The high elbow is achieved with a vertically positioned hand and forearm that establish the catch in swimming. The front crawl the swimming technique home facebook. Drag the fingertips along the surface of the water, alongside your body lead with a high elbow. Jan 29, 2018 coaches once taught that freestyle must be done with a high elbow on the recovery and a symmetrical stroke and that if you didnt breathe bilaterally, you were, at best, below average and, at worst, morally suspect. When you have a high elbow you have a strong anchor in the water to pull yourself through it. For more help improving your evf, check out our gary hall sr. In her book, sheila taormina gives a great understanding of the art of high. For the triathlete, a high elbow catch produces greater propulsion potential by. Taormina also has plenty of useful videos and tips on many of the drills on her website. From the swimming drills book pull, breathe, kick, glide. This is a great book, and the videos help a lot, too. Each waterproof workout card reveals the olympiclevel swimming drills, kick sets, and drylands that develop speed in the worlds fastest swimmers. You will improve your stroke and speed by mastering key elements such as hand entry, hand speed, highelbow catch, underwater pull, stroke finish, core drive, and propulsive kick.
Are there any good drills to develop a better technique. Elevated elbow as the arm moves to a 45 oclock position underwater, a good catch will have a slightly elevated elbow. The variations you can come up with are nearly endless, and. The drill gets its name from the shape our arm makes above the water. The 86 best swimming books, such as eddie reese, swim smooth. Essentially, while the elbow is still the highest point of your arm above the water, its only slightly higher maybe two or three inches. Discover the two drills we use to improve your high elbow freestyle.
When drilling or swimming freestyle, the ideal triangle between your shoulder, elbow, and wrist is a scalene obtuse yes, i broke out my seventhgrade math book for that one. Theres also one more thing which you might have missed, as youll soon see. Improve your swimming skills and sign up for a triathlon or compete in a swim event. This weeks training tip of the week focuses on a high elbow catch in freestyle. Two drills for high elbow freestyle effortless swimming. In order to swim faster freestyle a high elbow catch is everything. Buy the swimming drill book the drill book series by guzman, ruben j. High shoulder armpit if the shoulder is dropped its creates extra resistance and doesnt allow for a strong pull. Dec 22, 2017 most coaches just teach the high elbow in the recovery of the stroke with drills such as handfinger drag drills or thumbs up the side. Apr 27, 2018 this high elbow recovery is the most effective way to carry your arm back in front. Essentially, while the elbow is still the highest point of your arm above the water, its only slightly higher maybe two or three inches than your wrist and shoulder. The swim smooth drill set primary drills feel for the.
See for yourself why the swimming drill book is on the shelf of every serious swimmer and coach. Janet evans with her unorthodox straight arm freestyle. Feel great traction on the water with your hands and accelerate your hands throughout the pull using a high elbow catch position. Keep it moving up and lock your elbow to help reach your hand up as high as you can a.
Swimming with one arm at a time enables the swimmer to concentrate on the precise movement of each pull. Here are a couple drills to practice the high elbow pull. He has written three books on endurance training and is the patent holder for. The best freestyle swimming drills to improve your technique, speed and overall swim. Two more drills to use for evf training are the highelbow scull and the snappaddle drill. Jan 21, 20 correcting and perfecting a high elbow recovery can help reduce inefficient sway and help to set up your hand entry. Tips on teaching breaststroke coaching and teaching swimming. The body is horizontal in with the hips high, the head is steady and the chin tucked in the breath in is short and explosive the breath out underwater is a slow.
The term high elbow has been used over and over again by coaches, but. So try sculling three times and not moving your elbow. High elbow drills swimming and exercise in the water. Proper freestyle swimming technique can help save your shoulders from injury. At mission san jose aquatics, we do over 200 drills. May 15, 2014 discover the two drills we use to improve your high elbow freestyle.
Repeat this until sticks in their heads and they do it in the pool. Could not figure out how to rotate with high elbow. High elbow high elbow drill after pushoff and streamline swim free with a recovery that rubs the thumb up the side of the swimmer into the armpit. List of drills for swimming butterfly drills fl name description rd lb fl right down left back swim fly with right arm only 25 then 25 with left arm. Do not allow the swimmer to turn it into a free drill.
The highelbow pull of the freestyle stroke triathlete. Plus youll discover two of our favourite drills for improving your high elbow catch. Breathe to the side and work on raising the hips to the surface. Im use to swimming by rotating my body through the straight elbow pull. How to train the high elbow catch in swimming active. Here are a couple drills to practice the highelbow.
May 31, 2018 the best way that i like to think of it is its all about setting yourself up in a highelbow position. Swimmers are engaged in a perpetual battle with the forces of drag. How to start swimming with a highelbow catch velopress. Here are my favorite tips and freestyle drills for improving your high elbow catch. All that means is if we draw a line from your shoulder to your fingertips in that part of the stroke, the elbow should be in front of that straight line. To do that the body should be rolled approximately 45 degrees toward the recovery side through the first half of the recovery so that the arm can carried over the water with a high elbow. Learn from threetime olympian kara lynn joyce how to kara high elbow sculling drill on vimeo. Nov 02, 2018 when drilling or swimming freestyle, the ideal triangle between your shoulder, elbow, and wrist is a scalene obtuse yes, i broke out my seventhgrade math book for that one.
These are drills that appeared in the swim training plan in the april 20. In 1994, she was the head coach to a national agegroup camp. Sculling is the swissarmy knife of swimming drills. Having a high elbow recovery can also reduce cantilever stress on your shoulder joint.
Swim speed strokes is a great book because she provides great images to illustrate the technique along with the why. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Also, in 1994 she had her first book, drills and games a fun way to run a practice published by the american swimming coaches association. It is part of the swimming technique that is relatively easy to fix with good visual feedback and diligent drill work. The elbow should be the highest part of the arm from the times it leaves the water during the recovery until it enters the wtaer again in front of the shoulder. This book focuses arm pull high elbow position in particular, the most vital element of freestyle technique.
When doing so you totally eliminate the core rotation needed in freestyle and teach swimmers to swim flat. One of the most important parts of great freestyle is establishing a proper high elbow catch. It delivers every stroke, every skill, and everything you need for swimming success. The drills presented in this book are described in such a way that everybody can understand them, do them on their own and achieve better performance. Lets start at the point in your stroke i refer to as the glide. Instead we look to keep the shoulder reasonably high 1520cm below the surface. Pull water backwards from the beginning of your stroke, you must have a high elbow on the first part of the stroke. In this video youll notice the huge difference between an elevated elbow during the catch and a dropped elbow. Look at the recovery motion illustrated in the fingertip drag drill, and also notice how michael phelps uses a high elbow recovery and drops his hands forward while performing the catchup drill. Freestyle drills fr name description high elbow catch up.
Too much of this book is spent underscoring why the reader should be focusing on the high elbow and less time really illustrating the drills to perfect it. The right and wrong time to have high elbows on freestyle u. I would have liked the video, the book, or the tubing exercises to have shown how to get into the starting position from full extension to bent elbow. Underwater pull the high elbow badig endurance training. How to start swimming with a high elbow catch reader larry r. If you use the swim smooth guru, or one of our other coaching products e. Most swimmers tend to be either too straight with it or theyre dropping the elbow.
Each drill with a video, download the pdf, for beginners and advance. Small sculling paddles will also enhance this drill. Highelbow recovery focus breakwater sports training. Ill only send you triathlon swimming specific emails. The swimmer must get on hisher side to be able to bend the elbows enough. After 12 years of coaching and seeing 100s of drills, this is my favourite drill for improving your catch. Swim smooths drill cheat sheet drill%%%%%purpose key%points mantra. For the triathlete, a high elbow catch produces greater propulsion potential by increasing the amount of water the fingers, hand, forearm and upper inside arms can hold.