Developing your catch or feel for the water is important for improving your speed and economy. Without this technique, your hands can slice through the water to little effect. Improving this portion of your stroke is about engaging the water to press it back past your body and, in turn, accelerate forward. If you get this right, the faster you can push your hands back, the faster you’ll go.
Focus on pushing your elbow out to the side slightly. Then you can push your hand and forearm down to get that high elbow and early vertical forearm. Think ‘reaching over a barrel’. From here you can press your arm back under the body, feeling resistance against your forearm and pushing from your
lats in your back.
To practise this hold on the water, use paddles. But only use the finger straps as this forces you to maintain form and hold onto the water throughout your stroke. If your hand twists underwater, or you grab at the water, the paddle is likely to come off.
What's the difference between finger paddles and hand paddles?
How to improve your 'catch and pull' phase in front crawl
The session
Warm-up
4 x 50m front crawl easy; 10secs rest (RI)
4 x 50m choice kick, no float, focus on good body position; 10secs RI
4 x 50m descend 1-4 with the fastest (number 4) at or quicker than race pace; 15secs RI
Main Set
8 x 50m front crawl; 15secs RI
First 4 without paddles, second 4 with; try to hold a faster speed with the paddles, without rushing
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50m easy backstroke
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4 x 100m front crawl; 15secs RI
First 2 without paddles, second 2 with; try to hold a faster speed with the paddles
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50m easy backstroke
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2 x 200m front crawl; 20secs RI
First 1 without paddles, second 1 with; try to hold a faster speed with the paddles
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50m easy backstroke
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6 x 100m; 20secs RI
Alternate 100m IM (fly/back/breast/free) and 100m front crawl
Cool-down
200m mixed strokes, with at least 50m non-front crawl
Adapt for beginners
Do shorter and fewer reps throughout the session. E.g. 4 x 50m/2 x 75m/6 x 50m. Take longer recoveries if required. With the medley swimming at the end, substitute butterfly for front crawl.
Adapt for advanced
Lengthen the overall reps, do more reps at each distance, or swim the session harder (but maintaining at least some technical focus).