This is a condensed version of last week’s fabulous Swim Smooth blog, Still Doing Catch-Up? You Need To Read This.
At Swim Smooth we discourage performing the wildly popular catch-up drill because it promotes overgliding in the stroke.
Main drawbacks of Catch-Up drill:
- encourages improper swim timing by overly lengthening the stroke while adding a dead spot in the front end of the stroke
- reduces the amount of body rotation which can lead to shoulder injury from swimming flat
- promotes crossing over your centerline
Instead of performing the catch-up drill utilize the 6/1/6 drill.
Benefits of performing the 6/1/6 drill:
- works on alignment, posture, and rotation
- promotes proper catch set up
- rotation enhances proper catch technique engaging the chest and back muscles instead of taxing the shoulder
6/1/6 Drill is simply kick on your side drill with rotation. With fins on, perform 6 kicks on your side/1 arm stroke (then breathe)/ 6 kicks on the other side. You can also perform it as 6 seconds of kick. Watch the kick on side drill video.
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Drill Smarter, Swim Faster!