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Alright, In competitive swimming there are four strokes. Freestyle, butterfly, backstroke, and breaststroke.
We are going to work on freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke(we actually didn’t have time for the breaststroke.) Ok?
Freestyle is the “regular” stroke you would usually think of. Ok? So you bring your arms up, then around.
What we’re gonna do is - this is how I explain it to little kids - is make spoons with our hands. Not forks, or knives. Ok?
So, you’re going to make your spoons, and we’re going to work on scooping the water. You pull it towards your stomach. Then out by your hip.
Then, you’re going to bring it out of the water. Bend your elbow, and reach really far out.
Same with the other. Scoop, way down, elbow up. Scoop, towards your stomach, by your hip, elbow up. Can I see you practice?
Remember, you have to reach way down under the water. You want to move all that water.
Good.
And you’re doing a really good thing there. You’re rolling your shoulders.
You almost want to be sideways at all times.
So you want to scoop it this way so you’re kind of sideways, and back over here. Then scoop it this way - Ok?
Now, with this stroke the kick we use is the flutter kick.
Flutter kick is where you are laying flat in the water, with your legs behind you. With your toes pointed. And your knees - they don’t want to bend - but they can’t be stiff either. So you need to leave them nice and relaxed. Ok?
So, you’re gonna kick from your hips, point your toes, and leave your knees relaxed.
Can I see you practice. Good.
You don’t want to be splashing on the top of the water, but you want nice bubbly ripples on top.
You want them a little higher.
Nice. Is that good? Good. It should look like boiling water. - Like that? Good.
Ok, so can you swim for me from here, all the way to the other wall. - Ok.
Very nice. You want to try it back once more.
Very nice. You want to try it back once more.
Ok, Do you have any questions? Ok, great. So now we’re going to work on some backstroke. Backstroke is similar to free(style). Except we do it on our back.
We can practice the flutter kick against the wall.
Same thing you want your toes pointed. Straight leg kick coming from your hip, and those same lovely bubbles on top of the water. Like boiling water.
A lot of your power in your backstroke comes from your kick.
Ok. Remember, you don’t want those knees to bend a lot, we don’t want to see them out of the water.
So what we’re gonna do, remember when I said no knives before, in freestyle? Well for this one we are going to use those knives.
We bring out hands out of the water, thumb first. Flip to pinkies second. And reach way back. And pull the water. Keep your head up.
Thumb, pinkie, reach back. Thumb, pinkie, back. Thumb, pinkie, back.
Ok? So you’re going to do that, and do the things we talked about with the back float. (which also didn’t make it into the video.)
So you’re going to keep your stomach toward the top of the water, your back arched so your shoulders are back. Your head up, chin up.
Wanna try it, over to there?
Don’t want her to hit her head!