Catching Silky Magic | Total ImmersionTotal Immersion

I can’t wait to get into the pool today. Two days ago I had what felt like a breakthrough swim. Those days are so exciting and I hardly wanted to get out of the pool.

I’ve made huge improvements in my swimming the past 2 years since being involved as a TI coach. But as always, I want to be better, and faster. While speed isn’t necessarily my primary goal, it’s hard not to sometimes look around at other swimmers in the pool, know that many aspects of my technique are "better" than theirs and yet still they seem so comfortable swimming 10 sec/100 faster than me. Rather than engage in "secret racing" I choose to focus more intently on my own swim and what I can do to improve it.

The breakthrough came at the end of a set of the following:

4 Rounds of:

3×100 Free + 1 x 100 IM on a 2 minute base, rest 2 minutes between rounds.

The intent of the set was to hold a consistent SPL for the Free while maintaining or improving my speed. The IM was focused on mainly the short axis strokes doing some focal points I’ve recently been working on. I managed to hold 17/18 SPL for all of the free (1 or 2 lengths of 19), and descended my time from 1:40 to 1:34 while doing so.

But the lady next to me was still swimming 1:25s for 300yd repeats!

At the end of the set I focused on my catch. I’ve been workign on this for awhile with Coach Dave, trying to eliminate a "too early" elbow drop. Even though I’m following his, and my own advice, I just continued to feel awkward.

I tried another focal point I was reminded of by Terry this past week…"Move your elbow forward". In the catch position, the notion of moving the elbow forward helps bring the forearm into a better catch position keeping the elbow from dropping too soon. From a standing position, you can see how this small thought & movement helps bring the elbow into better orientation for a good catch.

I tried 2 lengths of it and it still felt awkward, my stroke count was 22 and I was frustrated.

I motioned again at the side of the pool and relized that there was only so much "forward" I could gain while practicing the movement standing still at the end of the lane. I reasoned that when i swim, my body is already moving forward…why not try to simply KEEP the elbow moving foward as my arm fell into place?

The next thing that happened was magic! I swam as I normally do, but this time I thoought about moving the elbow forward not with an awkward twist in my shoulder joint, but simply keepign the elbow moving as my body slid over the rest of the arm. There was a point where the arm then naturally moved backwards as if I was lifting myself out of the pool deck on a press out.

I had mentally visualized this, and even demonstrated the movement on dry land hundreds of times…but it suddenly came together in the pool just by delaying the stroke a fraction of a second.

I used the momentum I already had to move the elbow forward in a relative manner to the rest of my arm. I swam the next 2 25s in 20 seconds and the next 50 in 40 seconds and hardly felt winded. In the recent past, these would have been all out sprints for me.

The key was in waiting, and during that waiting time, the palm is applying that oh-so-gentle pressure that I’ve heard about, as the body rotates and continues to move forward…but what follows feels like silky magic, rather than the big arm of water I’d had before.

I definately will need to experiemnt more with this and I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

What does your catch feel like?

http://www.swimwellblog.com terry

Suzanne – Catching silky magic is the perfect title for this piece. The feeling you describe – of the arm just falling into place – is elusive for me as well and just as magical when it happens. I feel I get a moment’s glimpse of what it might feel like to have the ‘water feel’ of an elite swimmer. I think the way to make it more consistent is by letting it become consistent at a slower tempo, then an infinitesimally faster one . . . etc.
andyinnorway

Your description is exactly what I have been feeling in the water the last few weeks. I nearly got there on a forum post last week when I suggested standing on tip toes as you practice vertical forearm on land to emulate the momentum you have in the water.

the way you describe the elbow continuing its movement over the rest of the arm is much easier to understand and encourages a flowing movement rather than a halt to the stroke. nice job,.
CoachBillL

Suzanne, I find it’s often very difficult to translate one’s perceptions of physical actions into communicable language, and in fact, I have little or no idea from the above of what you are describing. “Silky magic” is no help at all. Perhaps a drawing or video might help?

Bill
CoachSuzanne

Hi Bill. Yes, it’s exceedingly difficult. But what I wrote here is what was in my brain at the time…and it’s something that I’ve been striving to do for 2 years with increasing effort…not just at executing a proper catch, but at trying to understand it as well. I agree that a visual/video would help…but if these were an easy thing to describe in words, I doubt there would be SO MUCH written, and misunderstood about it. I mean, 2+2=4. How much ambiguity is there about that one? but Googling “2+2=4″ reveals only 1/10th as many returns as “freestyle pull”. I know that’s hardly defining. Interesting nonetheless. Also intersting is that the #1 webpage returned when googling 2+2=4 is a page titled, 2+2=5. Just goes to show you that nothing is writ in stone.
CoachBillL

Hi Suzanne — I’m following the catch lesson in your subsequent posts with great interest. My observation is that a hurried, ineffective catch is one of the most common “opportunities for improvement” in freestyle, so I’m looking forward to your next lesson. One self-observation: in working on this myself over the last few months (slightly C-shaped arm, draping the arm over a large exercise ball, etc.) I’ve slowly developed persistent medial epicondyle pain; while swimming, I can turn it off by being extremely attentive to exerting very light pressure during the catch, and by trying to make the arm really slightly C-shaped. Any real bend in the elbow — hurts! This may, or may not, be a 60+ problem…
coachtraci_

Hi all,
In response to Suzanne’s’what does your catch feel like?’, I like both the imagery and the dryland practice of…extending an arm and reaching up to the back of a high shelf. That gets my elbow and forearm into a great catch position. Then, to feel the catch in this dryland exercise (and subsequent whole stroke), I press my palm onto the shelf and press it down. I can feel my chest and forearm working in tandem to effect a solid catch.