13/10/2022
Long post but hopefully useful to
Improve your front crawl arms!
There is a science to perfecting your swimming strokes.
With the right positioning and pull you can produce enough kinetic energy to swim effortlessly and efficiently.
When the kinetic energy is not produced correctly, you end up feeling like it’s a hard slog never actually feeling comfortable within your stroke.
Muscle memory can be your friend and your enemy, so I teach my swimmers to remember how it feels. To visualise the feeling and intensity used within that stroke (a form of hypnotherapy). Getting someone to record your stroke is also extremely powerful and something I rely on when coaching, especially club swimmers.
So here is a coaching tip:
work on your arms separately to your legs. Your head shouldn’t strain to breathe in the forward facing kinetic strokes.
Get a pool buoy or a float (a woggle will do) place between your knees and 3/4 of the way up your thighs (if a woggle, between your thighs), let your legs trail behind whilst still allowing the hips to slightly move (I see so many swimmers roll their hips which then creates a scissor kick and the arm pulls back too low and side on).
Make sure your arm pulls back, with your hands tightly squeezed like a paddle, bring the arm back around until the arm is upright close to your ear, angle your arm to an almost 90 degree angle. As the arm comes past the ear ready to enter the water, it should be fully extended with your hand diving in like a dolphin (it’s a visual concept), you then pull back again and repeat.
Before trying the above; stand in the water and just practice this stroke enabling you to feel the natural propulsion in your body, your body cannot help but want to go forward.
Breathing and timing of your arms can be tricky, your head will angle as you pull your arm back, DO NOT lift the head (ever had a bad neck after swimming!). The angle of the head should be as if on a pillow, ear still submerged allowing the nose and mouth enough of an exit to breathe. Your timing is your timing, I would suggest left arm, right arm, left arm pulls back and breathe. (Vice versa) When I was competing (many, many moons ago!) I used to breathe on my 6th stroke.
Bio mechanics + kinetic energy = speed and efficiency
I’ll give you tips on the kick in my next post. I would work on just your arms for a training session, if you feel comfortable without a kick then you know this is working efficiently for you as the drag of the legs makes it increasingly harder. Once you feel comfortable creating enough of the kinetic energy you need (little or no splashing please!), visualise the feeling of the mechanics - the arm pulling, leaving and entering again. The arm MUST come close the ear.
Hope this is helpful!
Amanda
