How to Improve Freestyle Swimming Efficiency?

Question

While swimming freestyle, I have an impression that I am not progressing as well as I am supposed to. How can I enhance my catch and pull to increase my random swimming speed with my strokes?

Answer 1

If you would like to improve your freestyle swimming efficiency, practice grasping the feeling of ‘holding your arm in the water’ as it relates to your body’s rotation. Don’t just pull your arm back but establish your catch, keep your shoulder right over the catch and rotate to the other side while your body rotates over the anchored arm. This technique increases your range with each stroke as well as your efficiency in the water.

Comments

This is fabulous thank you. I’ve been following your content this year. Was a competitive swimmer as a kid and now I’m 75, still love to swim. Had difficult back surgery 6 years ago for paralysis, doing very well now and back in the pool with focus on technique as always. I’ve used your coaching (I’m in California) & my stroke count is down from 21 to 18, with fins 16 for 25 yards. I’m still around for 100 but I’m not trying to go faster. As I get stronger again and more precise, I know I can get it down. Just for fun. Thank you SO SO MUCH for these fabulous contents. You have no idea how much they mean to me and to many of us. ❤

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I see quite a few regular lap swimmers moving slowly. They swim. They can breathe. Some even swim hard. But they move slowly. You hit the problems right on. They tend to drop the arm. They don’t rotate even when the pull reaches to the hip (quite a few don’t even complete the pull). I had the same problems. Now I have them minimized. I am working on being consistent and commit to do right subconsciously.

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Thanks, Brenton. This is timely advice for me. I was having this problem of slipping through the water and really felt frustrated despite having a decent catch. While I agree with everything, I may add another thing to the mix: lats engagement. As someone who never learned to swim as a kid, this awareness made a difference. After the catch, I think of it as if squeezing an orange stuck between my triceps and lats (not armpit). It did make a difference. I'm keen to hear your thoughts. Thank you!

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Brenton, I appreciate the content but I think it is unclear what actually changes when someone tries to "move past their arm". Is it that they maintain a higher extent of muscular tension in their shoulder? Do they avoid pulling too hard from the lat too early in the stroke? Can you elaborate please?

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I can feel my body accelerating when I perform a good pull. Not sure if that's really positive, maybe I'm relying too much on my shoulders' strength.