Introduction to Diving (Forward Starts)

Let's learn how to dive from the Professionals! *Be sure to study, by watching in slow motion, the movement of the arms when they leave the block.

STARTS - Dave Durden

Michael Phelps' Dive: Skip to 0:59 seconds.

Also, while you wait for your race to start, move around, dynamically stretch, keep reminding your blood to flow to the muscles you are about to use to win the race. If you don't believe that this is important, then maybe you will believe it after seeing one of the best swimmers in the world do it... Missy Franklin (She is wearing a black/red swim suit).

How many swimmers do you see that DO NOT lean back on the start? Besides the swimmer with the Green Cap.

Florent Manaudou Wins Men's 50m Freestyle Gold -- London 2012 Olympics

The Finish!

So there are two main ways of finishing. The main difference is where the eyes are looking when the fingers touch the wall. One is looking at the floor of the pool (to minimize drag) and the other is looking straight up at the sky (to try to gain an extra inch or two in length). They all share critical similarities. They include: finishing on your side, touching the wall with an extended arm, having the hand touch the wall underwater (no touching the top of the gutter), having your hand touch the wall without it going deeper than your shoulder, and not breathing, at the very least, on the last two strokes before touching the wall. After viewing the last Olympic games, we are going to go ahead and practice the finish where the eyes are looking down, since that is what the majority of the world's best swimmers, like Missy Franklin, are doing. Go ahead and look at the video below to see what it looks like.

Execute an Explosive Freestyle Finish!

Now go ahead and look at the the Olympic relay event here and look at where the eyes of Team USA and France are looking as they finish their race. Pay particular attention to the replay of the winning team at 8:02.
France Win Gold In 4x100m Freestyle Relay Final | London 2012 Olympics

Here is the other way of finishing, which we are going to stay away from until you can master the eyes down finish. The reason being is because too many swimmers lift the head up (where both ears come out the water), when they look to the sky, which lowers the hips, and causes drag right before you finish.

Lindsay Benko Freestyle Finish

 
Backstroke Finish

Learn How to Finish Your Backstroke!

How to Get DQ'd on a Backstroke Finish

Competitive Turns

You got to watch this first: Ryan Lochte's Open Turn. The open turn is also known as the butterfly and breaststroke turn since it is used in these races. Here is Olympic Breaststroker Rebecca Soni's Open Turn.

When swimming the Individual Medley,

The first turn you do (when switching from Butterfly to Backstroke) is the open turn. Remember that you also use the open turn in any pure butterfly and breaststroke races (e.g. 100 yard Butterfly, 200 Breaststroke).

The second turn you can make (when switching from backstroke to breaststroke) ranges from easy to INSANE!!! You have your choice between the regular touch on your back and push off... The "Backflip"... and the Crossover turn. Hopefully your head didn't explode after seeing that crossover turn, but I'll still give you a few minutes to try to understand what just happened on that turn... I leave teaching the Crossover turn for advanced swimmers only. If you feel completely comfortable with just the Backflip turn (which is what the whole team is expected to know), then that's cool. The Crossover turn is just another swimming technique for those who wish to experiment with swim strategies. Here is Ryan Lochte's Crossover turn in slow motion. Here is Lochte's and Phelps' Crossover Turn in action (1:14). And, in case your really curious about this turn, I'll leave you with this fairly detailed Cross over video analysis.

And the last turn you will do, which is going from the breaststroke to the freestyle, is the open turn again. Here is a cool video that sums all the turns in one video.