I swam for years and was not the most technical in the water (I was really competitive, but that can only take you so far for so long)...I think what you need to do is drills and not just swim, and also, have a little more patience. It can take months to notice any of the changes that you are trying to implement. I'm going to make an attempt at explaining a drill...I hope it makes sense...

With your head down and and one arm elongated and the other at your hip, start kicking (to get into this position correctly, start in shallow water and just kind of tip yourbody forward, "press the T" and begin to kick) Do 10 kicks and then pull with the arm that is out in front, and make sure you use your core to help rotate your body, not just your arm. At this point, your opposite arm will be elongated and the other arm at your hip. When you take a stroke you need to make sure you pay attention to the feel of the water and that you are pulling from the top all the way through...

Does that help at all????

Pretty much, the first two things are the results of the 3rd thing. The "barrel" description is the first part of your pull. With your hand out infront of you, you want to start the pull by imagining your wraping your arm over the top of a barrel. If you do that and all the other stuff you need to do after that correctly, you should feel like your "grabbing" the water. Hope this helps!

Not so much "pulling yourself over a barrel" rather, "reaching around a barrel". Imagine a barrel laying on its side, you are laying on your stomach, level with abou2" below the top of the barrel. Now try to reach something laying on the ground on the other side of the barrel.

I have also had success working on this with paddles. Be careful with paddles, but in this case it is useful to look at (or just feel) the paddle and try and get the paddle vertical and pointing straight back as soon as your hand enters the water and is finished with the stretch. Keep the paddle in this position until it is time to exit the water. Don't worry about speed, just get the paddle correct and keep it correct.

Take this from a very average swimmer. All three things seem to be pointing to something similar. Pull against the water. I used swim with my elbows in, this makes it easier to get your arm through the water, but not push your body over the water. If your elbows are out (around a barrel) there is more area pushing against the water. This will give you more power (faster), you feel like you are pulling yourself over your arms.

 swam competitively for a long time at a fairly high level. Though 38 I can still swim with the best of them in open water. I coached and know a bit about technique.

I have never heard the three comments you mentioned.

My suggestion, don't have someone tell you how to do your stroke, have them physically show you. A coach can get you on dry land and move your hand/arm in the proper fashion. After doing this for a while, you should be let go to do the hand/arm movements on your own in front of a mirror, watching what you are doing. Then progress to the pool with drills. If real lucky you will find a pool with a mirror on the bottom so you can watch your own stroke while swimming normal and with drills.

You should also become adept at watching your hand enter the water and follow your stroke as far as possible when swimming. You can't do this all the time, but it is a good check.

---

http://www.clevetriclub.com

rob reddy

Sounds like your problem is that you're dropping water, not holding onto it properly in an attempt to make the pull easy for you. Between about head level, and just past your waist, you want your hand angle to be roughly perpendicular to the bottom of the pool. Paddles will help you get a feel for correct hand position (but make sure you do some long relaxed yardage before and after using them so your shoulders are properly loose)

Haven't heard the first description (but it makes sense) but have heard the other two phrases from different coaches over the years.

The phrases coaches use can be really frustrating. Remember that they are made up by people who "get it," to try to convey a feeling, something that is very hard to do with words. Some of the phrases work for some people, some for others and some not at all (I have heard the "pulling yourself over a barrel" one for 20 years and still don't understand it). Some of them you'll get right away and some you will not understand until ten years later. A lot of times what the coach means by one of those phrases will only click when you actually start doing whatever it is yourself. Try to think about what the motions they describe are and more importantly, why they will help you move through the water efficiently.

Number 1 on your list (and number 2 that is related to it) are really important though and they apply to more than just the catch. People talk about a fast turnover that doesn't equate to fast swimming as "dropping water" which is another phrase that never made sense to me until I figured out on my own what I was doing wrong and started fixing it. I like the analogy to spinning your wheels or "slipping" better. A car stuck in the mud can spin its wheels really fast but go nowhere because the tires are not grabbing the ground and letting the car push past them. Same with swimming. Obviously, you wouldn't want to have to push your body through cement or jello but if you could just plant your arm in something like that, something more dense than water that would hold tight as you pulled past, you would go a lot faster because you would not slip at all and all your strength would be pulling you forward. I think "fist drill" is pretty worthless but the one thing its good for is reminding you how little good turnover is if you're not grabbing and holding a lot of water.

---

________________________________________________

Anyone who tells you they're as fast now as they were when they were 18...
sure wasn't very fast when they were 18.

If you have a good catch, your hand will exit the water in basically the same place it went in. The hand does not move, your body does. If you taped any of the swimming during the olympics, go back and watch a freestyle race. Pick a shot where the camera is not moving then pick a swimmer and put your finger on the TV screen on the lane line next to where his or her hand enters the water during a stroke. Now watch where it comes out in relation to that spot on the lane lane. The hand will have only moved "back" a couple of inches during the stroke.

Very good swimmers, like the Olymipans you watched, swim the same way runners run. The hand "catches" the water just like a track shoe catches the track and the body moves over it.

What makes swimming so much harder than running from a techique standpoint is you can not just go out and buy a pair of cleats for your hands. Bad swimmers are like runners trying to run on ice. No grip.

Another one that I have used: Imagine that you are placing your hand into a crack in the ground and then pulling yourself forward.



What we call "High Elbow" swimming is how every world class swimmer swims. If you can see any of the underwater of the 200/400/800/1500 you will see that as they intiate the catch, every one of these guys gets their hand and forearm into a vertical position with the elbow high relative to the hand and keeps this orientation until thier body is over thier hand. This is what all of these analogies are trying to convey. There are 2 purposes to the catch: scrub the air bubbles off of your hand and to get your hand/forearm into this vertical position where you can pull the most water.



Ed

---

_________________________________________________

LLLEEEEEEEEEEEERRRROOOYYY JEEENNNNNKKKIIINNNNNS!!!

I usually swim at lunchtime so I tried a few different things today (I ordered some paddles but they won't be here until this weekend or next week). The perpendicular to the bottom of the pool comment (Amy maybe?) made since and I could definitely feel more resistance on my hand and forearm (thank you for that).

Someone also mentioned watching Olympic swimmers this is the best link I've found so far (humbling) http://www.swim.ee/videos/freestyle/free.html

Thanks for all the comments I'll give this hand position a try for a few months and see what is happening.