How can changing the position of your shoulder make you go from hero to zero with your freestyle catch? Let's find out Freestyle clinics 2023 effortlessswim... ES Membership effortlessswim...
Brenton - super video. I go further: - Lead with my shoulder in the recovery; elbow automatically leads the lower arm and you don’t have to think about it; shoulder is in the best streamline position as you turn into the stretch; reduced shoulder damage - Trail with my shoulder in the pull; keeps streamline as long as possible; best EVF; uses most powerful muscles in the early stroke (Lats Etc.). Everything falls into place for the stroke for me. It’s a simple mental image - Lead, Trail. I use the same “Lead, Trail” mental image for all strokes. And it helps all of them.
I found that, if I was conscious about propelling from shoulder, my upper body rotation got better. It felt more natural to rotate trunk while rolling shoulder back to forward. When I was about just lifting elbow, the motion didn’t feel as smooth and the speed was a bit slower.
I've watched so many RU-vid videos and attended a number of different local swim classes, but none of them mentioned about keeping up the shoulder high until I watched a Chinese RU-vid channel last year, and later on discovered another Chinese RU-vid channel too for such detail. Looks like propping the shoulder is one of the standard steps in their classes. It is fascinating to observe how coaches explain the motion and how the audience responds to the communication.
Very good information. Yesterday I concentrated on keeping the elbow high. I thought about the elbow to hand straight down and pushing to the back wall. When a person does hit that sweet spot the feeling is as good as a good golf swing. My swimming has improved from your videos. January is when I will try the flip turn. Looking forward to the first coughing up water. LOL. But I will do it.
You nailed it, high elbow is very stressful an unnatural for the body . I don't like sidekicking at all, I will rotate my torso 90 degrees to reduce drag but I have mastered keeping my feet straight for extra propulsion and maintaining direction , which is very good for open water swimming.
Swim with your hands FISTED as a tool to get your body to use your arms and shoulders more efficiently. I find that I can still go very fast this way and it feels as though my lats are like wings.
I think maybe I need to find a daily stretch routine for my shoulders, because it feels like when I get my shoulder up to the 'high' position there's a bit of pain in the movement of the catch. It's possible I'm just doing the wrong movement as I've never filmed myself. I'm an ES member but live in Perth, so no clinics. Moving to Adelaide soon though, which is just around the corner from you by my standards.
Same here. With "high" position, there's too much internal rotation. Not everyone has that range of motion. What I learned -- don't overdo it, invest time in strengthening the rotator cuff and back muscles. +Warmup and ROM exercises. Better careful than to deal with the injury. It's hard to heal those inflammation issues, takes months ( take care!
I find that if I do a catch up stroke I don't roll as much and it is easier to "maintain balance" and reach forward with the shoulder. after warming up I move into a 3/4 catch up (my stroke) and I still maintain better balance and I am able to reach forward with my shoulder.. If I roll too much and my balance is compromised I can drop my shoulder to deep to get a proper catch like you describe especially when breathing. Your video shows a perfectly balanced swimmer.
I justvtried this high shoulder in the pool. I feel better and more efficient already. It probably help with my breathing too. Will confirm this at the next swim.
Hi from Ireland I have just came across your videos and have just subscribed...I am at the early stages of learning the freestyle ...watching your videos has given me a lot to think about and I love how you break down each of the techniques and make them easy to understand...my real issue is the breathing so trying out your beginners techniques...can I ask is it better to breath on the second stroke or 3 strokes and breath on the 4th stroke ...
I hadn't swam much in the past 2 months so I got in the pool and could only hold 50m intervals without the arms getting tired, At 30mins I finished the workout but wanted to swim 15 more minutes. I switched to breast stroke. That tired my lats just as much. I realized the arm stroke was a double arm scoop drill. If done correctly the catch is a double high shoulder, high elbow catch into a double power triangle position to complete the pull. And lats got just as fatigued as in the crawl.
If the first movement of the stroke is bringing the elbow out, instead of pulling the arm down and then the elbow out, you will have a high shoulder and a higher float.
Just to check that I understand... shoulder should not be not low on the body (towards toes), yes? Or not low in water (toward bottom of the pool)? Both seem like a higher shoulder would be closer to cheek but would still mean different things. I hope that makes sense. Thanks!!
Which specific exercises do you recommend to be able to swim with high elbow technic? I am trying to do it but not able with my breathing side arm (left). 😢
Nice thing waht I can show my son , but if I look at 2:20 when you swim, your shoulder is high on your right side but lower on your left . am I right? :)
Wrote in another comment. TLDR don't do anything that is hurting. The range of motion may not be there yet for aggressive internal rotation which happens with such a high shoulder.
What would help for the visual learners is for you to actually be in a horizontal position and show us exactly what you’re showing us. Standing up and showing us can confuse the learner who is new to swimming.
ELBOW should be ABOVE the hand and a short glide, hand angled down to catch the water,who with a brain drops the elbow and have the hand above the elbow, HOW will you catch the water.??????? Get to the surface ASAP after start and turn, pointless long underwater glide.
Yeah, thats pretty good and right, but there still the common difficulties always. But anybody can learn this perfectly in a few minutes, and practice complete easily up to 20 times each day, easily with VITS at home, and so insane quick master it in a few weeks, optimise and improve with that method further each day, no probs, even Michael Phelps had'nt had something like that once. Still today just a few single selected Experts, Coaches and Atheltes in the world are outfitted and instructed. VITS will come. Open for Business cooperation worldwide. VITS - Freestyle swim training Evolution, Headoffice located in Germany.
