the swim smooth stroke correction hierarchy

This article is for coaches and technically minded swimmers who want a deeper insight into developing the freestyle stroke. It assumes you have an understanding of the technical side of swimming and its associated terminology.

Swim Smooth has an open and free-thinking philosophy to swim coaching - that's why we're happy to present this knowledge here. We encourage you to discuss and interact with us to improve the standards of coaching for non-elite swimmers around the world. Find out more about doing this.

introduction

Any coach can look at a swimmer's stroke and spot things that are wrong; things that once corrected would help the swimmer become faster or make them more comfortable and relaxed. But what do you fix in what order? Where do you start and what should you leave for now? The Swim Smooth Stroke Correction Hierarchy (no it doesn't spell anything rude this time ;) ) is designed to answer these questions and help coaches crystallize their thoughts and coaching methods.

The Hierarchy covers stroke faults for all levels of swimmer from complete beginner up to elite swimmers and triathletes. It applies to the freestyle stroke only.

We have developed the hierarchy from our experience of coaching thousands of swimmers. It's not fixed and it's not gospel - it's something we're continually developing as our knowledge and experience continues to expand.

We believe it's a very solid basis for coaching most swimmers and triathletes but you will find occasional exceptions to it along the way. There's some discussion around these issues below the hierarchy.

why a hierarchy?

There are two reasons why it's possible and necessary to have such a hierarchy in mind when you coach:

1) Trying to develop higher level stroke issues won't be very effective until the lower levels are in place. For instance, there is no point trying to develop a swimmers body roll (level 3) until they are relaxed in the water (level 1).

2) Lower level issues can cure problems higher up without specific work. For instance working on exhalation (level 1) can improve body position (level 2) and curing cross-overs (level 3) improves the catch (levels 4 and 5).

the hierarchy

When developing a swimmer's stroke, fix the lower levels of the hierarchy before moving upwards:

Resource: swimsmooth.com