The Smoothest Freestyle Stroke In The World? Jono Van Hazel

http://www.swimsmooth.com
Now this really is efficient (and fast) swimming! Watch Olympian Jono Van Hazel's near perfect stroke just before your next swim and reproduce his smooth movements when you jump in the water: a very powerful way to improve your swimming.

Notice that while Jono has a very long freestyle stroke he doesn't achieve this by gliding (a very common misconception amongst swimmers). Instead he has low drag and fantastic propulsive technique which gives him great distance per stroke.

Whilst he has a long stroke, he also has great stroke rhythm - the real secret to great swimming. Our 'time between strokes' measure shows that Jono has nearly zero gap between finishing one stroke and starting the next. (In fact when he's swimming quickly there's even a slight overlap between strokes.) His lead hand is constantly in motion, either extending forwards, catching the water or pressing it backwards: great catch technique and no over-gliding.

See more of Jono and find out how to develop this technique yourself at: http://www.swimsmooth.com/catchmasterclass.html

Swim Smooth!

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• learn
• freestyle
• swimming
• stroke
• technique
• front
• crawl
• Freestyle Swimming

[moezkhan]

Hey swimsmooth, I've bought this catch master class DVD. In the 6-1-6, Paul doin this little bob of the lead hand as he takes a breath. Why? And why is his index and thumb stuck together on left hand? Moez

[swimsmooth]

@moezkhan Hi, that movement is just a small idiosyncrasy in Paul's stroke - exactly what happens at that point isn't critical to the drill. Thumb out or in - well we normally recommend thumb in but many elite swimmers do prefer it out - it does seem to give a better balance to the catch hand for some swimmers...

[MrAcb29]

Great video and music... Anyone know how they got that live data feed.. I both love and hate thi guy his freestyle stroke is so fluid damm I'm jealous..... Back to the pool....

[swimsmooth]

Hi MrAcb29, we have several measurement points down the lap for speed and take the other statistics by post-processing the video footage. We're very pleased with the results (in a swim-geek kind of way!). Yes, he's an amazing swimmer isn't he, even more so when you consider that he's six years out of competition there after retiring in 2004!

[upndown68]

@guglimugli Shinji and Terry have done a great job bringing the general public into the water. Kudos to them. TI teaches some great principles on balance and streamlining, but if you want to swim fast TI is not going to help you. Our pool has a gaggle of TI swimmers. Beautiful pool strokes, lots of pause and glide(not good) and never faster than ~ 1:50 100's. They are all so confused why they can't get faster, but they also think a pause and gliding are how you swim fast.

[upndown68]

@321ssteeeeeve That is due to the start off the blocks. Regardless of the swimmer, even Michael Phelps, one is never going faster than they are that first 15 meters or so.

[321ssteeeeeve]

I think the live data is cool and good for long sustained swims. However, the last footage used off the blocks I believe does not represent accuracy due to the sudden rate of deceleration a swimmer has. For instance, the 100M pace started at 41 seconds, by the 25M mark it slowed to 51 seconds, still a solid sprint pace, but if you do the math he should have reached the 25M mark in 11.5 seconds. He was there in 14 seconds.

[321ssteeeeeve]

Jono appears to be built like the typical swimmer, especially mid to long distance.

[splitkostanjeuma]

ever seen Ian Thorpe?

[lgttb1]

SMOOTHEST ? i have seen a few that were much cleaner and smoother . hopefully i can take and post a video soon

[ViniBsb1973]

Great smooth swimmer. Noticed his kick is not quite strong for a velocist (specialy under the 48s in the end of the video). Amazing how he keeps his head in a steady position (no inutil moviments).

[smoochswimmer]

@guglimugli ...dude.. shinji should and would be an elite swimmer if he swam with a proper technique - he soooo inefficient because of all that glide. He's the only person who can swim like that in the world it would seem and there are thousands of elite swimmers in the world. which is easier to do, faster and more efficient? statistics suggest...

[Supermangs]

Interesting thing is that he's not "technically" perfect. His hand entry seems just fractionally to close to centre, and his pull stroke is not as wide as some would have it. Is this a criticism?  Not at all. Rather, it is an indication of the importance of smooth efficiency that can be a focus point within technical variations from "perfection".

[NikosAndrianos]

how many years is he swimming?