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Propulsive Swimming and the Catch
By Rich Strauss

Athletes often ask me when they should begin doing fewer drills and more swimming. I feel there is a swim pace that is the line between swimming for technique and swimming for speed and fitness. My intuition and experience tells me that this pace is about 17:00-17:30 per 1000 yards, or about 1:40 per 100 yard pace. If you want to express it as a "Swim Golf" score, the goal that I give my athletes is sub 80, or less than 40 strokes (for 50 yards) and about 40-44 seconds.

In other words, if you are slower than these times above, there are far more gains to be made by focusing on technique than by focusing on fitness. Once you cross this line in the sand your swimming performance becomes more a function of propulsive skills and swimming fitness. This is not to say that once you break 17:00 for a 1k time trial that you then have a pass to never do drills again. Rather, I believe you would be justified in doing more and more fitness oriented swimming in place of dedicated drill work.

Before this point, you should focus on balance drills to develop a good horizontal body position and "side swimming:" spending as much time as possible on your side and presenting less surface area to the water. Refer to my Swimming Drills article for more details.

But after you have become proficient with these drills, what next? Let's learn how to get your arms and pull into your stroke.

The Catch – Where Power Begins

• When your hand enters the water, palm is down towards the bottom of the pool.
  
• If you start pulling now, without doing anything else, you will be directing force downward and lifting your body, rather than moving your body forward.
  
• This continues until the natural sweep of your arm stroke eventually directs forces rearward.
  
• The correct idea is to get your palm from "down" to "facing rearward" (and thus pushing you forward) as quickly as possible.
  
• The proper way to do this is by bending the elbow, or "catching" the water as soon as possible. For cycling, this would be analogous to "rolling the barrel" at the top of your pedal stroke and beginning to apply power at noon, rather waiting until 2:00 or 3:00.

Illustration of Proper Catch

1. Stick your left arm out directly in front of you, arm parallel to the table, palm down.
   
2. Now bend your left elbow (without moving your upper arm), and touch your left finger tips to the desk in front of you. Your forearm is probably at a 45 degree angle from your upper arm.
   
3. Notice three things:
   
   • Your elbow is high and has not moved significantly.
     
   • Your elbow is directly above or on top of your hand (sort of, you get the idea).
     
   • Your "paddle" essentially includes your hand AND your forearm. This is very important.
     
4. With your fingers still on the desk and elbow up high, now just let your elbow drop. This is referred to as a poor catch, dropping the elbow, slipping the front of your stroke, etc.
   
5. Two things to notice here:
   
   • Your elbow is leading your hand, as you pull.
     
   • You have lost your forearm as a paddle.

Combining the Catch with your Pull

1. Now put your arm out directly to the left, parallel to the ground, palm down.
   
2. Turn your head left, so that you are looking at you hand.
   
3. Without moving your elbow or upper arm, bend your elbow/forearm as before.
   
4. This position combines the elements of:
   
   • An aggressive shoulder roll: shoulder is pointing down at the bottom of the pool, belly facing the side wall.
     
   • Proper head position: looking down.
     
   • Aggressive catch.

How to Get It: Fist Drill and Other Ideas

Fist Drill: Swim with a closed fist, normal to fast arm speed, no fins. Visualize two things:

1. There is a barrel on top of the water and you are trying to reach over and around it, to carry it in your arm. This will help you get the high elbow I talked about above.
   
   
2. Imagine that your forearm is a paddle. Swim with your forearm, not your hand.
   
   
3. Perform this drill for 2-3 lengths, then open your hand in the middle of the pool. You should feel the increase in power.

After you have done this drill a few times and go back to normal swimming, these two ideas will help you maintain your high elbow, aggressive catch:

1. "Over the Barrel:" maintain this feeling of reaching over a barrel when you swim.
   
2. "Fingers Down:" put your left arm out in front of you, palm down. Now point your hand downward, bending at the wrist while the rest of your arm remains in place. Duplicate this in the pool by pointing your fingers to the bottom as soon as possible. The rest of your catch will fall into place.

Beginning to practice these skills is the line between "balance swimming" and "propulsive swimming." If your balance and body position are not correct, it doesn't make sense to develop these propulsive skills. However, if your body position is dialed in, then this aggressive catch is where the money is. Swimmers spend years refining this one small aspect of their strokes.

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