Swim II
Class 1
This week we went to work on the arm stroke in a way that
links it to body position. It is often forgotten that how you pull, the direction
in which you apply force – up, down, backward, sideways, at angles – move your
body in the opposite direction. You want to apply force backward to move your
body forward. Ideally, you want to time it so well that your arm doesn’t move
backward at all, but stays in one position – anchored – in the water.
You want your body to move over your anchored arm vs.
pulling your arm backward through the water.
Warm-up:
200 easy swim
200 kick 25/swim 25
Drill Set:
100-150yd
Prone Forward Sculling – sets up and strengthens proper
elbow, shoulder, hand position
Face down in the water, kicking lightly to keep legs at the
surface. Shrug shoulders forward so that elbows end up even with your temples.
Hands are under the elbows. Scull with small motions like “figure eights”. See
the end of the post for a couple video links to give you a visual.
200yd
Swim – allow your hand/forearm to drop effortlessly down
into the catch position before pulling
You’ll move from extended and narrow, to an arm position
similar to a forward scull, before applying force. It’s gentle out front.
100-150yd
Side Forward Sculling – a position even closer to that
experienced when swimming
Your body is angled at about 45-60deg with your head facing
down. Your lower arm sculls and your upper arm lies flat against your side. You
should be able to watch your extended arm sculling, elbow high, with hand below
it facing backward. Your side-lying arm should be breaking the surface from
shoulder to hand.
200yd
Swim – get on top of the water
When you drop the hand and forearm down slowly, you can feel
the water running along the underside of your arm all the way up past your
armpit. It’s as if there’s a barrel of water you’ve reached over and now you’re
using its weight to pull yourself past.
Pacing Set:
8x50, 10sec rest
Start very slow, with every stroke taking a long time. With
each succeeding fifty, add a tiny bit more effort. You’ll move from slow to
moderately hard over the 400yd.
Cool Down:
200 easy swimming or kicking
Total 1600-1700yd
This is a good demo of why you always want your palms facing
backward vs. down. It is different (not better or worse) from the head down
version we worked on. His arms/hands are angled at about 30-45deg in order to
produce down force to keep his head up. Your hand/forearms will be vertical and
in front of your head.
A good primer on sculling. At 3:00 she moves to a face down
position and you can see her turn down force to back force that moves her
forward. This is slightly different from the “elbows forward” front scull I
usually teach that puts the arm in the beginning catch position. All this
swimmer would need to do is shrug their shoulders forward and get their elbows
and hands about even with the top of their head.
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