Swimmer's Progress

One should look at the swimmer’s progress not just his or her current ability.

I recently started helping a bunch of swimmers where I swim.
Most of the time I can figure out one thing that will help the most.
Fixing this weakness will often contribute to improvements in other areas.

I have one fellow training for a triathlon.
When I started coaching with him, his freestyle was all over the place.
Flailing.  Wasting huge amounts of motion and energy. 

In a few short weeks he has reduced his time for a hundred metre freestyle by about 40 seconds.
He is not winded and heart rate is down around 110 instead of 140.
This is huge.  He is ecstatic.
He won’t be dragging last in the marathon anymore.

BUT, seeing a video of him swimming now, many would have all sorts of things to say about his stroke: ‘Fix that elbow’, ‘hand there’, etc, etc. 

The thing is, he has started to ‘feel’ the water.
He is much more aware of what needs to be improved on his own now.
Validate

Validating the pluses of a swimmer that you are trying to help is at least, if not more important, than putting attention on the faults.

That said, one of the major faults that I do find with most swimmers that are struggling is lack of proper rotation.
I watch some coaches advising to rotate the shoulders without rotating the hips.

I get swimmers to drill proper rotation.
Then I leave them alone for a bit.
Do the ‘skating’ drill every workout. 
Over time it sinks in and muscle memory comes into play and the stroke improves. 

This is an important step in coaching.
Let the drill do it’s work. 
If the swimmer is doing the drills properly, they will, over time adjust different aspects of their stroke.

And keep improving.