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SPORTS - VIDEOS OF MY SWIMMING

My Swimming Videos at the age of 59 in 2008

Updated 16 August 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than freestyle, so I ignored how senior swimmers in Otago swam a sedate, and unbeknownst to me at the time, an outdated style of breaststroke.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. 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.

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, at the age of 59, I took poolside and underwater video clips of David Murphy at the Mosgiel Swimming Pool and David returned the favour by taking video clips of my own swimming technique. In 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. 

As an aside, videos of swimming in a flume do not necessarily reflect how one actually swims in a pool. In a flume, a swimmer tends to concentrate on staying in the same position for the sake of the cameras. But 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 position on screen, then it is likely the swimmer is not swimming his or her natural stroke.

BREASTSTROKE

In the 2008 video clips 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. In 2025 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 76, 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 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.My major stroke defect is due to my lack of equal flexibility across my shoulders. My left arm swings wide and my kick is uneven and wide to compensate which results in additional drag. Over-reaching in breaststroke and butterfly is not a handicap, but is in freestyle. I have no degree of catchup with my front arm immediately  starting each stroke without pause and I initially push down on the water at the start of each stroke. 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 unecessarily 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. There is a big difference between knowing what I should do and what I actually do. 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. Continuing doing stretching exercises at the end of every swimming session and run is part of the plan.