Andrew Sheaff (@AndrewKSheaff)

Swimmers need to learn the most effective skills AND they need to have the fitness to execute those skills when it matters. Over and over. This is particularly true of underwater kicking. ...

Great butterflyers have a powerful kick that creates speed. A big kick on a kickboard is helpful, but the real goal is creating speed through the kick while swimming full stroke. Here is one way to put real demand on the legs while still swimming butterfly. ...

Watch how this forward recovery snaps the hips back into line. When the arms shoot forward, the whole body can be driven forward with them. ...

Big underwater kicking improvements come from progressing the best strategies, not rotating twenty drills. The core principle: take the most effective strategies, the best tools for creating change, and advance them week after week, instead of constantly swapping activities. ...

‘Body Position’ is not a static concept. It’s dynamic and swimmers need to be able to manage their body position during every aspect of the stroke. Pressing the ‘T’ is a common suggestion in freestyle for effective body position, and while it’s not wrong, it’s incomplete. ...

Underwater kicking propulsion. A visual 🧵. 1. Swimmers have to create a ton of propulsion if they want to go fast. It starts with using a full range of motion. Swimmers need to kick well in front of their body to maximize propulsion with the kick. Cont. ...

To change speed, freestylers don’t just change their effort, they change their timing. At slower speeds, there are large gaps in propulsion as swimmers are more patient in the front of the stroke. In contrast, sprinters move the arms in opposition....

All about the backstroke pull. A visual 🧵. 1. A powerful starts with an effective set up of the stroke. Swimmers have to get as much of their arm facing backward as possible. The more surface area they create, the faster they go. Cont. ...

Freestylers need an awesome catch if they want to swim fast. There’s a lot of confusion about what a good catch is. The catch looks different for different swimmers, but the principles of an effective catch are the same for everyone. ...