Knowledge Hub · Athlete video review
How ANC Analyzes a Freestyle Stroke: Ben Creswick's Swim Review
The short answer: When we review a freestyle stroke at Angela Naeth Coaching, we look at the body first and the arms second. We score nine parts of the stroke, trace the problems back to the one or two that cause the rest, give a short set of drills for the next block, and set a clear gate to pass before we film again. This article walks through Ben Creswick's review, in the video and step by step below.
Ben's swim, and what he is training for
Ben Creswick ran 2:46:42 at the Victoria Marathon on Oct 11, 2026, third in his age group, three weeks after placing third in his age group at IRONMAN 70.3 Tri Cities. His next A races are IRONMAN 70.3 Victoria on May 30, 2027 and IRONMAN Canada in Ottawa on Aug 8, 2027. In his own words, he wants to win his age group at 70.3 Victoria ("I'd be happy with top 3") and to podium and qualify for Kona at his first IRONMAN.
This winter is for building, so we filmed his freestyle to find what is costing him the most, what to fix first, and how we will both know it is fixed.
How we coach the swim: body first, arms second
Every ANC stroke review follows the same order. We start with the body: body line and head, breathing, rotation and kick. Then we move to the arms: entry, catch, pull and finish, recovery, and rhythm.
The reason is simple physics. The arms can only pull you forward well when the body is level and still. If the head is high, the hips drop, and the arm spends its pull pressing water down to keep you afloat. Fix the body line and the same arm stroke moves you forward. Skip that step and arm drills tend to fade the moment you swim at speed.
Why the order matters
Most triathletes who want to swim better do one of two things. They swim more, or they pick up a long list of tips: reach further, kick harder, rotate more, high elbow. Both help for a while. Extra swimming builds fitness, and some tips land.
Where it runs out is that the tips don't come in any order. A swimmer works on the catch while the hips are still low, so the arm has to hold the body up instead of pulling it forward. They kick harder to fix the sinking legs, which costs energy and adds drag. Ten cues at once usually means none of them stick.
Our review is built to give an order. We look at the whole stroke, score it, find the root cause, and pick one or two things to fix first. The rest gets rechecked once those are in place, because many of them improve on their own.
For Ben we filmed two side clips, one in each direction. He was swimming at about 65 strokes a minute, breathing to his left every second stroke. Where a clip couldn't show something clearly, such as crossover at the front of the stroke or the pull under the water, we say so and ask for the right angle next time. We don't guess.
Watch Ben's freestyle review
This is the full review we sent Ben, narrated, about four minutes long. Everything in the article below comes from it. If you only have a minute, the scorecard just after the three minute mark is the quickest summary.
Body line and head
Ben's body line and head position
What it shows. A side view of Ben mid stroke, with his head and his legs marked. Score: 3 out of 5.
Ben's story at this point. This is the first thing we looked at. His head rides high with his eyes looking forward, and his kick is working to hold his legs up.
How to read it. The red circle marks the head. The orange box marks the legs, where the kick is doing support work. The cue along the bottom is the fix.
You might see this in your own swimming if your legs tire quickly in freestyle, or a pull buoy makes you feel much faster. That usually means your kick is holding you up.
A high head lifts the front of the body, and the hips and legs drop to balance it. The swimmer then kicks harder to bring the legs back up. It feels like effort going into speed, but most of it is going into staying level.
Ben's cue is "press your buoy, head on the water." The buoy is the chest. Pressing it slightly down, with the head resting in the water and eyes toward the bottom, lets the hips come up on their own. It is the cheapest speed in freestyle, because it removes drag before any work is added.
Breathing: Ben's main limiter
Ben's breath
What it shows. Ben turning to breathe, with the line where one goggle should stay in the water. Score: 2 out of 5, marked as his limiter.
Ben's story at this point. When he breathes, he lifts his head and both goggles come out of the water. This was the single biggest thing in his review.
How to read it. The green line shows where one goggle should sit. The red circle shows his head lifted above it. The cue along the bottom is the fix.
You might see this in your own swimming if you feel your legs sink or your lead arm drop every time you breathe, or you finish a long set more out of breath than the effort deserves.
Lifting to breathe sets off a chain. The head goes up, balance is lost, the lead arm presses down to hold the body up, and the kick scrambles to recover. Ben breathes every second stroke, so this happens many times a length.
The fix is to roll to the air instead of lifting to it: one eye in the water, one eye out, with a full exhale under the water so the breath is quick. The body rotation brings the mouth to the air. Swimmers often hold their breath under the water, which is why they lift. A steady exhale makes the turn short and calm.
Rotation and kick
Ben's rotation scored 3 out of 5. He rotates partly, but stays square between breaths. Rotation lets the shoulders do less work and gives the arm a better path. Whether his hand crosses the center line at the front couldn't be judged from the side, so we asked for a head on view in the next film.
His kick was flagged as a warning sign. It is busy, with a lot of bend at the knee. We deliberately did not give kick drills. A big kick is usually the body's answer to low hips and a lifted breath, so it should calm down once those are fixed. We recheck it after the first two fixes are in. Drilling the kick now would treat the symptom and leave the cause.
The arms: entry, catch, pull, recovery and rhythm
His entry scored 3 out of 5. The hand enters flat with a slap and rides up after it goes in. The fix is a middle finger entry in front of the shoulder, fingertips down, with the elbow above the wrist.
Ben's catch
What it shows. Ben's arm at the start of the pull, compared with the position we want. Score: 2 out of 5, marked high priority.
Ben's story at this point. His arm stays straight and presses down, so there is no anchor and his back muscles aren't loaded.
How to read it. The red marking shows his straight arm pressing down. The green outline shows the target, elbow high and forearm vertical. The note "after 1 to 4" means this waits until the body work is done.
You might see this in your own swimming if your shoulders tire before your back does, or you feel you pull hard and move slowly.
The catch is where many swimmers want to start, and it is a real weakness for Ben. It still waits. With a high head and a lifted breath, his arm has to press down just to keep him level. Once the body is level, the arm is free to anchor and pull, and the catch work will actually hold.
His pull and finish couldn't be judged from above the water, so we asked for an underwater clip. Two things are strengths, and we told him to keep them. His recovery scored 5 out of 5, with a high elbow and a relaxed hand. His rhythm scored 4 out of 5, and we want him to keep about 65 strokes a minute while the changes go in.
Ben's scorecard
The nine part scorecard
What it shows. Ben's score for each of the nine parts of the stroke, in ANC order, body first and arms second.
Ben's story at this point. Breathing and catch are the two lowest scores, his recovery and rhythm are strengths, and two parts need a different camera angle.
How to read it. Green means keep it, amber means needs work, red means high priority, grey means we couldn't tell from this film. The kick box points back to fixes 1 and 2.
You might see this in your own swimming if you have one or two parts of the stroke that feel awkward every session while the rest feels fine. Those are usually where to start.
The scorecard keeps the review honest. Every part of the stroke gets looked at, strengths are named alongside the weak spots, and anything the film can't show is marked as unknown. It also gives us a baseline to compare against when he films again.
The root cause chain: why it happens
Three chains behind Ben's stroke
What it shows. The three chains of cause and effect we found in Ben's stroke.
Ben's story at this point. Several of his scores trace back to two starting points, the high head and the lifted breath.
How to read it. Read each row left to right. The colored box on the left is the cause, and each arrow is what follows from it.
You might see this in your own swimming if you have tried to fix one part of your stroke many times and it keeps coming back. It is often the end of a chain that starts somewhere else.
Head high
A high head drops the hips, the dropped hips bring in a big kick, and the arm presses down to help hold the body up.
Lift to breathe
Lifting to breathe costs balance, the lead arm anchors to hold the body, and the kick scrambles to recover.
Slap entry
A flat entry delays the catch, the elbow drops, and the finish ends up short.
This is why the plan reads "fix the first two, recheck the rest, the catch waits." Two fixes reach into almost every other score.
This block's drills
Ben's drill set for this block
What it shows. The four drills Ben does at the front of every swim this block, with the cues and the gate.
Ben's story at this point. This is the plan he takes into the pool, built only around the first two fixes.
How to read it. Read top to bottom. The right column is the set for each drill. The cue bar shows the only two things to think about, and the line at the bottom is the gate.
You might see this in your own swimming if your warm up is just easy swimming. Ten focused minutes there is often the easiest place to change a stroke.
Ben spends ten minutes at the front of every swim on these, with fins first and then without. His main sets stay the same, so his swim fitness keeps building while the stroke changes.
Press your buoy, 4 x 25
Teaches the level body line by pressing the chest down with the head in the water.
Kick with hands at sides, 4 x 25 on stomach and back
Teaches balance without the arms to lean on, so the body has to find level on its own.
Side balance with one goggle in, 4 x 25 each side
Teaches the breathing position, rotated with one goggle in the water.
6 1 6 switch, 4 x 50 plus 25 easy freestyle
Puts balance and rotation together, six kicks on the side, one stroke, six kicks on the other side, then carries it into easy swimming.
One cue per session. On a given day he thinks about pressing his buoy or about one eye in and one eye out, and nothing else. One clear thought is something you can hold while tired. Five thoughts are usually forgotten by the second length.
The gate: Ben's target goal for this block
A drill block needs a finish line, or it drifts on for months. Ben's gate is specific: hips at the surface for a full 25, no kick scramble, on both sides, with one goggle in on the breath.
Each part of the gate checks one link in the chain. Hips at the surface means the body line is fixed. No kick scramble means the kick has stopped doing support work. One goggle in means the breath is a roll and not a lift. Both sides means it holds whichever way he faces.
When he passes it, the next work begins: the entry and then the catch, the parts that waited.
The re-film in 4 to 6 weeks
We film Ben again in 4 to 6 weeks, or sooner if he passes the gate. That timing gives a new movement pattern long enough to settle in without losing a whole season to one fix.
The next film adds the angles this one couldn't give us: a head on view to judge crossover and an underwater clip to judge the pull and finish. We score all nine parts again against this scorecard, recheck the kick, and pick the next fix. This fits his winter plan. His November retest includes a 100 and a 300 in the pool, and his zones and blocks come from those numbers, while the stroke work makes each length cheaper.
What a stroke review is, and what it isn't
A review is a snapshot of one day, from the angles we had. It shows patterns clearly, and it can miss things a camera can't see, which is why we mark unknowns and ask for more film. It doesn't replace swim fitness, and it doesn't change Ben's main sets. It decides what the first ten minutes of each swim are for.
The order usually holds for most athletes, body first and arms second. It can change when there is a clear reason, such as a shoulder that needs a different entry, and the coach makes that call with the athlete.
What this means for your swimming
What this means for you
If you'd like to check your own stroke, ask someone to film you from the side for a length in each direction. Look at your head and hips first. Then watch one breath and see how many goggles come out. If your legs sink or your breath is a lift, that is very likely your starting point, before anything you do with your arms.
Pick one cue, give it ten minutes at the start of each swim, and set yourself a simple gate you can see on film.
Related reading
Coaching that explains why
If you'd like your stroke and your training looked at this way, in order and with a clear next step, start at angelanaethcoaching.com.