Hi everyone, it's been a while since I've been here. I've gotten better with my initial freestyle catch, but I'm really struggling to understand the pull and holding onto the water after the catch. Often my hand will slip outside as I rotate rather than holding onto that single spot of water and going straight back. One of the things I have noticed with good swimmers is the subtle changes of hand pitch as they go from catch to pull to that last push back. The pitch, in my eyes, doesn't seem to be straight back at all times, as I show in these photos of Scott Tucker. I know that sculling can help with this, but is there a visual that someone can suggest to help me transition from that high elbow catch to the pull and then push back? One coach told me once to think of squeezing a balloon in my armpits but I didn't quite understand that. Sometimes I think of pivoting to to a push back immediately after the catch but I don't think that is quite right because there is then no pull. Thanks fort any help. 834483458346
I remember reading Maglischo (Swimming Fastest) mention something to the effect that every outward and inward arm stroke movement has a respective hip rotation, such that the arm as you mentioned, catches and pushes water back straight, and horizontal as possible. I try to think about, and apply all this while swimming and, unless I isolate the movements independently with drills, I have a difficult time making it click as there's too many variables to acknowledge and be aware of while swimming. Also, I recently found in a productive way that sometimes coordination or control can be limited to flexibility. Regarding this, there is a feature I found helpful in the current Swimmer about flexibility training and stroke biomechanics (p24).
Was looking at the examples of Scott Tucker above - his joint bending ability (right shoulder in the first and left in second) looks next to impossible. He also appears to rotate less, and to make it more extreme, I believe he uses a straight arm in the air. Nonetheless, his ability to have such range of motion in the early parts of arm stroke sets him up for an effective insweep power.
:)
