Today, I was swimming at my health club when I noticed the guy next to my lane had a strange swimming form. On push off, both his legs were bent about 30 degrees (0 degrees would be straight). His regular kicks sort of mimiced that as well.

His hand doesn't spear into the water but sort of hand pats it into it. His head would bob up and down with his stroke pattern. And he would take 4-6 strokes in between. All the while, he was doing 27-29s per pool length (25yds) and he must've been doing this for about at least a quarter mile.

Meanwhile, I do everything (or at least try to) to follow proper form (for TI swimming), breathe every 3 strokes, and I end up with 35s per pool length for a quarter mile distance. I don't get what I'm lacking. I don't have very muscular arms -- they're quite thin in fact. Perhaps that makes a big difference. My best 50 is about 45s and my best 25 is 21s.

I don't understand how he could have such bad form, but swim that fast so effortlessly (he breathes every 4-6 strokes!)

The most common problem I see in the pool is people not using their core to keep their body parallel to the water surface. This often results in knees dragging in the water and you look like a listing boat. The drag caused by your legs will kill both your form and speed. The only other common problem is people not sticking their face in the water but I am assuming this does not apply to you.

You need arm strength, it is a critical factor in a good crawl stroke. A good proportion of your thrust comes from the arms in a crawl. If your arms are weak, yes, you will be slower than someone with poor but adequate skills. Muscle can make up for a lot. I see this with runners/cyclist turned triathletes. You need to do some strength training with your arms and also some speed work.

I also strongly suggest you use a pull float between your thighs and lock your legs so you can work your arms more.

LC

One thing that really helps with speed is to make sure to "push" thru the last part of your stroke. When I get really tired I will slow down because I forgot to work on that. It's easy to not finish out your strokes.

I haven't done any strength training. I'll look for some good exercises on the Internet and give that a try.

27 seconds for 25 yards is NOT swimming fast. Sorry guys. When I was swimming seriously I could do 100 yards just kicking in a just over 1 minute 5 seconds. (Admittedly I had a very good kick).

The guy doing 27-29 second laps is thrashing badly and not going fast.

I think the points made about arm work by others are spot on. Even more for tri competition than pure swimming. Saving uyuor legs for the ride and run simply makes sense, and the pul from your arms gives a lot more speed for teh same energy expended (Though a strong kick could prove useful for a mass start open water event, if it makes the difference in getting to clear water early in the swim).