Swim Technique Video Analysis Session

Session Overview

Most triathletes never see their own stroke from underwater or side-on — you’re relying entirely on how it feels, which is an unreliable guide to what’s actually happening. This session builds filming and review directly into the swim itself, so you can spot a flaw and drill the correction in the same pool visit rather than waiting for a coach review days later.

What You’ll Need

• A phone in a waterproof pouch or case, propped poolside or handed to a training partner
• A lane with a clear sightline from the side or the end wall
• A training partner to film (optional, but makes side-on footage much easier)

Warm-Up (10 minutes)

400m easy freestyle, mixing in 4 x 25m drill of your choice (catch-up, fingertip drag, or single-arm) to get your stroke feeling loose before you start filming.

Main Set (25 minutes)

Film 2-3 lengths at a moderate, sustainable pace from side-on, then again from the end wall as you swim toward the camera. Get out and watch it back immediately — don’t wait until after the session, when the feeling of that particular length is gone.

• Watch for: crossover at full extension, a dropped elbow on the catch, scissor-kick asymmetry, and head position relative to the water line.
• Pick ONE flaw to work on this session — trying to fix everything at once usually fixes nothing.
• Swim 6 x 50m focusing purely on that one correction, resting 20 seconds between reps.
• Film one more length at the end of the set and compare it side-by-side with your first clip.

Cool-Down (10 minutes)

200m easy swim, alternating freestyle and backstroke, letting the stroke return to feeling natural rather than over-thinking the correction.

Coaching Notes

• Slow-motion playback (most phone camera apps have this built in) makes catch and rotation flaws far easier to spot than real-time footage.
• Don’t judge your stroke on a single length — pick footage from mid-set, not the first length, when your stroke has settled into its normal pattern.
• Scaling option: if you don’t have a training partner, prop your phone on a kickboard or pool step at the end wall for a fixed-angle shot as you swim toward it.
• Repeat this session every 3-4 weeks through the off-season to track whether corrections are actually sticking under fatigue, not just in the first rep.