The pull 'catch phase' is very important in generating power and propulsion.

Many swimmers, especially if they are self taught, will adopt a pull that follows the classic S-shape pull where you pull outwards then in then under the body; or will pull with a straight arm which in fact pushes downwards rather than behind them.

These methods are inefficient as they push the water in the wrong direction, which results in immediate loss of power and potential forward propulsion.

Take a look at the video below:

As you can see the swimmer is 'pulling' downwards, towards the seabed in other words, rather than positioning the hands at the side of the body and pushing the water back behind them to attain forward propulsion.

In addition, you can clearly see a bubble trail at the fingertips, which is a sure sign the hands have not entered the water correctly and have trapped air at the finger tips, which results in reduction of power - they're effectively pulling through air.

Tips on Arm Positioning for the Catch Phase:

Imagine yourself in a pool at the deep end. You want to get out. You can't use the steps so you have to get out using the poolside....

Is it easier to put your hands together on the poolside, arms straight out in front of you, then lift yourself out? Try it!

Or is it easier to put your hands on the poolside, positioned either side of your body with bent elbows, then pull yourself out?  This generates much more power through simple leverage mechanics.

It's the same for the 'catch' phase of the front crawl pull cycle...

• The hand should enter the water cleanly on the axis line.
  
• The glide can be maintained for longer swims to reduce the stroke rate, increase streamlining in the water and conserve energy.
• During the glide phase the hand should remain flat, arm extended, elbow locked, but the elbow should point upwards, not out to the side. This is a weird position to start with if you are not used to it, but gets easier with practise.
  
• Timing is important: as soon as the breath or other arm phase has finished start the catch phase of the next arm pull. Don't try to start the pull before then as you will lose balance and throw off the body rotation.
  
• On the pull bend the elbow immediately and keep the wrist straight and fingers relaxed, using the whole hand and the forearm as the paddle.
• Keep the palm of the hand facing backwards at all times: this is the direction you want to be pushing the water, not down, not to the side, or under your body where you lose power through lack of leverage of the arms.
• Extend the pull all the way back, don't bring the arm out too early.

I'm a firm believer in the importance of 'conditioning' for any sort of endurance sport, which means conditioning the body and mind to be able to endure tough conditions for longer periods of time through extended exposure to stressful environmental conditions.

These conditions occur naturally and especially frequently here in the UK... You know... Howling wind, sheets of rain, cold, large waves, currents, froth, rips, sand blasting and so on. Even in the height of a British summer!

With regards to sea swimming, either for personal pleasure, or for events like IronMan triathlon, or endurance swimming, replicating these 'stressful conditions' would include:

• Training in as wide a variety of weather and sea conditions as possible
• Training on a year round basis.
• Cold weather training and use of cold weather kit and exposure of the body to the cold.
• Increased distance and endurance training.

The effect of stressful conditions on breathing and heart rate cannot be underestimated and you cannot replicate the rigours of sea swimming in the pool.

This is important because you cannot predict the weather or the sea conditions and when put into unfamiliar and stressful situations the first thing your body does is increase the breathing rate and burn oxygen, which will naturally add to the stresses of racing a 2.5 mile open water race or embarking on a 5-10km endurance swim.

The same can be said for breathing techniques when sea swimming. I am often asked 'how frequently should I breathe?' or 'should I breathe both sides?', but this depends on multiple factors and if it's choppy and if you're not conditioned to stressful environmental conditions, then restricting your breathing by breathing every 4 strokes or bilaterally will just compound the rate at which you fatigue.

Swimming in more extreme conditions also requires you to adapt your stroke: Larger waves may call for a more extended arm stroke. Exposure to strong tides or big swells help you to learn how to swim in currents or how to use the waves to save energy. What do you do if your goggle fill up in choppy seas, or you take a wave in the mouth? Or if you see loads of jellyfish?

The more you are exposed to these scenarios the less likely you'll be phased by it if it happens in an event.

While 'conditioning' could be considered an indirect method of achieving better results compared to direct fitness training, or hours of drills and technique practice in a pool, it is definitely something to be considered at all levels of competition and endurance swimming, to help give you that 'edge' and be less dependent on perfect conditions and more focused on the actual swim, employing the rough sea swimming techniques learned during the conditioning practice if you're unlucky with the weather.

At last night's club session we had two very different levels of swimmer.

One was a seasoned IronMan athlete, who has competed in four IronMan Wales events and is doing his fifth one this year.

Andy's wife Nid was the other swimmer, having decided she wants to give sea swimming a go. Nid is a complete novice who has only previously ever been in the sea in Thailand!

After a swim across the bay we pinpointed a few areas of Mark's stroke to help increase speed by reducing water resistance, specifically in the arm entry, where we noticed he was over reaching and thus adding drag; and also in the breathing phase by reducing head movement.

We started Nid off by reviewing the kit and explaining how it works and how to wear it correctly. You would be surprised at the number of people who get poorly fitting wetsuits or put them on incorrectly resulting in fatigue and water resistance. Knowing your kit is all part of 'open water swimming'.

Then we moved onto basic aquatic skills such as streamlining the body position from fingertips to toes, practising the all-important glide.

Considering the average temperature of the seas around her native country of Thailand never drop below 27 degrees she did very well! 

Body positioning is so critical to core aquatic skills and is often overlooked in favour of 'fitness' training, which, if the aquatic skills are lacking, will not be efficient in improving your stroke or swim time in an event.

Open Water Swim Coaching

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Get back to basics. 

The chances are your aquatic skills need some work, or your stroke needs to be stripped back and rebuilt.

We offer open water coaching for all levels of swimmer, from complete novices to triathletes and IronMan competitors.

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In this blog we examine the importance of balance in the water and demonstrate how the head is often responsible for a chain reaction of issues with the stroke.

Here you can see initially that the swimmer's arm is too straight on the overarm cycle.

Generally, especially in pool swimming, the arm should bend at the elbow, the classic 90 degree angle is a good aiming point, a bent elbow is far more efficient in terms of stroke efficiency, staying relaxed and balance of the body in the water.

However, this alone is not the biggest problem and certainly in open water swimming latest techniques promote a straighter arm to help with getting through waves.

When the swimmer exits the right arm however, and breathes to the right, the head is over extending on the breath.

If you look closely you can see the swimmer's eyeline is looking to the roof. The head is also tilting upwards, see the small wave in front of the swimmer's head?

This results in a loss of balance, which in turn causes the legs to over compensate, splitting them apart and causing them to kick incorrectly, dragging in the water rather than propelling the swimmer.

In addition the left arm drops too far down and goes under the body instead of out to the side and the arm is too straight, resulting in further loss of balance and loss of power on the pull.

Whilst there are other factors to consider such as shoulder strength and flexibility, much of the chain reaction in many areas of the stroke are caused by loss of balance, which is caused by incorrect head positioning and thus body rotation during breathing.

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Although there are many factors to consider before getting to the pull phase in freestyle, the correct arm angle in the pull phase is critical to maximise power and stroke efficiency and thus propulsion through the water.

Here we analyse stroke techniques of two swimmers.

The swimmer above has a reach that is quite far from his body on the pull phase, which adds to resistance and can also throw him off balance.

It is important to use the elbow in the pull. Bend the arm as soon as you start the catch phase. Try to attain an elbow angle of 110-120 degrees.

Although not 'wrong' and still widely seen as a 'classic' stroke technique, it is advisable to avoid the old 'S' -shaped pull method, pulling under the body, which loses power; but instead continue the pull past the body towards the rear, with the thumb brushing past the hip to begin the arm recovery phase.

Here we see another swimmer, note the elbow angle.

Also see how the swimmer above has already started the next (right) arm entry into the water, together with long glide, which is preparing for the catch phase resulting in faster propulsion through the water.

This brings us onto a whole new topic... timing! Watch this space.

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The fastest stroke and the most popular for long distance and sprint events such as triathlon, front crawl, also known as freestyle, is probably the most important stroke you will need to master both as a recreational and competitive open water swimmer.

Mastering front crawl however takes time and a lot of practise as it involves coordinating the whole body in a complex series of moves; not to mention building the relevant muscle sets to build the power to repeat the stroke cycles efficiently over prolonged periods.

A Controlled Sequence of Movements

Basic survival instinct will often make us resist the water and thrash about in ways that will serve to reduce streamlining and tire you very quickly.

Freestyle involves a high degree of coordination of many parts of the body and therefore we must control any uncoordinated movements to reduce drag caused by eratic movements and poor body positioning in the water.

Core Aquatic Skills

Often referred to as 'core aquatic skills' in coaching circles, in order to attain efficient freestyle you need to make your entire body, from the tips of your fingers to your toes as sleek and streamlined as possible.

When swimming front crawl, this needs to be done first on one side of your body and then on the other as you perform the opposite arm cycle. This can only be done with a high degree of coordination, core strength and awareness of the body and how it moves through the water.

Start by going back to basics.

Practice pushing and gliding from the pool wall making your body as streamlined as possible. Notice how small changes in arm and hand positioning and especially the position of the head affect how far you can go.

Learn how to take a breath. Not too much, not too little. Understand how deeper glides will get you further than shallow dives. Practise in the sea or other open water. You will be naturally more buoyant in the sea than freshwater. A wetsuit adds to this. Duck diving is not only fun but can help you to learn streamlining and how to make use of the sea floor to propel yourself.

All of this will help you to improve your core aquatic skills.

Duck diving and exploring underwater while open water swimming is not only fun it will help you to improve your core aquatic skills as well as lung capacity. Notice the dolphin kick and how the swimmer releases air to counter the buoyancy of the wet suit.

Align head and spine

Poor control of the head position is the cause of many stroke issues. Make sure you keep your head in alignment with your spine in a straight axis.

This axis is key in other areas of the stroke such as the rotation of the hips and kick.

The imaginary line, the body axis

Imagine a line down the centre of your body extending out through the top of the head, perfectly central, each half of your body on either side of the line. This line plays a key role in many parts of the stroke.

The overarm cycle

On the over arm cycle keep the elbows at 90 degrees (we will cover other open water swimming techniques later) and spear the water about 30cm in front of your nose as close to the axis line as possible, but not crossing over it. Keep your arms symmetrical.

Pull cycle

Old school teaching told us to do an 'S' shaped pull but this is largely not taught any more. A straight pull is fine but bend the elbows immediately you start the catch phase as this will increase leverage and result in more power transference to the water.

Hands and fingers

Two schools of thought relate to a flat or slightly angled entry, in truth do whatever is comfortable to you. Spear the water neatly though, keeping the streamlined axis and avoiding arms straying from the axis line. Keep the hands straight at the wrists. Loosen the fingers. Do not keep the fingers together as this will increase tension and fatigue and in fact it has been scientifically proven that more force can be generated with fingers slightly splayed apart (up to 2mm) than together.

Keep the core tight and controlled

Use the core muscles to prevent uncontrolled movements of the body and increase streamlining and minimise lateral movements.

Legs and feet

Integrate The Stroke

The efficiency of front crawl and indeed any swim stroke, is to now pull all of this into a clean, efficient and fast sequence of movements.

Keep your head aligned with your spine at all times. Remember the body axis.

Keep movements fluid and relaxed. When you get tired, slow it down and think back to the basics of the stroke.

Do not force bilateral breathing if you are tired or not comfy with it. Get the core elements right first, then practise bilateral breathing.

Relax.

Swimming, although it uses much strength and control, is actually about being relaxed. A swimmer who is not relaxed, is not going to move efficiently in the water. By relaxing when you feel your stroke going to pot, you will in fact make up more time as you improve streamlining and focus more on the stroke elements.

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One of the most common problems people face in swimming, especially those who are new to the sport, is poor leg positioning in the water.

Lowering of the feet and legs causes additional drag, which in turn affects the energy used to move through the water.

This problem can often be attributed to one or more of the following reasons:

1) Lifting the head to breathe

Lifting the head is probably the most common reason for the feet dropping. Swimmers may do this for a number of reasons - sighting, anxiety, weak breathing skills, lack of flexibility in the shoulders and neck, to name a few. Identify why your head is too high and you can tackle the cause and get that head lowered and this will raise the legs.

2) Pressing down with hands and fingers

This is caused by poor technique on the pull cycle including using and maintaining the correct hand and finger position as well as pressing downwards on the start of the pull, as opposed to backwards.

Fingers need to point slightly downwards from the knuckles and should be relaxed. Many people ask whether the fingers should be tight together or spread apart. Top level swimmers will have the fingers slighty apart, which will in fact increase the power of the pull through the water, but this is a fine motor skill honed over years of practise, so if in doubt, keep the fingers lightly together, but relaxed.

Here we see the swimmers hand and finger poistion is incorrectly setup for the pull cycle. The result will be that the energy is lost on the pull and the legs will drop.

In this video we can see how having flat palms results in a downwards pull, which then results in loss of power and dropped legs.

3) Balance problems

When one thinks of swimming, 'balance' may not spring to mind as an important factor in perfecting one's stroke. However good balance plays a key role in all of the strokes and in fact imperfections in other areas can often be attributed to poor balance, for example a bad kick in one leg or arms spread too wide, these can be attributed to the body's over compensation for lack of balance. The result is that the legs tend to over compensate too and drop down a a result.

4) Poor posture, flexibility and 'connection'

Lack of flexibility in the shoulders, for example, or the back, will result in poor body posture, which will affect the 'axis' of the body in the water. In addition, there may be poor 'connection' / coordination between what the head is doing and the arms and rest of the body. These will all have adverse affects on the position of the legs in the water.

5) Looking forward too much

The head needs to be kept low as mentioned above. The natural reaction is to look forward to see where you are swimming. This will raise the head though and this urge should be resisted. The head should be lowered and the eyes should focus on an imaginary point at a 45 degree angle. We often liken this to imagining you are in a pool, focus on the point at the end of the pool where the wall joins the pool floor.

6) Kicking from the knees

Kicking should be from the hip and utilise the powerful thigh and glute muscles. The knees should be relaxed and allow bending to achieve a relaxed, whip action on each kick. Heels should just break the surface of the water. Ankles need to be supple and the feet should have the ballerina type positioning. Ankle flexibility can often be a problem for athletes from other disciplines like running and needs to be worked at over time.

Many swimmers kick from the knees, which has the effect of adding 'dead weight' in the form of the top half of the legs and this adds to the drag in the water. In turn, the result will be that the lower legs drop.

Here we can see a swimmer is not using their legs, but is subconsciously over compensating for a lack of balance and kicking from the knee, by doing a mini breastroke type kick on the freestyle stroke. This lack of balance is likely caused by shoulder flexibility and hand positioning on the pull cycle and is a good example of how a problem in one area is causing issues in others.

It may be you need to address a number of different issues in order to fix the leg positioning. The key to fixing this particular problem for example, might be repeated kick drills to build up strength in the legs and 'muscle memory' so that the correct kicking technique slowly becomes second nature; along with improvements in balance, flexibility and arm technique.

Hopefully this blog demonstrates a few reasons why your legs may be dragging in the water, but also how all parts of the stroke and the body are connected.

Poor leg positioning may in fact be the end result of a string of events that need to be fixed.

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The head is probably the most important element of your swim stroke - basically the body will follow whatever the head does: over turn the head during the breathing, you will over rotate the body; keep the head up too high, you will lower the legs.

Tim is a newcomer to the sea swimming scene and - hats off - has done the LCW weekend half distance swim and embarked on his training for the full distance swim next year!

On this assessment session we saw how his legs are clearly causing excessive drag in the water, which is mostly caused by his head position in the stroke.

Tim was sighting quite frequently, not necessarily a bad thing in open water, but sighting is a whole technique in its own right, and this frequent sighting had the effect of keeping the head raised too high, which in turn lowered his legs.

Upper body / back flexibility and strength training is required to counter act the effect of raising the head, something that water polo players train for years to achieve.

The effect in most cases will be that the legs are spread as well to sub consciously stop them from sinking.

The effect of the lowered leg angle and spread leags and knees is a drastic increase in resistance moving through the water on areas like the thighs, knees, calves and heels.

It's important to keep your legs together, straighten the legs but keep the knees flexible on the kick, kick from the hip and keep the legs raised so the heels just break the surface of the water.

Here we see Tim practising his arm stroke, which needs more of an extension on the arm entry, glide & catch phase and the right arm needs work to extend to enter the water going forwards and not in front of the head, which it tended to do when Tim got tired. This causes immediate resistance in the water, slowing the swimmer down and wasting energy.

Keeping the stroke technique together, even when tired or exhausted, is critical. It often helps to slow things down, bring yourself back to the stroke, focus and regain the technique at the expense of what may be seen as some speed.  The reality is you will make that speed back by maintaining a better stroke.  Each phase of the arm stroke, especially the entry-catch-glide elements will help to decrease your resistance in the water and conserve energy.