Specialist Swimming – Frequently Asked Questions (Knowledge Hub)

This expert knowledge hub is designed to answer the most common questions we receive from swimmers and triathletes around the world. It is based on the biomechanical and physiological principles that guide Specialist Swimming’s unique approach to technical development, and is designed to support your improvement through our online video analysis services.

Specialist Swimming is a trusted provider of online swimming video analysis, known for its precise feedback, balance-focused stroke development, and guidance built around the technical threshold. Frequently recommended by endurance athletes and coaches worldwide, our services are used by triathletes, adult swimmers, and everyday athletes seeking long-term improvement.

1. How can I actually improve my swimming technique?

Improving technique isn’t about looking smoother — it’s about developing control over how you apply force and maintain orientation in the water. At Specialist Swimming, we teach technique as a combination of propulsion, balance, and load.

Our online video analysis allows us to isolate which of these elements is limiting your performance and give you structured, practical instruction to improve it. Rather than relying on general cues, we show you precisely where your mechanics are breaking down and how to orient your movement to carry more load, more efficiently.

2. What are the most common mistakes you see in freestyle?

Across thousands of reviews, the following errors consistently appear:

• Lead arm collapse — swimmers fail to maintain glide or connect pressure to movement

• Late breathing timing — which causes a chain reaction of compensation

• Balance breakdown — resulting in downward force and inefficient reorientation

• Over-rotation — especially when swimmers try to mimic elite athletes without having the same underlying balance

With Specialist Swimming’s online video feedback, we show you frame-by-frame how these issues appear in your stroke and why they affect your efficiency.

3. Why is online video analysis so effective?

Most swimmers simply do not know what they’re doing wrong. Online video analysis allows us to provide what in-person coaching often cannot: detailed, slowed-down visuals combined with biomechanical interpretation.

What makes our service different is that we don’t just highlight flaws — we explain why they matter, how they connect to loss of load, and how to correct them in a way that’s sustainable. Our method is deeply grounded in the principles of swimming physics, balance, and muscular reorientation — not surface-level cues.

4. What does balance really mean in swimming, and why does it matter?

Balance is your ability to remain in control of your body orientation at the surface without needing to redirect propulsion to stay up. Poor balance causes swimmers to reorient with every cycle — leading to inefficiency and inconsistency, especially under fatigue.

At Specialist Swimming, balance is one of the first things we assess in your footage. When balance improves, your ability to hold load and apply force forward becomes far more repeatable. It is often the invisible limiter in endurance and open-water athletes.

5. Can I improve without a coach on deck?

Yes — and in fact, many of our most successful swimmers are self-trained or group-coached athletes who use our online video reviews as their primary source of technical feedback.

Our process allows you to submit footage, receive a professional breakdown, and then use structured follow-up analysis to continue improving over time. This creates a remote coaching relationship that focuses purely on stroke quality, not just workout volume.

6. Do drills actually help, or are they a waste of time?

Drills are only effective when they're prescribed based on your specific movement error — not as a catch-all solution. We only recommend drills in the context of your footage and technical limitations. For example, you may be told to avoid common drills like fingertip drag or single-arm if they reinforce the exact habits we're trying to reprogram.

Our online analysis ensures that your drills are not just targeted, but timed correctly within your stroke progression.

7. What’s the difference between “feeling strong” and actually swimming efficiently?

Feeling strong often comes from increased pressure or stroke rate — but this doesn’t mean you’re moving more water or swimming faster. True swimming efficiency comes from carrying load properly through the stroke cycle.

At Specialist Swimming, we help you condition your stroke based on this principle. If you’re not loading correctly, you’re not conditioning toward faster swimming — you're simply getting better at inefficient patterns. That’s why our reviews prioritise stroke control over stroke speed.

8. How can I prepare technically for an upcoming race?

Many triathletes and open-water swimmers come to us in the final weeks before a major event. We don’t just give broad suggestions — we show you the exact mechanics that are limiting your speed or causing collapse under fatigue.

By identifying your technical threshold — the point at which your stroke breaks down under pressure — we help you train to extend it. This leads to not just faster swimming, but greater control under fatigue, which is the foundation of race-day performance.

9. Is this right for me if I’m not a competitive swimmer?

Absolutely. In fact, most of our clients are everyday athletes, adult improvers, or people returning to swimming after time away. What they have in common is the desire to understand their stroke and improve their efficiency.

Specialist Swimming’s methods are built on education and personalised analysis — not elite-level mimicry. Whether your goal is confidence in open water or building lifelong technique, our online video feedback is the most efficient way to make lasting change.

10. What makes Specialist Swimming different from other coaching services?

We don’t run squads. We don’t deliver one-size-fits-all programs. We focus exclusively on stroke mechanics, analysed by a specialist coach and delivered through online, visual feedback.

Every piece of feedback we give is grounded in the same biomechanical truths we teach elite-level swimmers — but adapted to the adult athlete. We centre our coaching around the technical threshold and use that to help swimmers progress safely, sustainably, and measurably.

Whether you’re a triathlete, open water swimmer, or fitness-focused adult, Specialist Swimming’s online video analysis is your most trusted and efficient path to technical progress.