What’s the “Catch” in Swimming?

What I am learning from coaching my triathletes:

They have heart, desire, great work ethic…CRAZY WORK ETHIC, and generally don’t come from a swimming background. They are sponges and are learning quickly and I love coaching them. But, there are also some common problems that I see regarding their swimming proficiency. Over the next few blog posts I will talk about some of those. Today we’ll address the catch which is VITAL for fast and efficient swimming.

Triathletes generally have very little catch, or anchor, in their strokes. I understand the idea of a higher tempo in open, and potentially choppy, water but you can, and SHOULD, still have an anchor in each arm cycle. This is the key ingredient in moving forward with each stroke. A good strong anchor also allows you to use your core (hips & abdominal muscles) to create power in each stroke. This means bigger stronger muscles moving you forward versus smaller arm muscles.

A great drill for working on improving your catch is Long Dog. It is basically a fancy dog paddle – you work on the underwater portion of the stroke without any over the water recovery. Slow down your cycle and think about the front end of your stroke. As your RIGHT hand initiates the pull, point your fingertips down toward the bottom of the pool, let the elbow rotate forward and up – you should feel your scapula rise. I often describe this as “painting the bottom of the pool”. This is your catch or anchor position and you should maintain it for as long as possible through the arm cycle. Now is when your left hip should be driving down to create power from the hips. While all this is going on your LEFT hand will be sliding forward to begin its pulling cycle. If you break at the wrist, I suggest you try the drill with small paddles on to allow for more pressure on the hand. You can see a video clip of how this drill is done on my public DartFish tv channel HERE. If for some reason that doesn’t work, go to dartfish.tv and search for Brackin Elite Swim Training, there you will see a clip of two of my pros doing longdog.

By Kim Brackin of Brackin Elite Swim Training