RE: help me to built a consistent freestyle learning strategy

Former Member — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:11:30 GMT

The French sprinting stud has an EVF like every swimmer, his however is deeper due to his large and long frame. Rebecca Adlington has the best EVF I've ever seen while Bernard has a much longer / straighter EVF. If you're on a surfboard you can imagine the different front and side views. Everyone should try to improve their EVF but individual anatomical strengths, weaknesses and differences create limitations. A catch or Early Vertical Forearm is a motion common to every swimmer in the universe. Unless you swim with a completely straight arm in the first and second quadrant of a stroke, you are swimming with an EVF. The only question you should have is; how early do I get my arm vertical? Think of the catch from the standpoint of a bell curve, where on one end the swimmer swims with a perfectly straight arm and on the other end the swimmer rotates the hand under the elbow while the arm (above the elbow) is straight and touching the head. You can imagine it’s impossible to find a swimmer who is strictly on either end. It's important to repeat that everyone should try to improve their EVF but individual anatomical strengths, weaknesses and differences create limitations. Good luck, Coach T.