Stroke Analysis

Stroke analysis is a meticulous process, non-swimmers would rather watch paint dry than swimming. I personally love analyzing swimming, whether it is a 8 year old belly flopping off a block or Soviet Russia's Alexander Popov youtube videos. The higher quantity of strokes you watch, the better you become at picking apart a stroke, but every coach has had a swimmer where they are stumped. Whether it is a case of crossing flutter kick, wiggling hips, armpit breathing, chin tuck backstroke, etc. every coach has found flaws in these strokes and have failed with correcting the stroke. In order to improve a stroke a two steps are always taken:

1. The flaw. This is the easiest step in novice swimmers (sometimes there is more to fix than keep...correction volume is a topic for another day) as any irregularity from elite swimmers should be obvious. The human body does an amazing job finding a way to accomplish a movement without caring about the efficiency or harm it may be causing, finding flaws is essential to prevent poor biomechanics and prevent injuries. To identify a flawed stroke many styles can be utilized. I use a systematic, linear approach scoring each body part and movement during the stroke cycle from 1-3:

• 3-No deviation

• 2-deviation without pain

• 1-deviation with pain

This approach allows the coach to systematically compare past flaws and track improvement.  My stroke evaluation scoring system 

2. The cause. Identifying the cause of a swimming disorder is a tough nut to crack or should I say nut to bust. Many times habit is the cause of the flaw, but sometimes muscle length, strength or timing can cause the culprit. These causes can be at the flawed area or elsewhere in the body. For example, I've worked with swimmers who constantly crossed his legs while swimming. After much frustration and verbal cuing to fix this habit I decided to check other structures involved. I quickly check his hip strength and length which noted obvious weak hip abductors, external rotators (gluteal muscles) and tight adductors (groin). After 3 weeks of specific exercises, the problem was solved and the athlete no longer had prune bruised legs. In tough cases, I ranked every possible reason for a stroke deviation. I've ranked up to 20 items (including athlete cognition, last on the list) and I went through each possibility until the flaw was corrected. This is a long process, but for a young coaches it will help identify common flaws and corrections.

Coaches should not be excited about the complexity of stroke analysis and the ability to predict and correct this complex system. Improving a swimmer's stroke which no one else has improved is a great feeling, especially if it helps them achieve swimming optimization.

GJohn