What are the benefits?
None
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What are the benefits?
BS to the previous poster…
amoungst other things it teaches timing and coordination. I always had my swimmers do it in conjunction with a nice steady beat kick, this promotes a good body position and allows the athlete a chance to focus on proper hand placement while not thinking too hard about the aforementioned stuff.
While it doesn’t do anything for your stroke timing, I think it has a few benefits: namely emphasizing stroke length and body roll. You can also focus more on the catch as the hand at rest starts high, and if you don’t breath every stroke, you can get some feedback on what the beginning of your stroke looks like.
That said, don’t do it very often. Timing is important and so is letting your hand sink gradually after you let it enter the water. Catch up drills don’t emphasize this at all.
If you do enough of it, it kills your shoulders.
Many benefits. I do them every day in teh water to work on my catch. It gives me time every workout to think about my catch and pull, so later during my main set I try not to think too much about it.
If you lift your head to breathe, or if you push down into the water when breathing (these usually go together) then catch up drill is often used to fix it. I’m not aware of a better way to fix it actually, and I’ve tried a lot of things.
I wrote and illustrated entirely too much about it here,
http://acadianendurance.blogspot.com/2008/03/discussion-of-catch-up-and-stick-drill.html
There are several gotchas about catch up drill though that can make you worse off than before. I discuss them in the article.
If you lift your head to breathe, or if you push down into the water when breathing (these usually go together) then catch up drill is often used to fix it. I’m not aware of a better way to fix it actually, and I’ve tried a lot of things.
I wrote and illustrated entirely too much about it here,
http://acadianendurance.blogspot.com/...and-stick-drill.html
There are several gotchas about catch up drill though that can make you worse off than before. I discuss them in the article.
Interesting read. Thanks.
Quite right, it was a flippant response.
But here’s the catch. I spent years swimming with a masters group, gradually slipping down the lanes as I aged. And what I noticed was that in all those years the lousy swimmers, who did the same drills as all the rest never improved. At the end of ten years they were just as clumsy, unbalanced and awkward as they were at the beginning. Only now they were using flippers to keep up.
So for the talented swimmers, who have an affinity for the water, those who “get it”, it’s a reinforcement drill, that’s a nice break from swimming hard all the time. Unfortunately they are the ones who need it the least.
(of course you couldn’t resist the kicking reference either) 
A lot of beginning swimmers drop their extended hand too quickly during the recovery with the other hand. Catch up is the opposite extreme.
If you lift your head to breathe, or if you push down into the water when breathing (these usually go together) then catch up drill is often used to fix it. I’m not aware of a better way to fix it actually, and I’ve tried a lot of things.
I wrote and illustrated entirely too much about it here,
http://acadianendurance.blogspot.com/...and-stick-drill.html
There are several gotchas about catch up drill though that can make you worse off than before. I discuss them in the article.
One arm drills with the ‘off’ side extended does it too…although one arm drills are really just a modified catch-up drill anyway if you think about it.
Benefits? Depends on your weakness and habits:
- Allows for focus on one arm at a time to perfect entry, catch, and pull
- If you have a ‘windmill’ stroke, it corrects timing and reach
- Allows for evening out of a weakness in one arm if that’s a problem
- Teaches correct body position, breath timing and duration, and kick
Sad to hear that actually. With all due respect, I’d say that they were not doing the drills correctly. I’ve done these and other drills since I was a kid and they all combine to improve form and feel for the water. If you want to go down the Alex Popov (or any modern freestyler who uses a conventional stroke) route then you will do lots of this stuff, all focussed on getting your form in the water optimal. For the folks in your masters group, I’d say that someone (either coach or student) was not paying enough attention. I know that sounds harsh but its something I see all the time in squads where people do the volume but never improve their technique.
As someone who has only been swimming for 18 months or so, I can attest to the truth of Kevin’s claim. I used to push down and across with my right arm to push my body up to breathe. It was a lot if effort to just slow myself down.
The catch up drill has smoothed my rotation and breathing white a bit. Heck it took me a year really to be able to do this drill correctly.
Swimming is a skill to be mastered. Cycling and running are just about fitness and effort.
If you lift your head to breathe, or if you push down into the water when breathing (these usually go together) then catch up drill is often used to fix it. I’m not aware of a better way to fix it actually, and I’ve tried a lot of things.
I wrote and illustrated entirely too much about it here,
http://acadianendurance.blogspot.com/2008/03/discussion-of-catch-up-and-stick-drill.html
There are several gotchas about catch up drill though that can make you worse off than before. I discuss them in the article.