Early Vertical Arm (or Learn to catch water in your freestyle stroke)

It looks like that the most requested topic in the poll in the sidebar is about freestyle. Well, let me talk to you about how to get the most out of your stroke. One of the key things you need to do at the beginning of your freestyle stroke (that is when your fingers enter the water up front) is to make sure that you actually catch as much water as possible. Imagine wrapping your arm around a barrel which is laying on its side. You need to reach over the barrel and then push your elbow up in order for your arm to bent and grab the barrel. The picture below sort of illustrates what I mean, but in this guy's case, he is only half way and if he were doing our excercise, he'd continue to move his fingers down the barrel until his chest would touch it and his elbow would be nicely bent.

So, now you understand what you need to do. To help you with this, there exists a special paddle called the TechPaddle. This invention for swimming enthusiast is quite nice for beginners to learn how to actually catch water and not drop their elbow. Most beginner swimmers drop their elbow which means their elbow is leading the way under the water when executing their freestyle stroke. Instead, try keeping the elbow at the surface and have your palm lead the way towards the back. Below you will see a great explanation of the way this should be done. Don't get scared by the title Early Vertical Arm. In laymen terms it just means do not drop the elbow and catch water in your early stroke.



If you end up buying or you are already using the Tech Paddle, please do let us know how that worked out for you.