My swimming sucks and I am completely driven to once and for all fix my swimming.
I really want to learn the high elbow freestyle. But boy is it difficult to change. I got thinking that I need to do muscle training on dry land to get it down. To many other things going on to learn in the pool which mainly is almost drowning
My first idea was to take some bungee and connect to my universal weight setup and use my bench. This works reasonably well. But I want more.
Then I started thinking of building something even better. Something where my body would slide. Went to the store to find such a bench and found the almost perfect thing for $140. It is called a Total Body 5000. I was thinking of using this as the foundation and making some modifications. But when searching on the Internet I came upon the Vasa swimming trainer. Which is similiar to the Total Body but specific for swimming, probably much better quality but also a lot more expensive. I am not willing to spend this much.
Curious if anyone has used a Total Body 5000 for this purpose?
The Vasa and stock Total Body 5000 seems flawed in that the two arms pulls are connected. So when goes up the other comes down. I would think it would be better for them to be independent. This is what I planned on doing. Curious to thoughts on this.
get some surgical tubing, tie loops in each end, wrap around immovable object, practice your stroke while watching your high elbow; and/or
get some swim paddles, and feel when the water is slipping around (rather than pushing against) the paddle; this shows that paddle is not perpendicular to the direction of pull which can only happen with a high elbow.
The total body and even the vasa trainers won’t fix your pull in and of themselves. You can go to youtube and find videos of people happily pulling away on their vasa trainers with dropped elbows. I HAVE heard of people using the total gym to
Although the ergometer seems to do a reasonable job of helping.
Khai linked to the halo trainer which can be used as an accessory for the vasa, if you’re the handy type then you could easily make something similar with a scrolling saw and a sheet of plywood and attach it to a total gym.
As for what you are trying to accomplish, form my perspective, the main goal is to get your forearm at right angles to the direction your are pulling. Getting your forearm vertical is a secondary concern from my perspective. If you can get your forearm at right angles but pointing to the side that is OK too. This is important because people who learned to swim as adults may not have the flexibility in internal rotation to do this. If you don’t have good internal rotation you can make up for some of it with a more aggressive flex at your elbow which uses your bicep and then at the end you’ll need a bit of a more aggressive extension with your tricep. The more aggressive your flexion is the more your extension will need to be.
If you are really watching your pennies, you can do some tubing exercises to work on it.
I have recommended these exercises, they are more about kinesthetic awareness and realizing what you need to do than actual strength.
Half Pulls
Full Pulls
The bad example
Toddlers grabbing the cords while you do it are optional.
I do spend a lot of time in the pool. Been spending 1 hour a day working on it. But I think I really need to work on dry land really getting it down and then back into the pool. It is very hard for me to change my stroke after all these years.
I understand the trainer will not make your form perfect. But it will be a lot easier to get it down in muscle memory and then to the pool. I can really see what I am doing. In the pool it is hard for me to see it and feel it. I have tried drills in the pool but I need to go slower and work it out on dry land.
Plus my wife is a very skilled swimmer and it is easier for her to help me on dry land instead of the pool. I can see it and understand better.
I also really like the idea of the trainer as a way to build the particular muscles after I get it down. I am surprised more people don’t do this. You can add resistance and really build the muscles up.
Plus I find the entire thing interesting. I watched a ton of videos on YouTube and read articles about the high elbow. I am handy and an engineer and want to make my own machine using the Total Body 5000 as the foundation so that I can understand it all even better.
I can imagine an entire swimming machine where you can really practice form. A machine that did the following:
Table you lay on would be able to rotate. Be able to set rotation degree
Ability to put head into a mask type piece that also swivels to work on breathing properly
A kick machine with bungee going up and down. It would be balanced in the middle but cause resistance moving your leg up or down
Back of table that slides attached to my universal so you can select the weight you are pulling
Just swim concentrating on keeping your elbows up. When you get tired or fatigued get out of the water or rest a while and have another go. Muscles have memory. Also try dragging your finger tips in the water to help keep your elbows up. Try doing a hundred meters with your hands in a fist. You will be amazed how your hand falls right into place to pull the most amount of water in a efficiant way.
IMO, you are on the path to frustration. First, is a high elbow important for you? Have you been diagnosed with crossover, swinging hips and a short entry point? If not, - there’s no need.
What your hand, arm, elbow does ABOVE the water is not as important as what it does under the water. If you’re blowing your catch, not extending, not getting a good lock on the water with wrist/hand/forearm: silly dry-land drills are not valuable.
Too much emphasis on technique wastes valuable time.
I picked up a Total Body 5000 from Shopko a year or two ago for ~$70 (must have been a 40-50% off sale). It’s very solid and I like it a lot for doing some different strength training. Don’t know if it has helped my swim at all, but it was great for building some off-season ski strength simulating “double-poling”.
Exactly. High elbow on catch. Seems to be getting a little better. But no endurance now. Will need to abandon in a week so I can be ready for my HIM in five or so weeks.
Will go back to it after the race. Have most of the summer to straighten it out with shorter races.
