What's the purpose of the catch up drill? (Page 2)

Crossing over isn't what's keeping you from going faster than 2:10/100m. I guarantee that your body posiition is off. Hips lower than your shoulders & head out of hte water to a degree. arms in front of you should not make you feel like you are sinking...it's likely you are using your arms to push down on the water to stay up

Stop fighting it and let the water support you.

FWIW I don't use catch up drill, I think it teaches too many negatives that interfere with one of the coolest parts of freestyle...free speed from gravity with the use of weight shifts from side to side. Cathc up halts you right in the middle of that weight shift and forces you to muscle around to get any rotation.

Edited by AdventureBear 2012-04-26 4:45 PM

Shauna, I have no comment about the drill. I don't know what your form looks like, but I did peek at your training volume.

Regardless of whether the drill is working for you or not, I think your problem lies in your low yardage.

If the last 4 weeks are any indication of how much you normally swim, then my only bit of advice is to swim more frequently and for longer total distances. Do more swim training. If you want to go sub 2:00, you need to swim at least 3 times a week and for at least 2,000 yards per session.

Your log does not indicate whether you are swimming intervals or not; it just gives the total yards. You will not get faster by swimming one long assault. You need to do intervals.

Edited by Renee 2012-04-26 9:39 PM

Does it help swimmers? Yes, some of them. Does it create other bad habits that are hard to get rid of ? Yes i in some of them. Are there better drills available to teach the same thing? Yes...I use swing switch & spearswitch to accomplish the benefits that catchup is supposed to correct...and they also teach the swimmer how to use gravity to aid in shifting body weight form side to side with rotation..the component mainly missing in catchup.

Edited by AdventureBear 2012-04-26 10:02 PM

This is a better drill because it allows the stroking arm and the spearing arm to both benefit from core body rotation, while still emphasizing a patient lead arm. THere should be a trigger for when the stroking arm can start other than being touched by the hand just recovered.

Edited by AdventureBear 2012-04-26 10:10 PM

Agreed I need to swim more and in the off season I'll be joining a tri group and start doing group sessions. I'm in Australia and the season is pretty much over, so not a lot of time for progress this year.

My workouts tend to look something like a 300 - 400m warm up then 800-1000m of drills, usually 50m drill, 50 free, 50m drill, 50m free, etc

I tried the long swim and my form breaks down so intervals are definitely the way to go.

Thanks for your input!

The spearswitch teaches no recovery, at least as far as mimicing full stroke swimming goes. it's a streamlined underwater recovery. It's designed to teach timing and rotation without the distraction of having an arm out of the water affecting balance. All of the movement of the recovering underwater arm is in a linear direction forward...the direction you're swimming. It's great for isolating several parts of your stroke, especially when used in a sequence leading up to whole stroke swimming.

It's great for learning how to rotate side to side (how far, how little), how to integrate core rotation, finding minimal rotation to get air during breathing, integrating the 2BK and actively streamlining the body as you shift from one side to the other...not to mention the opportunity to focus on catch & stroking, again without the weight and coordination of the recovery arm coming into play.

If your description of catch up drill is correct, then everyone is teaching & doing it incorrectly. In which case...your version is correct and everyone else's catch up is wrong.

Gravity & Rotation...while we are bouyant in the water, we still have mass and weight. as the arms cycle throughout the stroke their relative influence & leverage on the body's rotation changes due to gravity. In spear switch it's not really there as the arms are both underwater. IN swing switch it's evident, as it is in whole stroke swimming. As the recovering arm moves it's mass further away from the body's mid-line, the amount of rotational leverage increases. Fight it and you're off balance. work with it and you get free speed.

Edited by AdventureBear 2012-04-28 10:38 PM

The spearswitch is basically an underwater recovery. Imagine you are rotated on your side about 45 degrees or so, leading arm in front, other arm in a "deep pocket" along your side, head looking down, gentle flutter kick. With the recovery arm (arm at your side), you hinge at the elbow as you bring the hand up along it's own wide track underneath the body. When the hhand gets to the goggle line/forehead, spear that hand to it's target while simultaneously the body rotates and the opposite arm strokes.

With various points of focus you can use this to work on your spearing/extension target, timing of when you switch or begin the other stroke, how far you rotate the body (too much or too little), integrating a 2BK to initiate or aid the rotation, or just get a good feel for playing with the stroke...a higher elbow, a steeper forearm catch, different pitches of the hand/forearm, etc. etc.

Since the recovering arm stays underwater, you don't have the co-ordination of a good recovery to distract you, and since the arm never leaves the water, it's weight won't destabilize or sink your body.

Here is a reasonable video of the drill:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipr5OWfLgz4&feature=related

Note that there are a number of minor errors or things that can be corrected in these swimmers...but I like this video because it shows 3 different swimmers doing the drill. It gives both the swimmer & coach opportunity to examine body position for crossover, rotation, elbow position while stroking, etc. Practicing these things in a slow controlled drill like spear switch improves perception of proper proprioception for full stroke swimming

Edited by AdventureBear 2012-04-28 10:51 PM