Swim with your fists – no tiger crane style!

Swimming fast is all about technique so drills should be incorporated into all workouts, even if just in your warm up or cool down. A good drill for those of us with imperfect catches is to swim with clenched fists. By decreasing the surface area of your hand you become much more aware of where you lose water during the catch. A common problem is to drop the elbow, especially on the arm opposite the breathing side, to prop yourself up. It may help you get a breath but it is a great way to lose forward momentum and slow yourself down. Clenched fists will force you to use your forearms to pull, and you have to keep your elbows high to do this. The trick is to still rotate your body and keep your length. You will likely feel slow and awkward and crappy doing this drill for the first few times and this can make you want to rush thru it. DON’T. Focus on your form and don’t cheat by opening your hand tiger-crane style! Try adding this steady set, with drill incorporated, next time you are in the pool: 800m steady with 25m 7/8 catch-up on the 2nd 25 of each 100m, fist swim on the 3rd 25m of each 100 and a gradual build on the 4th 25 m. Re-adjusting your muscle memory can be tricky but a strong catch is key to going fast.