In an effort to improve my swimming, I tried working with a Total Immersion coach, but it made me slower. Body position/rotation is not my problem. Overall strength, and feel/propulsion seem to be the problem. I read that a good swimmer will anchor his hand in the water and move over that spot. So how do I work on anchoring my hand rather than having it slip through the water? Drills? Mental images? How important is it to get the hand lower in the water, away from the turbulence on the surface?
I read that a good swimmer will anchor his hand in the water and move over that spot.
It’s a really suggestive imagery, but it’s not true. In order for you to accelerate forward, your hand needs to move backwards.
The best imagery for this is to get videotaped swimming next to lane lines that mix up the color of the floats. The idea is that your hand ends up entering and leaving at the same point, and getting to see where your hand ends up in relation to the floats can give you an idea of how close to it you are.
In the end, it’s not so much thinking about what you’re doing with your hand, but what you’re doing with the rest of your arm and shoulder. You get the power part of your stroke from getting your forearm perpendicular to the pool bottom. Elbow close to the surface helps you do that, but it requires some muscle/strength. Hand stays nice and relaxed and paddle-like, but for the most part follows the lead of elbow/shoulder/forearm.
Jawman,
If you’re certain that your body position and your long axis rotation is sound then the next priority would be timing (and the anchor or “catch” is a part of that). If you’re not certain about the body position confirm that first because there is a far better investment into reducing drag than creating propulsion.
I like to think of the timing as a four cylinder engine (there’s an argument to be made that’s it’s really a 6 but that’ll only muddy this water so let’s stay with 4 for now). The dry hip (closest to the surface) needs to rotate at the precise moment that the recovering hand is entering the water - when the finger tips dip in. That’s the primary engine and the dry hip and entering hand make up 2 of the four cylinders. The other two are made up of the “catch” being pulled back (delicately) by the deep hip. I say delicately because “tearing” through the water actually reduces your purchase.
To get the engine hitting on all 4 cylinders is the goal. As the recovering arm approaches your ear the lead arm needs to “drop anchor”. To do that the shoulder has to rotate slightly so the elbow can stay high (near the surface) the fingers can point down towards the bottom. Then, when the recovering fingers touch the water - this is the “trigger spot” when everything goes into action: body rolls, dry hip drives the entering arm forward (and slightly deep for best results), the deep hip helps to pull the catch or anchored arm back. The end result is great propulsion.
There are two images that might help: the “archer position” - imagine that you are drawing an arrow back in a bow and then you raise it up as if your target is really far away. One had is back near you head and one arm is outstretched. This position, one where the lead arm has only dropped slightly and the recovering arm is in front of your head, is similar to that critical moment in the swim. It’s also referred to as “front quadrant swimming”. Another image that can help with the catch/anchor is to imagine that your hand is a paint brush and your job is to paint stripes on the bottom of the pool. This might help you engage a more dramatic catch.
If you ever want to watch some who catches like a fiend then check out a video from Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen (she’s got world records in pretty much every freestyle event from the 100 to the 5k). The overall content didn’t floor me but the underwater shots of her catch is a brilliant image to carry over into your own swim.
All the best, Ian
Watch this video of Popov about 50 times in a row. He grabs so much water, it’s unbelievable. Do what he does!
I don’t get some of these coaching techniques.
Keep it simple.
Head down, body prone, reach and rotate.
Do that 90 minutes a day for ~4 years and you’ll be a swimmer.
It isn’t so much getting your hand away from the turbulence on the surface (when swimming freestyle your hands will always be deeper than a backstroker’s for example) as it is getting your forearm perpendicular to the surface as quickly as possible and keeping it perpendicular as long as possible during your stroke. FLA JILL is bang on (as usual). You do need a certain amount of swim specific strength to do this, as well as a reasonable amount of flexibility.
A big reason that very good swimmers hands exit the water at or in front of the point where they go in is because their hands don’t slip as much as less skilled swimmers, combined with a very strong kick (even the 2 beat kickers get a decent amount of propulsion from their kick).
Jawman,
If you’re certain that your body position and your long axis rotation is sound then the next priority would be timing (and the anchor or “catch” is a part of that). If you’re not certain about the body position confirm that first because there is a far better investment into reducing drag than creating propulsion.
I like to think of the timing as a four cylinder engine (there’s an argument to be made that’s it’s really a 6 but that’ll only muddy this water so let’s stay with 4 for now). The dry hip (closest to the surface) needs to rotate at the precise moment that the recovering hand is entering the water - when the finger tips dip in. That’s the primary engine and the dry hip and entering hand make up 2 of the four cylinders. The other two are made up of the “catch” being pulled back (delicately) by the deep hip. I say delicately because “tearing” through the water actually reduces your purchase.
To get the engine hitting on all 4 cylinders is the goal. As the recovering arm approaches your ear the lead arm needs to “drop anchor”. To do that the shoulder has to rotate slightly so the elbow can stay high (near the surface) the fingers can point down towards the bottom. Then, when the recovering fingers touch the water - this is the “trigger spot” when everything goes into action: body rolls, dry hip drives the entering arm forward (and slightly deep for best results), the deep hip helps to pull the catch or anchored arm back. The end result is great propulsion.
There are two images that might help: the “archer position” - imagine that you are drawing an arrow back in a bow and then you raise it up as if your target is really far away. One had is back near you head and one arm is outstretched. This position, one where the lead arm has only dropped slightly and the recovering arm is in front of your head, is similar to that critical moment in the swim. It’s also referred to as “front quadrant swimming”. Another image that can help with the catch/anchor is to imagine that your hand is a paint brush and your job is to paint stripes on the bottom of the pool. This might help you engage a more dramatic catch.
If you ever want to watch some who catches like a fiend then check out a video from Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen (she’s got world records in pretty much every freestyle event from the 100 to the 5k). The overall content didn’t floor me but the underwater shots of her catch is a brilliant image to carry over into your own swim.
All the best, Ian
From FlaJill… “You get the power part of your stroke from getting your forearm perpendicular to the pool bottom. Elbow close to the surface helps you do that, but it requires some muscle/strength.”
From Ian… “dry hip drives the entering arm forward (and slightly deep for best results)”
I’m not picking on either of you, just pointing out how confusing this stuff can be, in that opinions can vary greatly.
As I understand it there is a large group of folks who thing the god created some stuff in a 6 day time peirod and another group who thinks it took a bit longer. Ahhh the beauty of opinion!!!
Ian
THe TI coach was hell bent on front quadrant swimming, so much so that she essentially had me swimming catch up drill all the time. Doing this leaves large chunks of time where I am not putting pressure on the water. So how quickly after my hand reaches the proper extension should be I trying to get the forearm perpendicular to the pool floor? Should it be almost immediately?
Sculling before your main swim sets.
For me, my hand’s going sideways to initiate the catch with pretty much zero glide once I get to the point of full extension. But then I’m a light two beat kicker, so I’ve got to do that or else I start to decelerate.
If you’re using more of a kick, you can get away with more of a glide on the front end.
From FlaJill… “You get the power part of your stroke from getting your forearm perpendicular to the pool bottom. Elbow close to the surface helps you do that, but it requires some muscle/strength.”
From Ian… “dry hip drives the entering arm forward (and slightly deep for best results)”
I’m not picking on either of you, just pointing out how confusing this stuff can be, in that opinions can vary greatly.
It looks conflicting when you show it like that but they are actually talking about the exact same position.
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Jill says elbow close to the surface, what she leaves out is that elbow is close to the surface and hand is well below the surface, so your forearm is pointing down.
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Ian says your arms goes slightly down, probably getting at the fact that your hand ends up a fair bit below your shoulder at extension. You would then internally rotate your shoulder into the catch position. Meaning your hand now points down and your elbow is a fair bit higher than your hand.
The only disagreement is a one of degrees, sounds like Ian would recommend making your catch a fair bit lower than Jill would. But the actual catch position, the part where you get your forearm as vertical as possible is exactly the same.
I’ll go ahead and throw my own two cents in here. Jill mentions that the high elbow catch requires swim specific strength, it also requires swim specific flexibility. Twice this year I have been asked to help swimmers who had injury problems. One guy was down around 2,000 yards per workout before the pain made him quit, another lady had to stop swimming due to neck pain. In both cases it was because their catch was too aggressive.
Thing is, most of us did not train lots of yards when we were young and aren’t naturally gifted. Specifically we lack shoulder internal rotation. When most of us try to get into the high elbow position Jill talks about, we can’t do it with our shoulder joints. We lack the flexibility their and have to compensate elsewhere. The elsewhere in this case is that we rotate the entire shoulder complex, all the way back to our scapulas, forward. You use the levator scapulae to lift the whole complex up and forward. Later, you’ll get some neck pain because your levator scapulae is tugging on the back of your head and your traps are also constantly working, or your shoulder just gives out from constantly challenging the edges of your flexibility.
In both of these cases the issue worked out when they moved their catch down lower, wider and made it less aggressive. Unfortunately not all of us can have a catch like this.