swim: technique: IM

Question
Hi
My youngest daugher is frustrated that her peers overtake her in 100m IM. I wondered if you had pointers for her to work on to keep her interest in swimming.
Also in crawl should the leg be straight and floppy ankles  or should the leg push forward slightly to use the shin to push the water back also? My daughter has tried both, the pushing the knee slighly forward is exhausting. She has recently tried to push the knee slightly forward in fly also.
link: http://vimeo.com/3224848
ps she is in the lane furthest away.
many thanks in advance!
stockcubes

Here is a link (password is swim)

Answer
Hi--
Sorry this has taken a few days.  I've watched the video a few times, that was a great idea I wish more people would do that,and do have some suggestions.
Let's start with the kick though.  From what I see, your daughters kicks are just fine.  You don't want to bend your knees too much when you kick, you lose your streamline when you bend your knees and as you noticed it is exhausting.  Leave the kick alone.
On to the IM, we'll start with fly.  From what I see there is too much up and down movement, butterfly is faster if it is flatter.  She needs to keep her hands just outside her shoulders on the outsweep and try to puch her chin forward when she breathes,rather then lifting her head up.  Her backstroke looks ok, again her head is up to far, she needs to relax and lay her head back a little, but just a little.  It's also important that she knows how many strokes it is from the flags to the wall, it slowa her down everytime she looks back for the wall, get comfortable.
Breaststroke, again too much head movement.  Your head comes up naturally in breaststroke so don't move it forward and back.  Think about it as pulling your head up and letting it go back down when you reach forward.  The timing between arms and legs looks good, though.  Freestyle just needs to smooth out a little bit.  A little more roll in her shoulders would help, she is pulling a little wide and deep with her arms, which causes a bounce in her stroke.  Her arms can be deep but she needs to roll so her arms are under her body when she swims.
At the walls there was an extra stroke on each end, get comfortable with where the wall is.  90 percent of the time it is faster to reach/stretch into the wall than to take an extra stroke.
Hope this helps,
George