Funny drill

[IngeA]

I don't know if this really helps, but I found it interesting.

Yesterday I was in the pool with my children. In the kiddy pool to play and dive with the kids. And in this pool there always are several toys and also small balls, about 15cm diameter.

I took two balls and tried to swim freestyle with them. And it worked quite well if i really concentrated on a correct angle at the entry. Too flat and it wasn't possible to do a catch and arm sweep afterwards.
Too steep and it wasn't possible to spear.
Right angle and it was no problem at all to spear and catch afterwards.

But I fear it may course problems with the shoulder when someone tries to hard to catch after a flat entry.

Greetings

Inge

[sclim]

You held the balls in the palm of your hands, right? And wrapped your fingers around them, I guess -- at 15 cm diameter, you wouldn't be able to close your fist at all, so ignoring the ball, your hand would be in a claw shape around the ball. So the ball and hand part wouldn't be much of a paddle, so this would be very much like a fist-swimming drill, in as much that to get much water traction after your catch you would have to have a high elbow and as vertical a forearm as possible, am I right?

[Danny]

Hi Inge, question: Are the balls bouyant? If they are plastic and really float on the surface, I would think that this would mess up your spearing. If they are heavy and sink to the bottom, but not too heavy, then things may be different.

[IngeA]

No, there was no paddle at all. The balls would have floated away if I had not had a close grip on them.
And yes, they floatet. They were like the small plastic gym balls used in rythmic gymnastics.
But spearing was no problem as long as the angle was correct. The catch afterwards was no problem either although my my spear is rather flat and only very little under the shoulder.
But is was not possible to spear in a flat angle or to catch aftewards because the ball then was floating on the water. There was no way for me to press it under water with the extended arm.