- Swimming fast is a combination
of fitness and great technique.
One is about physical hard work,
the other slightly more mental.
- Yeah you can spend hours plodding
or thrashing up and down the pool per week
doing thousands of metres
and see very little difference in your swim time.
And that is a sure sign
that you need to work on your technique.
So what better place to start
than at the front of the stroke.
- So today we're gonna be looking
at the catch part of front crawl,
and showing you how you can improve
this vital part of the stroke.
(upbeat music)
- So we can break the front crawl stroke into phases,
we've got the catch, the pull,
the exit, and then the recovery.
So the first part of the stroke,
when a hand first enters the water is the catch,
and that is our purchase on the water.
Then we have the pull phase
which is our main underwater phase of the stroke
and that gives us the propulsion,
the exit is as it sounds.
And then when our hand comes out and over
past our head, that is the recovery.
- Without a good catch,
the rest of the stroke is going to struggle.
Getting ahold of the water at the front of your stroke
is vital for a strong pull.
But let's rewind a moment,
what exactly is this part of the stroke
that we keep talking about?
It happens as your hand enters the water
at the front of the stroke.
When your movement changes from moving forwards
to pulling back and down under your body.
The moment when your hand and forearm
start to make this new movement is the catch.
In theory, you're catching this new body of water.
Okay so you want your fingers together,
but they need to be relaxed,
you can't force this part of the stroke.
And as your hand goes in it goes from being horizontal
to your fingers then starting to angle towards the bottom.
You need to try to avoid that long glide at the front,
it is tempting, and it is something that I used to do,
but it's not an efficient way of swimming,
even though it does look quite pretty.
Basically you want to catch that water
as soon as you can,
while still maintaining a smooth entry.
- If we imagine our nose as a centre line,
we want to make sure that we're not
crossing over that centre line when we catch.
Equally we want to make sure
that we're not going outside of our shoulder.
We should actually be aiming to catch
in line with our shoulder.
So if you are going too far inside or outside,
you're essentially continually counteracting yourself,
and this ends up with that kind of snaking motion
down the pool, which is quite inefficient.
- So the catch happens with your palm and your forearm.
So you're gonna have a flex at the elbow to keep that high.
And actually a slight flex at the wrist
will help maintain that elbow position throughout.
And a coach actually explained it to me once
as imagining there's a set body of water
that's not moving,
you're getting hold of that water,
and then you're gonna pull yourself through.
And imagine if you didn't
get ahold of that in the first place,
the rest of your stroke is going to be pretty inefficient.
And it's an analogy that really helped me.
- It's one thing knowing what to do,
it's another thing being able to execute it.
So here are some drills to help you get a good strong catch.
- Okay let's start with the front scull,
which is probably the most popular
of the catch drills
as it isolates the catch with a back and forth type motion.
And for this you need to start in a streamlined position
with your arms out in front of you
and you can kick if you want to,
maybe use fins will help.
Or a pool buoy to help with the buoyancy.
Basically you're trying to isolate this movement
so you can really focus on it.
And with that in mind,
you're not going to be going very fast at all.
It's not about speed, it's not about propulsion,
it is purely about technique.
A useful way to explain this is
imagine you're trying to form
two mounds of sand out in front of you,
so you're just going to be sweeping
gently over the top of that slight downward angle
of your hands.
So if you are applying the correct pressure
downwards and backwards,
you will start to move forward but it will be slowly.
- Now then, the single arm drill
is a really good place to start
putting the stroke back together.
You want to leave the spare arm out in front
or down by your side,
and then concentrate on one arm at a time
with the emphasis on the catch.
Now some people do find this drill quite hard to do
so if you need to you can wear a set of fins
just to help with the propulsion.
Or you can even use a kickboard
with the spare arm just to help
with the buoyancy a little bit more.
And whilst we're talking about swim aids,
a snorkel can be real useful here.
So by having a snorkel on it means
that you can keep your head in the water,
you can keep your head still
and really focus on that catch.
Another really useful swim aid is finger paddles
which are essentially a smaller version of these paddles,
and what they do is reinforce good technique
and really show out bad form
because what you find in a set of finger paddles
is your hand would slip out.
Now if you don't have a set of finger paddles
you can just use your normal paddles
and basically just forget about using that bottom strap
just use the top strap
and it will basically do a very similar thing.
- A drill I like that emphasises the importance of the catch
actually does so by taking away part of it.
It is fist swimming.
So for this, you're gonna swim 25 metres
with a clenched fist,
and then a second 25 metres with your palm open.
And this should really emphasise the importance of the catch
and make you aware of when you're doing it well.
This last drill is actually more of an exercise,
it's a fun one to do in a group,
especially if you've got a coach on pool side.
So get a few of you across the lanes
all facing forwards in a horizontal position
so you're sculling the water and you're kicking gently
but you're staying on the spot.
And then as soon as the coach blows the whistle
you've gotta sprint to 10 metres.
So it really emphasises first few strokes
and the catch of them.
And it's also an exercise you can practise
perfectly well on your own as well.
- Now it might seem slow and frustrating
focusing on such a small part of the stroke,
but start, as you mean to go on,
by sorting and getting a good catch
hopefully the rest of the stroke will follow.
- Yeah and this is the star of our swim week,
so there's going to be a lot more swimming videos coming.
Keep an eye out for those.
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And if you like the look of these swim caps,
you can find those in the shop.
- Yep and if you'd like to see our video
on swim toys that can help to improve your technique,
then just click down here.