Swimming… A Written Analysis…

-BY: Anushka Aritri Rahman

Grade: 9-B

This is an in-depth study into my swimming technique. The stroke which I am going to base my study on is the ‘crawl’, also commonly know as ‘freestyle’. This stroke is considered the fastest and the most efficient stroke amongst the others: ‘breast-stroke, butterfly stroke, backstroke and side stroke’.

What am I doing now?

I have divided my stroke into several, specific parts, which I think are necessary for this analysis.

v  Hand placement- Whenever I remembered to keep my fingers together and not spread out, I was making good speed.

v  Body rotation- I think that my body rotation still needs a little work, as my hips seem to be swinging involuntarily throughout the video.

v  Leg kick- My legs were together while I kicked, and that is an improvement from before.

v  Head position- My head position was appropriate, except that I could not move it to the side. This is partially because of my fear that water will rush in through my nose and ears, and also because I have not done it in proper timing.

v  Speed and power of my kick- The power of my kick is pretty good, and if I can improve my breathing technique, then it will increase, because I need to be stable in order to maintain a certain pace.

v  Arm movement- My arms were moving appropriately, and helped me to gain speed while I swam. I still think that I need to push my hands a bit farther.

v  Breathing technique- I think that my breathing is my greatest weak point. I can’t seem to maintain a steady pace of raising my head when I raised my right or left arm. I really need to improve this because I can’t do anything else properly without doing this right.

v  Speed and power of my arms- This was also good. I was able to move my arms properly in the water.

What do I have to improve?

I need to improve my breathing technique if I want to improve my swimming at all, whether it is freestyle, or any other. I think that if I can succeed in doing that, then all the other sectors of swimming will significantly improve.

How will I improve… many specific goals will help…

Sector of improvement / Time set as goal
for improvement
Hand placement / Three days of
concentrated practice
Body rotation / Three days of
concentrated practice
Leg kick / Three days of
concentrated practice
Head position / Seven days of
concentrated practice
Speed and power
of my kick / Three days of
concentrated practice
Arm movement / Two days of
concentrated practice
Breathing technique / Seven days of
concentrated practice
Speed and power
of my arms / Four days of
concentrated practice

As swimming classes ends in a few days, one thing that I can do to improve and meet my specific goals is to come to school during weekends and practice the strokes, and practice the specific parts of improvement separately each time. In the table, the term ‘day’, means about one hour, if I spend that much time in the pool each day.

If I follow the specific goals that I have set for myself, then I should think that I will improve significantly.

I will be asking my classmates for more suggestions as the days go by. After all, I’m just halfway there.

Work cited

Whitten, Phillip. "Swimming." Microsoft® Encarta® 2006 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2005.

Work consulted

My Classmates and P.E. teacher, Ms. Annette Jenkins have also guided me through my stroke, and helped me realize my defaults and plus points.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FINIS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~