 Hi, I'm Coach Washington over at NSWO, and today we'll be going over the finer points of the combat side stroke, which is the first thing up to bat on your PST test. So the major things to think about when swimming the combat side stroke is everything starts and end in a streamline position, hand over hand, by suppressing the ears, you wanna get the most out of your legs. Everything starts on your stomach, face down in the pool, face is looking down at the bottom of the pool as well, everything in a straight line. You wanna first initiate a freestyle pool, that is our mission to rotate, to get a breath, sneak our hands back up and shoot everything forward with a scissor or flutter kick. Key notes, make sure that your wrist always stays in the water, always pretend like you have a fancy watch on in a neighborhood that you don't like, hide that watch away, never show it, sneak those hands back up your center line, shoot everything forward, back into the streamline, back on your stomach, facing down. Next, we wanna maximize the kick. For the PST, you will have no fins, so it's all legs going. Your mission when swimming combat side stroke is to shoot everything forward in the direction of travel and kick for about six kicks, one, two, three, four, five, six, or three seconds worth of gliding in the streamline position before you take that next stroke. If you break outside of that streamline continuously, you're battling a lot of resistance, it's better to shoot everything forward, back into a streamline and be a hot knife through butter, maximizing that streamline position. You wanna see white water boiling behind those feet for those three seconds or those six kicks before you take your next stroke. If you have horizontal lines in the pool, it's always best to shoot those hands forward and flutter kick hard to that next line in front of you before you take that next stroke. Leak those hands back up your center line, shoot everything forward, but when you shoot forward, I say shoot, meaning it needs to be powerful, you almost wanna lunge towards that far wall, whatever you're headed towards. When you do this, the body will go under about one to two inches of water and we should not see you again until it's time to take that next breath. If we're bringing our hands up too slow, we're gonna almost hit a brick wall and lose our forward momentum, so it's very important that you drive forward and undulate and get a little depth out of every single stroke that you take. So remember, everything's gonna start in a streamlined position. Our first move is to initiate that freestyle pool. When we are pulling gallons of water behind us, we're gonna rotate to breathe. Our face should be goggle in, goggle out. Make sure you get a good breath, sneak those hands back up the center line and again, shoot everything forward in the direction of travel. Make sure that you give it a little power shooting forward. That way you stay under that one to two inches of water. We should only see you when it's time to breathe and you should disappear when you're back in that streamline. Push off in a tight streamline, get your legs moving first. Notice first is that freestyle pool all the way down to the hips, sneaking the hands up the center line, shooting back into that streamline. When we take that freestyle pool, it's important that you rotate and breathe at the same time. Rotate the body to the inside, not onto the back. Get a quick breath, shoot everything forward, eyes down, top of the head, pointed in the direction of travel, belly facing the bottom of the pool. Once you shoot everything forward, turn the legs on, again for about six kicks or three seconds worth of white boiling water behind the feet. And again, if you have lines in the pool in front of you, once you get back to the streamline, a good way to practice is to flutter kick to that next line in front of you before you take another stroke. Remember also that this is not a breath hold event. We breathe in and out as humans. Make sure you are blowing soft, slow bubbles while you are gliding because we only have enough time to inhale when we take that freestyle pool and rotate to breathe. Take advantage of every single wall. When you turn around or when you start, push off underwater in a tight streamline, top of the head, pointed in the direction of travel, eyes should be looking down at the bottom of the pool. Make sure you are exploding with your legs off the wall, getting into that streamline as quickly as possible, maximizing the glide, start your feet, then pop up swimming. Remember you cannot swim freestyle during the PST or any of this testing. This is combat side stroke. So a great way to make sure you're staying safe. After you initiate that freestyle pool, make sure you sneak that hand up your center line, avoiding that high elbow recovery. That is a quick way to slip up and get your hand out of the water. So just sneak that hand up your center line, exaggerate the underwater recovery of the stroke when you're moving forward. Avoid the shark fin at the surface of the water.