I was a beginning swimmer last year, and this is really random but I found these video "master classes" on the BBC website that are awesome. They are just a few minutes, and an Olympic swimmer basically breaks down the stroke into pieces and demonstrates. As an untutored swimmer, I really learned a lot. You can find them at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/othe...ng/default.stm.

Now that I've mastered the basics from reading and the videos, I'm not getting any better - so I've signed up for a couple of lessons before my next tri in October! But the self-help approach (and lots of pool time) have gotten me through 5 sprint races.