How to improve your high elbow freestyle catch and pull through to Swim Smooth like Becky Adlington!

[@thereposter5736]

Thank you very much, Paul. Great videos. I often watch all 5 videos

[@swimsmooth]

Many thanks!

[@prljf9623]

The clips of you demonstrating drills in this series are brilliant! They look perfect!

[@swimsmooth]

Many thanks - do you mean the drills that the swimmer's are doing whilst being coached or the more formal ones demonstrating the drill itself?

[@prljf9623]

You personally of course!

[@swimsmooth]

@@prljf9623 many thanks!!

[@DavidLloyd-r8r]

Great video. Thanks Paul. Keep going!

[@swimsmooth]

Much appreciated Dave - thanks!

[@kurth704]

Liked. Subscribed. Thanks for that reminder! And also, THANKS AGAIN PAUL for posting these videos. Many similar tips (now and before), but the repetition just helps to cement it better, especially in the variety of swimmers you preview. It sort of feels like you are still here and we are chatting with you popping out ideas to help me swim better! AWESOME!! 🏊‍♂ 🔥🔥🔥

[@swimsmooth]

Glad you're enjoying them Kurt!

[@andrewauld9463]

Hey Paul. Thanks so much for these videos. Watching last week's alignment one helped me to shave a whole 5secs off my 100m time. Can't wait to see what bending it like Becky will do for me this week! I live in Derbyshire so Becky's a local hero for us round here.

[@swimsmooth]

Awesome Andrew! Thanks so much for letting me know. That’s a great result! 🫶

[@masteragency5239]

15:44 is one the best visualisations of what to do during the catch and pull - climbing the ladder

[@swimsmooth]

Glad you liked that one - simple but effective!

[@JeanRobertStrele]

Thanks Paul. Great insight into the catch and pull. Sun is out here in the mountains of Medellin, Colombia. Time to put in a few laps and try it all out.

[@swimsmooth]

Sounds lovely Jean-Robert - I have your email too so look forward to organising something with you 👍

[@sedgieroobets]

Love the way you emphasise that every one will be slightly different because all our physiologies and biomechanics are slightly different - but it then does require great coaches who can adapt their knowledge for every individual! Do you have any tips for arms that are getting a little 'stuck ' at the back of the stroke? I feel my arm is not quite giving enough power at the back of the stroke and so is a little slow exiting the water and going through recovery.

[@swimsmooth]

Thanks, Carl. Despite the emphasis that a lot place on the ‘drive’ or finish at the back of the stroke, the reality is that you don't want to go to full extension (locking the elbow out) as biomechanically this will see you lifting water up at the rear (and sinking the hips) rather than the desired intention of moving you forwards. In the video, Becky Adlington actually exits the water with a bend of about 155-160 degrees at the elbow (despite having the flexibility to lock out beyond 180 degrees). She does this to avoid lifting the water at the rear of the stroke and instead folds the palm in towards the thigh to ‘release’ at the back of the stroke when it's no longer biomechanically efficient to keep pressing backwards. Hope this helps? I think the visuals in the video from our book demonstrate this about a third of the way into the video 👍

[@sedgieroobets]

@@swimsmooth Many thanks. I'll pay attention to keeping the arm more bent on exit. Do you ever coach that the arm should accelerate through the catch and power phase, so it feels faster exiting the water? (I've sometimes heard that both below and under the water, the arm and hand should go from slow to fast). On the few times I feel my rhythm has really clicked, I think I've done this but I find it hard to achieve regularly!

[@swimsmooth]

@@sedgieroobets hi Carl, glad it helped. If you think about it logically, the arm MUST accelerate through the catch phase simply because it's starting from a point of zero speed (that junction between extending forward, before starting to press back) and the exit at the back where the arm is moving at it's fastest velocity. So yes, this occurs 👍

[@sedgieroobets]

@@swimsmooth many thanks. I think I've noticed that I'm also not that flexible through the scapula and shoulder (I'm 57) so maintaining a high elbow through recovery is quite challenging. I think I'll try to work on this mobility as that should also help correct angle of hand entry at the front of the stroke. Many thanks for your replies! 🙂

[@swimsmooth]

@@sedgieroobets yes true Carl. You can also try opening the angle at the elbow and lifting the arm higher over the top of the water like Anna-Karin at the start of my 5th video in this series. This is very popular with those with reduced mobility still aiming to swim well 👍

[@stluciestrength]

Awesome! But so much to learn! I struggle to swim 50 yards at 1:00, sub 1:00 pace on 1:30 intervals, “naked “( no equipment like fins and snorkel). I do 10 reps x 50 yards once a week usually, probably my toughest workout of the week. In fact yesterday I did this, after 1400 yards of various drills wearing fins and snorkel. My current goal is all the reps at 1:00 or better which I did except for one rep (1:01) but the best I could do was barely:58. I have swam :57 a few times but it’s a real challenge. And obviously I want to get to:45 or better. And for longer distances (500 meters ocean rescue test, 1+ mile open water swim, etc). I’ve been swimming on and off for the last 20 years with some okay results but those were probably 10 years ago. Aside from working on mobility ( very tight, lots of injuries including shoulder over the years) I think getting a good catch and pull would help. How much should I rotate on my side when I make my catch? A lot or just barely, especially without ripping my shoulder? Thanks so much for your videos

[@swimsmooth]

Don’t sweat - break it down step by step per this sequence and you will come good 👍 take your time. Re. Rotation - we want to be looking at about 45-60 degrees ✅

[@grahamgd]

Great informative video as always. One thing I often see in weak swimmers is the pull "slipping" through the water. The arm action looks correct but there is no power there. From my investigations, it is because the arm is moving at a constant speed through the water, the water in front of the arm is pushing the water out of the way and they are not able to get a good grip on the water with the pull. The solution is for them to ensure they accelerate the pull through the water. I believe the theory of the old s-pattern was also to help the swimmer find clean water to get a grip on and stop the pull from 'slipping'.

[@swimsmooth]

Thanks Graham - yes this is certainly true of the types of swimmer we'd classify as "Bambino" - we'll look a little more into this next week when look at the rhythm and rate of the stroke ✅

[@roberthall7336]

Great stuff, thanks again, Paul! Note that there is some conflicting dialogue on the closed captions near the end of this video, the other instructor in the pool.

[@swimsmooth]

Just added an update thanks Rob: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJLJd52lns2sq6M - sorry, little gremlin there!

[@hornetluca]

Hello there, have you ever analyzed the butterfly style in one of your videos? I looked for it by typing "Swim Smooth Butterfly" but lots of videos came out, none of them were yours. Thanks.

[@swimsmooth]

Not yet - but I used to be a flyer - so watch this space and I'll see what I can do!

[@jpvandersluis4605]

Do you believe that the S shape is just a example overall and that is more about the strength of the pull and Traction created by slipping to still water to reduce pushing on water that is moving. I believe the rotation of the body and shoulders even with a straight back pull really results in pulling on still water.

[@swimsmooth]

Essentially that’s exactly it. Rotation was the overlooked aspect of the old theory.

[@breakwaterbill]

For the pool session beginning about 26 minutes in, are you still using the Zygo? or some other headset to communicate with your swimmer?

[@swimsmooth]

I’m currently using the SONR, Bill ✌️

[@breakwaterbill]

@@swimsmooth thanks! (will try one of those) BTW loving this series and recommending to my tri team and distance peeps

[@elizabethsabit3883]

Do i breath during the stroke or after the stroke sir?

[@robohippy]

Had to watch it twice..... Maybe a third time too. So, a couple of things. I am one who constantly experiments, though an engineer by hobby, engineers: if it ain't broke, take it apart and fix it any way. So, in an effort to figure out what makes for ideal finger spacing, I stick my arm out the car window while traveling down the freeway. At 55 mph, if you are sensitive, you can feel significant pressure differences from closed hand to wide open finger spread. Ideal spacing seems to be about a finger width apart, which includes the thumb. This would be with fingers at the other hand's finger tips. Then, while doing this, I saw an Olympic medalist, can't remember her name, and at the 90 degree position of her pull, her palm was convex, which meant to me that she was losing her grip on the water. So another round of experiments. If you look at oars for the racing scull boats and the paddle boards, they are convex/cupped in shape. So, I noticed that the convex hand out the window seems to have a better grip on the water than a straight palm. The only way to test this that I can think of other than sticking my arm out the window while driving down the freeway would be to have a mechanical hand on a lever and set it up in one of the endless pools. I did see one mechanical type hand for artists that I think might work, or it might have been for jewelers.... Some of the swimmers here seem to have totally closed hands. I have likened the arm pull to some thing we have all done to one degree or another. You are on hands and knees in the sand box. In front of you, you have a shoulder high pile of sand. A meter or two behind you, you have a hole. The idea is to take a scoop of sand from the pile, and push/pull it back into the hole behind you. This action of filling the hole, to me is the 'proper way to finish the stroke. I was experimenting with my swim last week after watching this, or maybe it was Monday, well, have been playing with it for a while, but turning the palm confuses me. As soon as you start to turn your palm, you are losing your grip on the water and slipping. Worst case of this that I have seen is with back stroke where some start to rotate their palm at about the half way point. So, in focusing on the finish part of my stroke, my hand is right at the surface of the water. What this does is there is pretty much no resistance/drag caused by having the hand/palm pushing all the way back to the wall, rather than rotating. In counting my arm strokes, by focusing on the finish, this can make a difference in as many as 2 arm strokes per length in a 25 yard pool. While distance per stroke is not a thing you need to focus on, I consider it more important for distance swimming than I do for sprinting. This is also another difference between sprinting and distance swimming. Not sure if I said it before, but most interesting difference in swim styles is between Katie Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus. Gallop style vs traditional style of freestyle. Oh, the doggy paddle drill you show, that is how my underwater arm in my overarm side stroke goes, except on the recover, I do it more like the pull out stroke for breast stroke, so finish is on the thigh pretty much, then palm against the tummy, and up the body line to full extension.

[@swimsmooth]

Some good points here Rob. Thanks for your detailed contribution.

[@robohippy]

@@swimsmooth I was playing around with hand position yesterday during my swim. I did have a flash back to you showing Michael Phelps and his freestyle, and noted how he actually angled his arm down a bit rather than being parallel to the top of the water. When doing my flutter kick laps, with fins and snorkel, I rotate like I do when I swim, and extend one arm and retract the other a bit, to mimic what I do when in full stroke. I found that with my recover arm side, with it retracted a bit from full extension, if I have my palm rotated to parallel with the water surface, that is a high drag position. If I have it rotated slightly thumb down, it is a very low drag position. Kind of seems like being slightly thumb down is more efficient. Trying to figure out if that 'feeling' is due to shoulder/body rotation or some thing else. I know you say the thumb down position is not good for shoulders. More experimenting needed. If your shoulders are parallel to the water surface when your recover arm enters, then the thumb down position may not be effective, and may cause shoulder problems. If your shoulders are rotated when your recover arm enters, then slightly thumb down may be more effective.

[@aboto0oti]

Thanks, 🌹

[@swimsmooth]

You're welcome 😊

[@swimsanch8824]

Will be sharing thanks Paul 09.30gmt

[@swimsmooth]

Thanks Sanchia 🫶

[@mikewoodd4432]

Paul I think you have about 3 mins of the wrong video in there, the subtitles look right but the wrong audio and vision - about 24:55 to 27:45.

[@swimsmooth]

Darn it! You're right Mike - I've had a few gremlins this weekend and thought I'd nailed them all! Not sure there's much I can do now sadly! Hope it didn't spoil your enjoyment!

[@mikewoodd4432]

@@swimsmooth nope, watching Becky's stroke is amazing. I can only dream of getting there with my own

[@swimsmooth]

@@mikewoodd4432 missing 3 mins will be here shortly: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJLJd52lns2sq6M

[@TheTrailRabbit]

What is the song in the intro/outro?

[@swimsmooth]

Royal Blood by Harris Heller: www.senpai.tv/articles/release/electronic/

[@behappymike]

Good video, difficult for me to watch though due to the constant zoom in/zoom out style 🙁

[@swimsmooth]

Thanks for the feedback 👍

[@coachjoachimroomaney793]

After reading that swim smooth book, many moons back, it seem a bit outdated to myself right now. That been said, it put me on a pathway to total domination in freestyle coaching in regards to understanding the Bio Mechanics of the body. Even these KZbin videos are a joke. People, do yourself a favor and just buy the swim smooth book and read the whole book. Its value is much more worth the price. I read over 30 books from all over the world since I worked with an Olympic coach and the book takes the cake for easy to follow, informative and not missing anything for a first time study, easy to follow study guide. You can't get anymore advanced than this book, unless you me. I had a swimmer coming to me looking for help to pass a lifeguard exam. He achieved one of the best time in his American Red cross swim test. New to swimming competitive or not coming in top, loves these coaching tips for the WHOLE BOOK. He paid me 5 swim smooth books money for less than 4 hours. Simple like swim smooth style is easy to learn and has more than enough propulsion to compete Olympic. Best learnt as first fs stroke. Sorry Paul, the book is just not the same as the movie because you have to read the whole book in order to execute the swim smooth style. It is a good preview of the book thou. And nice try, but I think you should leave explaining swimming styles for top Olympic coaches. Stick to your content and stop knocking things above your level. Paul, send me a link now so that I can put it in this comment sell this book for you. You a terrible salesman.

[@RedShipsofSpainAgain]

There's some great material in this video, but it should be at least half as long. You steal a lot of viewer time with unnecessary fluff rather than just getting to the instruction. This 30 minutes video could be 15 minutes easily. I left less than half the way through because of how long winded your video is with superfluous, unnecessary chatter. "I launched the swim smooth in 2004..." blah blah: we don't actually care, nor is this information at all helpful in the viewers goal in watching your video, which is to learn better swim technique. Brevity. Edit down your video more aggressively.

[@davidallison9499]

Good 8 minutes of info. The other 22 minutes on trying to be funny and entertaining were a waste of my time.