This site is devoted to swimming. Why is it called Twenty-Three Seconds? Because my goal is to swim 50 meters within twenty-three seconds. Follow along as I analyze my crawl stroke to death and maybe you'll learn a few things to improve your own time.

Swimming On Vacation: Freestyle Swimming 21.14

Posted by heathweaver

I went to the coast for my holidays and swam exactly twice. It’s almost torture to be walking near the ocean for so long and not be able to swim in it. It has been a while since the last time I swam in the ocean and it was really nice. I had forgotten how [...]

Breaking The 20 Second Barrier: Freestyle Swimming 19.17 on 25 meters

Posted by heathweaver

I don’t know what I did differently, but I broke my 20 second block. I haven’t been able to break 20 seconds for weeks. Today I suddenly crushed my score sprinting 19.57 seconds. After a little rest I sprinted again and went 19.17 seconds. This type of breakthrough is probably normal for more serious atheletes. After working [...]

Freestyle Swimming: 20.57 on 25 meters, but 50.25 on 50 meters

Posted by heathweaver

Today’s focus was on high elbows. It was really great because I was able to swim consistently at 24 seconds on 25 meters without kicking and not really exerting myself. I was trying to see if without sprinting I could get a fast speed by using the front quadrant swimming together with high elbows. I [...]

Alexander Popov Swimming Technique

Posted by heathweaver

I think this is an excellent video that covers many aspects of a proper freestyle stroke.  This second video is even better. I think you can see so many important parts of a proper technique. Returning to a question I had about using the rotation in your hips to generate power in your catch and pull. [...]

Swimming From Below

Posted by heathweaver

Ian Thorpe: Watch how he goes.

Posted by heathweaver

Swimming With Your Eyes Closed: Forgot my watch on 25 meters

Posted by heathweaver

I forgot my watch today and so I couldn’t time my sprints, instead I tried to focus on my form. One of my favorite exercises is to swim with my eyes closed. This usually only works when there aren’t too many people in the same lane. I love the way it feels to just focus [...]

Freestyle Swimming: 20.38 on 25 meters

Posted by heathweaver

I don’t remember where I read it, but it is sometimes recommend that if you want to be a sprinter, then just practice sprinting. I don’t really enjoy swimming long distance. At least right now where I feel that my technique is poor. I prefer to swim hard, stop, analyze what worked and then go [...]

What I Know About Freestyle Swimming

Posted by heathweaver

I have been swimming for about 5 months now and feel like I have made some progress. I don’t remember how fast I could swim 50 meters when I first started training, but I believe it was around 50 seconds. I can swim 50 meters in right under 40 seconds now and I am making [...]

Hello World

Posted by heathweaver

This blog is devoted to obsessing about freestyle swimming. I don’t have any great claim to fame about swimming. I have never swam in a competitive swimming event. I can’t even swim that well, but as I learn I will try my best to explain what I learn and how it works out for me. [...]