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"Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers
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Anchor your catch means what and how does one do this? To the lousy swimmers it sounds like to extend your reach underwater, start bending your elbow and then STOP bending your elbow/moving your arm so your body can move over it. Dah.....a stop-start motion. Or is it stop moving your arm/elbow and rotate the body and the arm just flow rearward. Or is it something that is magical that only those with gills can master. Damn, swimming is has got to be the most difficult activity to understand and become adequate at despite years of trial and error.
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [Billyk24] [ In reply to ]
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Interesting, I've never heard of the term and I've been swimming competitively for many, many years. I do think however that your guess sounds right.
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [Billyk24] [ In reply to ]
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Billyk24 wrote:
Anchor your catch means what and how does one do this? To the lousy swimmers it sounds like to extend your reach underwater, start bending your elbow and then STOP bending your elbow/moving your arm so your body can move over it. Dah.....a stop-start motion. Or is it stop moving your arm/elbow and rotate the body and the arm just flow rearward. Or is it something that is magical that only those with gills can master. Damn, swimming is has got to be the most difficult activity to understand and become adequate at despite years of trial and error.

None of the above; no stopping/starting but rather one fluid powerful pull: "anchor your catch" is a way of saying that you should be able to feel like you have a dinner plate on your hand/forearm, even though you are swimming w/o paddles. You want to reach out and grab the water with a flat hand/forearm (i.e., fingers pointing to bottom of pool) and pull your body over your hand/forearm in essence. Just focus on trying to feel really powerful in the water, with each pull feeling like you have that dinner plate on your hand. Others may describe it differently but that's the way it feels to me. In sum, try to be powerful in the water:)


"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [ericmulk] [ In reply to ]
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Well said ericmulk.

What I do: http://app.strava.com/athletes/345699
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [Printer86] [ In reply to ]
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Printer86 wrote:
Well said ericmulk.

Thanks!!! I think of the dinner plate analogy quite often when swimming or pulling:)


"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [Billyk24] [ In reply to ]
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I sometimes use the term "reaching over a barrel" to describe the bent elbow pull.

35 seconds into this video is a good visual - http://www.youtube.com/...t=PL773BB1ECB91C0197 (personally, I'm not so hot on the whole "keyhole" ellipical movement mentioned later)


Dave Stark
dreamcatcher@astound.net
USAC & USAT level 2 certified coach
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [Billyk24] [ In reply to ]
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Find desert dude's blog and read his post about The Catch

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [Billyk24] [ In reply to ]
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Ever tried to swim faster by increasing your stroke rate? Often seems to work to a point, then you no longer speed up, quite possibly start going slower. This is an example of not anchoring the catch, your arm just seems to slip through the water. From my own experience I think it takes time to learn how to hold the water at different speeds, and that you just gotta keep pushing to that slip point, and slowly it will occur at higher stroke rate.
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [tigerchik] [ In reply to ]
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tigerchik wrote:
Find desert dude's blog and read his post about The Catch

Can we search for it? ;)
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [jaretj] [ In reply to ]
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I think they're referring to this post. Not sure, didn't read all of it.

http://accelerate3.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/the-catch/
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [racin_rusty] [ In reply to ]
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That's it.

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [tigerchik] [ In reply to ]
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tigerchik wrote:
That's it.

That may be "it" but I think "it" is way too wordy to translate into action in the 0.75 sec or so that we are doing the catch. Think of trying to feel like you have a big dinner plate on your hand/forearm, much simpler:)


"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [Billyk24] [ In reply to ]
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So, raise your arm high over your head like you are reaching for something on a tall shelf. Notice how your hip and torso naturally rotates inward? While your arm is raised, bend your arm at the elbow until your forearm is parallel to the ground and your fingers are pointing straight ahead toward the horizon. If you were in water this would be the bottom of the pool. You have now made your catch. A sharp rotation of your torso that is initiated with a forceful downward kick from the same side leg and your recovery arm entering the water (reaching) is leveraged off your catch and creates the impulse. The higher (closer to the surface) your elbow and the more rigid you keep your elbow/forearm/hand system through the stroke, the more anchored the catch is. It will naturally start breaking down when your hand is at about belly button level and be done by your hip. Recover, do it with the other side.

If you can do that you will conservatively beat 75% of triathletes in the swim on less than 8000yds a week.

Typical flaws are not initiating a catch, breaking or droping the elbow, breaking the hand, miss-timing or missing the kick, miss-timing recovery, not reaching far enough forward on the recovery, not rotating enough on the recovery - basically not cocking the gun, not exploding the rotation around the catch.

Terry Laughlin's videos of him swimming demonstrate this well.
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [Billyk24] [ In reply to ]
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Billy I will impress upon you one aspect of the catch my coach put into my head that really made the lights click on. Hopefully this gif still works and I have it saved in an email my coach sent to me years ago so I could practice it at home. If it doesn't show up here PM me your email and I will forward it to you directly.

It took me quite a while to be able to get my forearm into this position, but once the muscle memory was ingrained and I put it into a full stroke scenario it was like fireworks going off in my head! YMMV, hope you can glean something good from this.

[URL=http://www.makeagif.com/32jaYz][/url]


Where this can get a little dicey is when and where in the stroke do you get to this internally rotated position? Some can and do lock out their arm at full extension and can get here very well, I can't so I enter with a tiny bit of elbow bend. BUT I have zero delay of any kind and the instant my forearm is submurged I'm catching and getting ready to transition to pull through. I think in many respects the where and when of this is only something you can figure out through experimentation to see what works best *for you*.
Last edited by: tigerpaws: Mar 5, 14 4:40
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [tigerpaws] [ In reply to ]
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http://www.goswim.tv/...igh-elbow-catch.html
Here is the Full explanation of working on elbow rotation and flex to initiate the catch.... David K
tigerpaws wrote:
Billy I will impress upon you one aspect of the catch my coach put into my head that really made the lights click on. Hopefully this gif still works and I have it saved in an email my coach sent to me years ago so I could practice it at home. If it doesn't show up here PM me your email and I will forward it to you directly.

It took me quite a while to be able to get my forearm into this position, but once the muscle memory was ingrained and I put it into a full stroke scenario it was like fireworks going off in my head! YMMV, hope you can glean something good from this.

[URL=http://www.makeagif.com/32jaYz][/url]


Where this can get a little dicey is when and where in the stroke do you get to this internally rotated position? Some can and do lock out their arm at full extension and can get here very well, I can't so I enter with a tiny bit of elbow bend. BUT I have zero delay of any kind and the instant my forearm is submurged I'm catching and getting ready to transition to pull through. I think in many respects the where and when of this is only something you can figure out through experimentation to see what works best *for you*.
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [DavidK] [ In reply to ]
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Ahh thanks for posting that David that is great. Billy this is hard, but totally doable and the benefits will pay off. Don't get too caught up in trying to make it too shallow, just MAKE it happen. If that is 18" under the water that is fine, just as long as the elbow is above the wrist, wrist above the fingers and fingers down. Forcing negative shoulder angles(shallow drafting upper arm) is one of the mechanisms of impingement so go with what God gave ya. You can improve on that over time a little, but by and large most of that is how shallow/deep your humerus sits.

DavidK wrote:
http://www.goswim.tv/entries/5906/freestyle---high-elbow-catch.html
Here is the Full explanation of working on elbow rotation and flex to initiate the catch.... David K
tigerpaws wrote:
Billy I will impress upon you one aspect of the catch my coach put into my head that really made the lights click on. Hopefully this gif still works and I have it saved in an email my coach sent to me years ago so I could practice it at home. If it doesn't show up here PM me your email and I will forward it to you directly.

It took me quite a while to be able to get my forearm into this position, but once the muscle memory was ingrained and I put it into a full stroke scenario it was like fireworks going off in my head! YMMV, hope you can glean something good from this.

[URL=http://www.makeagif.com/32jaYz][/url]


Where this can get a little dicey is when and where in the stroke do you get to this internally rotated position? Some can and do lock out their arm at full extension and can get here very well, I can't so I enter with a tiny bit of elbow bend. BUT I have zero delay of any kind and the instant my forearm is submurged I'm catching and getting ready to transition to pull through. I think in many respects the where and when of this is only something you can figure out through experimentation to see what works best *for you*.
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [ericmulk] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for the dinner plate analogy. That really helped me this morning in the pool! I think (knock on wood) a light bulb went off for me.

Kent
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [ericmulk] [ In reply to ]
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I just had a crazy idea of equating feeling for a good catch is like when you reach into a big bag of tortilla chips and you work your hand to be able to pull out as many as you can - you just know when you've got a good "catch."

Proud member of FISHTWITCH: doing a bit more than fish exercise now.
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [mauvais poisson] [ In reply to ]
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mauvais poisson wrote:
So, raise your arm high over your head like you are reaching for something on a tall shelf. Notice how your hip and torso naturally rotates inward? While your arm is raised, bend your arm at the elbow until your forearm is parallel to the ground and your fingers are pointing straight ahead toward the horizon. If you were in water this would be the bottom of the pool.
I've been struggling with this concept over the last few months. When I do what you describe with my left arm/hand, bending my elbow in a natural way, my fingers point more toward my right, and vice versa. I don't think that would be toward the bottom of the pool, unless my rotation has already turned my body quite a way in the other direction by that point.

Is this a shoulder flexibility issue, or is my rotation seriously out of sync, or am I misunderstanding something?

-----
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
Which is probably why I was registering 59.67mi as I rolled into T2.

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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [DavidK] [ In reply to ]
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DavidK wrote:
http://www.goswim.tv/entries/5906/freestyle---high-elbow-catch.html
Here is the Full explanation of working on elbow rotation and flex to initiate the catch.... David K

I remember this video helping me with this concept (anchor + humerus rotation). But when I posted it a few years ago and got flamed by that asshole Paolo, which set off a big gang bang from his worshipers. An unpleasant experience. Anyone that's off topic though--good luck OP.

__________________________

Oh yeah!
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [Eppur si muove] [ In reply to ]
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Eppur si muove wrote:
mauvais poisson wrote:
So, raise your arm high over your head like you are reaching for something on a tall shelf. Notice how your hip and torso naturally rotates inward? While your arm is raised, bend your arm at the elbow until your forearm is parallel to the ground and your fingers are pointing straight ahead toward the horizon. If you were in water this would be the bottom of the pool.

I've been struggling with this concept over the last few months. When I do what you describe with my left arm/hand, bending my elbow in a natural way, my fingers point more toward my right, and vice versa. I don't think that would be toward the bottom of the pool, unless my rotation has already turned my body quite a way in the other direction by that point.

Is this a shoulder flexibility issue, or is my rotation seriously out of sync, or am I misunderstanding something?

I also tell people to think about that motion like they are climbing over a tall fence or getting out of the pool. hands grab the lip and then you elbows go up above your hands so you can push yourself out of the water/over the fence. To a lessor extent it's the same motion. You are pushing the water more than you are pulling it when you have a high elbow.

tj

Badig| Strava


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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [tjfry] [ In reply to ]
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We also just started to talk about it in this thread too, but from a different direction. Hope it helps.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...;;page=unread#unread

Tim

http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [mauvais poisson] [ In reply to ]
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If you were to use one paddle and one fin to reinforce this, would you use them on the same side, or opposite hand/foot? From your description I think same side..
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [JackL] [ In reply to ]
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I don't know about one fin, but fins certainly help feel the kick and provide positive feedback. I occasionally do a basic swimming drill with fins and a snorkel, I use a two beat kick to simplify things, and really concentrate on feeling my form, and body in the water. I don't think that paddles help get the feel of the catch. I find the fist drills can be useful, but your really have to concentrate on establishing the catch with your fist and forearm, then when you use your hands you can really feel the dinner plate analogy previously used.
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Re: "Anchor your catch"-explain to the lousy swimmers [Kentcart] [ In reply to ]
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Kentcart wrote:
Thanks for the dinner plate analogy. That really helped me this morning in the pool! I think (knock on wood) a light bulb went off for me. Kent

Thanks, glad you liked this!!! I thought of this about 6 months ago, actually when I was swimming backstroke rather than freestyle. I was doing a straight backstroke set and was finally really starting to feel the pull, and that's when the dinner plate analogy came to me. I like it cause it's just so simple and short, only two words to remember. I've never ever been able to get anything out of these paragraphs that talk about this angle and that angle, like we have time to measure this stuff while swimming. I have always been a good visual learner though, just picking stuff up by watching excellent swimmers.


"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."
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