Playing With Surface Area 2
Previously we’ve written about swimming with paddles to increase the feel of pressure on your hands and forearms – and getting used to pulling stronger.
However not everyone owns a pair of paddles, so here are some ways you can experiment without having paddles.
Why Do It:
By varying the shape of the hand AND FOREARM, but setting the goal of keeping the same number of strokes per length, the swimmer has to adapt various parts of their stroke to compensate for the changes in connection size. You also feel the water moving in different directions – or your your hands. These compensations teach a more well rounded overall stroke.
How To Do It:
1. Swim a couple of 25s with closed fists. Think about pressing your forearms on the water to make up for the smaller paddles.
2. Swim a couple of 25s “Texas Longhorn” feel the water on your knuckles and rushing between your fingers. You should still be looking to press your forearms onto the water – your forefinger and pinky won’t add much pulling power!
Texas Longhorn hand position
3. Swim a couple of 25s “ok” with your thumb and forefinger together as an “O”. If your hand slips through the water now, you should hopefully feel the water rush through the gap!
“ok” hand position, try not to feel water rushing through between thumb and forefinger!
How to Do It Really Well (the Fine Points):
Do this set a few times, but alternate between drill and full stroke. By doing this, you can really feel the difference pulling with your whole hand rather than just different parts of it. This will allow you to develop more power throughout your underwater phase, and travel further for each stroke.
Take your time with learning this – as with any skill. The point is that drills are there to make you smoother, stronger, more efficient. Make sure you hit all those target points!
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to get in touch; either by email, facebook or leave a comment on here!
See what’s up next week for our #SwimTechTues tip!
Don’t forget – with Christmas coming up, you can always buy (or have bought for you!) one of our vouchers for a swim with us – either in the pool or in the Endless tank at The Triathlon Shop.