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My Swimming Videos (age 59)

Updated 12 March 2025

I started competitive swimming as a 10 year old in 1960 and I received limited coaching in swimming technique at the Kiwi Swimming Club - see my full account here. I saw no need to swim breaststroke any less vigorously than freestyle, so I ignored how senior swimmers in Otago swam a sedate, and unbeknownst to me at the time, an outdated style of breaststroke. The breaststroke I developed was similar to the modern technique used today apart from a difference in timing. I used to pull to breathe, whereas the modern approach is to pull to stretch to a streamlined position with one's head full submerged enabled by changes in the FINA rules in 1987 which allowed complete submerging during each stroke. Lack of coaching turned out to be to my detriment in butterfly, backstroke, and freestyle, the full extent of which I didn't realise until some 30 years later in 2000 when I first saw video clips of myself swimming. I was horrified at my serious stroke defects in butterfly and especially backstroke and freestyle. I still have major defects in these swimming strokes.

In the year 2000, I developed a dual screen utility using Macromedia Authorware to compare two video clips at different speeds. I now use Camtasia 2022 to display 4 video clips simultaneously on screen and save as an MP4 file. The quality of the video is much superior the simultaneous video clips taken at the Otago University flume in 2013. As an aside, videos of swimming in a flume does not necessarily refect that of how one swims in a pool. I have found that one concentrates on staying in the same position for the sake of the cameras. There are natural accelerations and decelerations, especially in breaststroke and butterfly, when swimming in a pool. If a flume video shows a swimmer in a constant postion on screen, then it is likely that the swimmer is not swimming his or her natural stroke.

The quality of the video clips that Barry Young and I took of each other in 2000 was poor due to limited indoor lighting. In 2008, I took poolside and underwater video clips of David Murphy at the Mosgiel Swimming Pool and he returned the favour by taking video clips of my own swimming technique. Video clips of my swimming at the age of 59 are shown below.

BREASTSTROKE

In the video clips below I am using the same timing as I had used back in the 1960s when I pulled to breath as opposed to the modern timing of pulling to stretch. I have now used the modern timing of breaststroke for well over a decade, but I still swim a relatively flat breaststroke with limited raising of my shoulders above the water at the end of each arm stroke.

BUTTERFLY

In the 1960s, I used to swim butterfly with a pronounced key-hole arm action which gave me time to fit in a second minor dolphin kick. My legs used to separate on my second dolphin kick. As a Masters swimmer in the 1980s, I started to swim butterfly with a single dolphin kick pulling straight through without a key-hole arm action. A number of Masters swimmers use what I call gallomping butterfly where they pause with their arms in front to enable a strong second dolphin kick. This style of butterfly is less strenuous, which suits some Masters swimmers who have lost strength with age. At the age of 75, I am not yet prepared to adopt this style of butterfly.

BACKSTROKE

In the 1960s, my foster parents used to laugh at my backstroke, but never told me why. In 2000, I realised the full extent of the defects in my stroke technique when I viewed videos of my backstroke for the first time. I used to chop at the water behind me. I have tried to model my backstroke on Barry Young's backstroke ever since with only partial success. I do not have a strong backstroke kick, and I need to keep my head still and avoid over reaching behind me.

FREESTYLE

Freestyle is the first and only stroke I was taught at the age of 10 in 1960 and it is my worst and least favourite stroke. A major stroke defect is due to my lack of equal flexibility across my shoulders. My left arm swings wide and my kick is uneven due to action-reaction to compensate. Over-reaching in breaststroke and butterfly is not a handicap, but is in freestyle which results in body twisting. I have no degree of catchup - a freeze frame shows me with one arm fully extended in front of me and my other arm full extended behind me. I am pushing down on the water at the start of my arm strokes instead of keep a high elbow. My poor technique in freestyle is an example of limited coaching at an early age which has become deeply ingrained.

WHERE TO FROM HERE ?

The slowing down with age process accelerates from the age of 70 onwards. My observation of senior swimmers over the age of 60 is that this slowing down process is accelerated by lack of flexibility which leads to poor stroke technique. In my own case, I already had poor stroke technique well before the age of 60. It is a challenge for me to see what improvements I can make to my own stroke technique in all swimming strokes over the next number of years. Doing stretching exercises at the end of every swimming session and run is part of the plan. Keeping a watchful eye on regular video clips of my own swimming technique is also part of the plan.