side by side. Laying one video over the other, half see-through, can show differences in body line even more clearly.
A short checklist
- Is the body line close to horizontal?
- Is the head neutral, not lifted?
- Does the head turn rather than lift to breathe?
- Is the elbow above the hand during the catch?
- Is the kick compact, starting from the hips?
Pick one point per session. Changing everything at once rarely works in the water; changing one thing and checking it on video the next time usually does.