EVF description?

What a wonderful video!! Congratulations for showing and describing (very well) what a catch looks like. Swimmers must understand that 12 stabilizing shoulder muscles (strength) and flexibility determine the effectiveness of your catch. The Early Vertical Forearm position will look different from swimmer to swimmer. On one end of the spectrum you have Rebecca Adlington (the best EVF I’ve ever seen) to Alain Bernard (the most leveraged EVF).*** The hand is your paddle and an EVF allows you to use it in the most effective position. Everyone from a world record holder to beginner can improve their EVF and that’s a training fact. I’m a developmental coach and my job is to help swimmers acquire the most technically propulsive habits they can. Without a question, the EVF is the most difficult and most critical propulsive position they need to attain. The past president of the world largest coaching association says the EVF is a skill that differentiates every level of swimmer. Coach Dan Thompson puts it like this, “The catch is what your natural freestylers do naturally that the other 99% of your kids do not. It is a difficult skill to impart. But we must find ways to teach it. Without the ability to engage water early in the stroke, your young swimmers cannot create effective pulling patterns.” Eleven coaches at the recent Senior Nationals at Irvine California were asked the question; what would you teach first when teaching the freestyle. Nine of the eleven said the catch (Early Vertical Forearm (EVF). Like every good swimming coach, no one dismisses the importance of streamlining, timing, kicking, and many other skills vital to swimming speed but if EVF acquisition isn’t at the top of your list it should be. Every one of my swimmers does EVF and shoulder strengthening exercises every single day and every swimmer uses EVF training equipment. It’s important to note that weak stabilizing shoulder muscles must be corrected to prevent potential shoulder injuries. Done correctly, even swimmers with one intact shoulder tendon can improve their EVF without injury. If you train smarter and not just harder, you’ll get faster, it’s not simple but it’s the truth. This video is awesome, and should be in every coach’s library. There are more great EVF videos and most are free. I suggest that everyone from the World Record Holder to the first year swimmer focus on this key propulsive swimming ingredient. Again ---- Nice Video. The most concise and short video to date!!! *** Taller swimmers can use their longer arms to keep their hands in “still” water by moving it deeper as their hand moves backward. Bernard has a later EVF and I believe that he could swim even faster if he his EVF was improved even a little bit. The movement of the hand away and toward the mid-line of the body in another way to move the hand into “still” water. Hey man, I feel your confusion, I had to relearn my freestyle just recently to save my poor beaten shoulders. This video, combined with some front-view vids of thorpe and hackett helped me a lot, although its a daily struggle to do it correctly. This vid is, of course an exaggeration (at least for me - my arms dont bend that way), but you get the picture. Good luck. Also, sorry about the lack of embedding, I dont know how to do that. Edit- apparently I do! YouTube - SwimTherapy - Frontcrawl Catch M

What a wonderful video!! Congratulations for showing and describing (very well) what a catch looks like. Swimmers must understand that 12 stabilizing shoulder muscles (strength) and flexibility determine the effectiveness of your catch. The Early Vertical Forearm position will look different from swimmer to swimmer. On one end of the spectrum you have Rebecca Adlington (the best EVF I’ve ever seen) to Alain Bernard (the most leveraged EVF).*** The hand is your paddle and an EVF allows you to use it in the most effective position. Everyone from a world record holder to beginner can improve their EVF and that’s a training fact. I’m a developmental coach and my job is to help swimmers acquire the most technically propulsive habits they can. Without a question, the EVF is the most difficult and most critical propulsive position they need to attain. The past president of the world largest coaching association says the EVF is a skill that differentiates every level of swimmer. Coach Dan Thompson puts it like this, “The catch is what your natural freestylers do naturally that the other 99% of your kids do not. It is a difficult skill to impart. But we must find ways to teach it. Without the ability to engage water early in the stroke, your young swimmers cannot create effective pulling patterns.” Eleven coaches at the recent Senior Nationals at Irvine California were asked the question; what would you teach first when teaching the freestyle. Nine of the eleven said the catch (Early Vertical Forearm (EVF). Like every good swimming coach, no one dismisses the importance of streamlining, timing, kicking, and many other skills vital to swimming speed but if EVF acquisition isn’t at the top of your list it should be. Every one of my swimmers does EVF and shoulder strengthening exercises every single day and every swimmer uses EVF training equipment. It’s important to note that weak stabilizing shoulder muscles must be corrected to prevent potential shoulder injuries. Done correctly, even swimmers with one intact shoulder tendon can improve their EVF without injury. If you train smarter and not just harder, you’ll get faster, it’s not simple but it’s the truth. This video is awesome, and should be in every coach’s library. There are more great EVF videos and most are free. I suggest that everyone from the World Record Holder to the first year swimmer focus on this key propulsive swimming ingredient. Again ---- Nice Video. The most concise and short video to date!!! *** Taller swimmers can use their longer arms to keep their hands in “still” water by moving it deeper as their hand moves backward. Bernard has a later EVF and I believe that he could swim even faster if he his EVF was improved even a little bit. The movement of the hand away and toward the mid-line of the body in another way to move the hand into “still” water. Hey man, I feel your confusion, I had to relearn my freestyle just recently to save my poor beaten shoulders. This video, combined with some front-view vids of thorpe and hackett helped me a lot, although its a daily struggle to do it correctly. This vid is, of course an exaggeration (at least for me - my arms dont bend that way), but you get the picture. Good luck. Also, sorry about the lack of embedding, I dont know how to do that. Edit- apparently I do! YouTube - SwimTherapy - Frontcrawl Catch M