I’ve done this in two ways. The first drill is what I call fist paddles. I don’t know the official name, but probably something like closed fist crawl. Generally you just keep your hand closed in a fist. I covered this in February in an article about catching the water in your crawl stroke. I’ve forced myself to only swim like this, where before I was only doing a few drills with it. The results have been great.

First off, once you stop relying on your hand position and learn how to use your arms to anchor your stroke your average time on 50 meters should be the same with or without your hand. Mine was only about two seconds better, but it depended on the lap.

So where did I get my huge gain? By re-trying something I’d pretty much given up on almost a year ago: staying high in the water. Back in October I had a post about my work on trying to get my shoulders higher in the water. It’s interesting to look back at the technique review I’d done using images of Olympic swimmers, but after working on this for a couple weeks I didn’t have any improvement.

So what changed in my swim technique? I figured this out back in July, but didn’t keep it clearly enough in mind (meaning I didn’t use it enough before taking a two week break). When I got back in the pool I couldn’t remember what had made such an increase. I was really upset, but I just kept on doing my fist paddles. The interesting this is when your hands are in a fist you realize how much you focus on them. My theory is that because hands have so many nerves in them your brain focus on the response without realizing. Once I made a fist I suddenly became very aware of my arms, especially my forearms.

I started to feel that I wasn’t getting a great catch in the water and my push was slipping through the water, rather than pushing. As I tried different crawl techniques I tried arching my back more which brought my torso high in the water. This felt a lot better on my arms and I was thrilled to see that taking the same number of strokes and using about the same effort I did my 50 meters freestyle average decreased to 49 seconds. I tested it some more and found it to be consistent.

The impact trickled down to my other drills, which all increased. The most interesting part was when I opened my hand I didn’t swim significantly better. I am going to see how my 50 meter sprints go using this technique, the 25 meter sprints were the best I’d had all year.

The disconnect between feeling more comfortable in the water and improving my swim time is connected the way I practice. When I practice by sprinting almost as fast as I can on every lap I saw a constant decrease of my swim time. What I notice is that when I swim around 24 seconds per lap (in 25 meter pool) my technique is, what I feel, quite correct. However, when I sprint I revert back to the technique that I had six months ago.

The ideal situation is where you swim very slowly to work the kinks out of your stroke, but then sprint enough to apply those to your sprint stroke. Within a workout I’d advise swimming a few 100s quite slowly, a few 50s slowly, and 2×25s on a Dolphin kicks and Sharks. Then once you are really focused begin swimming 25s and 50s as fast as you can. No need to use the blocks, just push yourself to swim your max, then rest.

If you feel your technique is slipping then do a couple of Superman drills (usually called side kick drills). Then go back to your sprints. Finish up with some sprints off the blocks and see where you end up.

From the few number of times I have done this I have the feeling that it will have a very big impact on my speed. It really does give you a very good feel for the water and your ability to grip it.

Besides the initial sculling set I tried some dolphin kicks, but I couldn’t keep my balance and I kept swallowing water. Then I went to practice my roll-overs but I wasn’t very focused and my breathing was all wrong. I was very distracted as there were a lot of people in every lane.

I sprinted twice the first time in 26.86 and the second was over 28. Oh well.

(1.303 m/sec, about 19.18 on 25 meters)

I swam every day last week; pushing myself too hard on Sunday without warming up. Afterwards my should was sore so I didn’t swim yesterday. So today I was taking it really easy.

I was practicing the roll-over drill below. It is a very interesting drill. The goal is to exagerrate the rotating you do when crawling. It takes a lot of focus to keep yourself straight when rolling. Each stroke rotates your body from a horizontal to a vertical position. I breath on every stroke and if you keep your head in place your mouth will naturally come out of the water. It is also very difficult to remember to keep your elbow very high as you begins recovery. The video is much easier to understand than my explanation so check it out.

I also regularly practice my dolphin kicks and am definitely seeing improvement. At the very end of my swim I jumped off the blocks and hit 17.63. Good stuff.

Here is a bonus video just for fun. (1.418 m/sec)

Entering the water is pretty tricky as I see it. When you watch the video you see the different phases. First you have to really imagine the starting sound. Next your arms give you a little push, but mostly you launch yourself off of the block as if you were going to start sprinting from the starter position. Instead of bringing your legs together and jump out. Gravity will bring you down starting with your upper body, which will be followed by your legs. If you jump out too far you’ll smack your legs on the water. Jump too short you’ll end up going too deep.

I have the feeling that a big part of the start is in being able to curve your back as you enter the water. I need to investigate.

Once I get in the water I rarely have the feeling that my dauphin kick is going well. When I see videos like the one below of Ian Thorpe I think that I using the wrong part of my torso to generate the kick. It seems that his kick starts up in his upper torso and gains power through his hips and legs. Mine, on the other hand, feels like it starts in my hips and moves through my legs.

I need to remember that just like improving my swimming it takes regular practice and study to really improve.

The other thing that REALLY bugs me is when I requested an image from the company look what they sent me (last image)! This image is either using a funny angle or it has been Photoshopped.  I found this other picture and you can see it actually is quite large. With all the amazing technology out there why can’t someone make a very small finger watch? Well I think I’ll buy it anyway and if it turns out to be a skunk you’ll hear about it.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Sports/Running-track-field/Other/photos/a-108900639/p-44743259.htm

http://www.sportcount.com/

I had seen the video below a couple of days ago of Alexander Popov and I really like it. I think he totally looks like a shark. It’s funny too, because often you see girls or guys not wanting to get there hair wet and so keeping there head out of the water. But here he really looks like he is after something.

You can see it after about two seconds and then again at 22 seconds.

It is MUCH harder than I thought. When I am done with 25 meters of that I am completely winded. I don’t even have the courage to try it on 50 meters. Another drill that I was trying is also by Mr. Popov. I don’t know exactly when he does it, but you can see him doing a dauphin kick on his side. The trick here is breathing. I really enjoy the drill, but I have to take a stroke to breath where he just kind of sticks his mouth out of the water.

I am not sure what it is that really helped me go so much faster, but I am definitely going to keep working on those drills. My next target is a big on: Break 17 seconds on 25 meters or 1.471 meters per second.

Stay tuned.