More on the Feel of the Water and the Catch

By Terry Laughlin

This is an exchange in which I participated on a triathlon coaches’ discussion forum on the subject of whether Fistgloves are of any value. The post immediately below makes some good points, but my take on the catch and feel of the water is different from that of the writer.

The talk of a 'catch' at the beginning of the stroke is really 30-year old thinking, going back to Doc Counsilman and Mark Spitz. The most effective entry, extension and beginning of a pull, as measured by a force-meter against time for propulsion with least effort is a forward and downward motion so that there is a seamless transition between the entry and the underwater pull. The fingertips should always be below the wrist, which should always be below the elbow, which should always be below the shoulder. This is especially effective in the turbid conditions created by groups of swimmers in open water.

Where does the 'feel' for the water come from? Contrary to what some have suggested, I have never found this to be an arbitrary thing experienced in just a few strokes almost by accident. Ninety percent of what moves a body forward in freestyle is the underwater arm motion (because less than 12 percent comes from a perfectly executed kick). If one executes all phases of the recovery and entry well, minimizing drag, the light bulb for the 'feel' of the water always goes on when one learns to incorporate the core into the pulling motion. After all, a fast, effective swimmer swims with hip drive rather than with arms.

There have been all kinds of responses to this query. Mine is based on hard science and over 20 years of swim coaching. SMS

Steve,
I haven't had the advantage of sports science training as you have, but 34 years of coaching and 40 of swimming (I train more mindfully and purposefully at age 55 than ever before, and thus learn more from every lap) foster the development of a fair bit of instinct and insight...and perhaps even wisdom. My experience as a still-developing swimmer tells me that few things have improved my swimming more than increasing my sensitivity to minor fluctuations in water pressure at the beginning of the stroke.

You and I are completely in synch on the importance of fingers below wrist below elbow, and connecting that position to hip drive. I see every elite Freestyler do that. However, I’ve also discovered, from seeing underwater video of my stroke, that even when I have every brain cell focused on making that happen, the "angle of attack" I achieve with the hand and forearm might be 20 to 30 degrees, where Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett seem to effortlessly – and probably unconsciously – get to nearly 90 degrees. But that's why they're world class swimmers and I'm a 40-year journeyman.

Thirty-five years ago in college I had no self-awareness of any fine point of how my hand/arm/body were working. As I've increased my intellectual awareness of what works in swimming, I've also increased my "visceral" awareness of how close I come to that ideal, and have been able to make ever-subtler distinctions in how I arrange my body parts, how I work with the water, when and how I apply force…and particularly, how well I keep non-working muscles relaxed to accommodate working muscles.

To me, that's what "feel" is and in-depth knowledge of hydromechanics is of little use without this kind of acute self-awareness. Probably the most exciting experience I've ever had has been in the past 16 months, during which I've had surgery for a ruptured biceps tendon (weight lifting), separated the same shoulder (mountain biking) and badly bruised ribs (clumsiness). As a result I've spent 8 of those 16 months rehabbing – able to swim only in a very gentle fashion. Despite that, so far this year I've swum better than I ever have in my life (age-adjusted) and last month swam the 1000 Free six seconds faster than my best time as a college freshman in March 1969.

To what do I attribute this? The constraints of being unable to train forced me to swim in an "examined way" for the past year and a half, during which time I achieved a level of self-awareness (or "feel") far greater than I ever had before – and here's the exciting part for a 55 y.o. swimmer – this is the first thing I've yet found that's powerful enough to reverse the aging process.

As for whether the insights of Doc Counsilman, while coaching and observing Mark Spitz, may be obsolete or outmoded 35 years later, my thoughts are that Doc's brain and intuition were world class, as was Mark's physical intuition – and the essential behavior of a-human-body-in-water hasn't changed in that time. Anything I can glean from their interaction I'll gladly take. And I remain convinced that whether you call it a "catch" or an "anchored hand" that moment-of-control at the beginning of your stroke is utterly essential to the effective and accurate application of force generated by your hip-and-leg drive. I've learned to achieve it by making my hand pause for a moment, so my elbow can rotate beyond it. I'm still working every day to make that happen in a continuous manner, and while it remains elusive, I can sense incremental progress. Still, I doubt that I'll ever "perfect" it.

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