After entry is made. The arm extends and the shoulder girdle raised effortlessly. Some people call the arm extension a weightless lead arm or a slight stretch/reach forward. It is like a shrug to bring the shoulder to the ear just that it is done with the arm extended.
This movement HAS to be done with relaxedly and effortless in order for the catch to be performed fluidly. Reason is that when joints are tensed up in an exertion (the opposite of effortless), they cannot flex as easily and takes more effort to overcome the tension to execute another movement that requires fluidity.
That said, the catch is made by a slight scull outwards, followed by an Internal Rotation of the humerus bone done simultaneously with the flexion of the elbow. This combined movement from the extended arm position will allow the Early Vertical Forearm to be in place.
Visualize:
Extended arm position: Underside of forearm and bicep is facing the bottom of the pool.
After Internal Rotation and elbow flexion, Underside of forearm and bicep is facing back (opposite of direction of travel).
For those who do not understand what is internal rotation, I've done up these videos. In the video, I am using the clip of the pen cap as a start point to better illustrate what a rotation is. Then I taped it to my upper arm to show the movement of the arm in an internal rotation.
Firstly, the above video shows the pen rotating, looking at the cap it rotated from 6 o clock to 3 o clock. This sets a "benchmark" for what rotation is about.
Second video above I'm showing the internal rotation movement of the humerus with a flexed elbow. Look at the clip on the cap rotated from 6o clock to 3 o clock again, indicating the upper arm is rotating.
This 3rd video shows the internal rotation with an extended arm, which is specific to our swimming position where we need to start the internal rotation. Notice that the clip of the pen cap rotated towards the back. Right now, some of you may be lost but lets VISUALIZE if the arm can continue to rotate 360 degrees, the clip on the pen cap will ultimately rotate inwards towards my body and thus the movement in the video is actually an internal rotation.
The 4th and last video shows me executing the catch. Play and compare both 3rd and 4th videos and you'll see the clip of the cap rotating outwards indicating that the internal rotation does exist in executing the catch.
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Note that an internal rotation of the humerus (upper arm bone) has to be done with the elbow joint stay at where it is when the arm is extended and not moving backwards.
The need to do an elbow flexion together with the internal rotation adds on to the difficulty of keeping the elbow joint at the same location as where it was when the arm was extended. People tend to do the internal rotation and the flexion while moving the elbow backwards.. this is due to the tendency to rush through the pull in hope to quickly pull the water backwards to propel oneself forward.
I cannot emphasize more strongly the need to be patient while performing the catch as the EVF position and the process to getting to that position does not create any source of forward propulsion and if done with exertion, the downward movement of the hand and forearm caused by the internal rotation will break the forward momentum due to the pressing of water downwards.
Some people could not get the internal rotation of the humerus done simply because they are too tensed in that extended arm position. If you think about it, the internal rotation of the humerus is a literal movement of the bone that is connected to the shoulder through ligaments and muscles. If you are tensed in that extended arm position, you're actually forcing the humerus which is part of the arm (duh) to be locked in that pre-internal-rotation state.
Knowing what is happening and which part is moving in what way is the only way to learn the execution of a movement properly. I hope this post help you understand the internal rotation of humerus and how it is present in the catch phase of swimming.
I shall stop here and if you have more question, feel free to sms me at 8180 0621 or facebook me.
Cheers
KK
great effort to explain the very elusive early vertical forearm catch. I think this is something very important in the front crawl but few can do it well.
ReplyDeleteAgain, thanks for the AV.
Thanks for the outstanding description on EVF. Question. When you say the catch is performed by a 'slight scull outwards' what do you mean exactly. I understand sculling and do the drill periodically, but am not clear as to the reason. Is this done with the hand only? I do a bit of what one would call a 'scull', but it's mainly b/c when I rotate my humerus internally it's the entire arm as one piece really and my palm will face outwards towards the side of the pool for a brief moment, but once my elbow bend commences the palm turns immediately to start facing backward before I engage my lats.
ReplyDeleteHi Dan, thanks for dropping by. Out of curiosity, may i know where are you from and how did you come by our blog?:)
ReplyDeleteWith regards to your query.. From what you're describing and what I perceive in your writing it seems you're doing the whole process right.
However, there are two factors here that I couldn't put in words perhaps due to my inability to describe.. Nonetheless, I'll try to pen them down and hope it fits the missing piece in your puzzle.
1) the feel for water when you do the slight outward scull
- as all swimmers have been proclaiming there is this feel for water when you move your limbs through the water.
This feel for water refers to the ability to generate or feel the resistance by moving the limbs with palms or feet facing a specific angle and going through the motions with varying velocity (of the limbs) under water.
It is possible to do everything I described in the catch and not feel as much water resistance as you ought to be feeling.
Doing the sculling drill essentially teaches you how the water resistance feels like when you move your palm diagonally from side to side in a push and pull manner.
When you are able to feel the water resistance at the scull, you'll be able to "search for water resistance" at the start of the catch by using a slight scull outward.
It is worth noting that the sculling helps begin the feel for resistance so the catch can gradually build on it to control a substantial amount of water by varying speed of insweep.
2) I need to see deep is your arm at the EVF.
- it does not essentially mean that the high your elbow is relative to the water surface you'd be doing a better catch. In fact, there are great swimmers like biondi who set the world record for 50m FS sprint with an elbow degree of about 150degrees and that'll mean his arms are going pretty deep.
Don't get me wrong, the EVF is a must.. Meaning no matter how deep or shallow your arm is, the elbow must still be higher than the wrist and fingers should be pointing to the floor with the palms and under side of forearms and biceps facing back.
This argument simply raise the factual issue that if you got superbly strong arms, you'd be able to go deeper than usual to get more resistance in the front end of the stroke (I.e the catch). However you'd need hyper flexible shoulders to have your catch so deep and still keep it frontward enough to not discount on the length of the pull.
Last but not least, the engagement of the Lats should start right at where you begin to feel the resistance. It's like corking on the Lats using isometric contraction the moment you "get a hold" on the water using the slight scull and catch.
Cheers
KK
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KK
ReplyDeleteThanks.....I just used Google to search for an article on EVF for a friend and came across yours.....best explained approach I have ever read.
I actually try and keep my EVF 'passive' in terms of driving my stroke forward until I can get my forearm into a position of power. There is a range I look for visually and feel for just after my forearm begins to bend.....once I feel that position where my lats can get busy working then I let it go and fire away. I find that if I'm trying to get in a hurry my elbow gets out of position.
The one thing I ALWAYS do is make sure that my hands don't get past my elbow in the direction moving from front to back. Meaning I don't want my shoulder to get into an extremely internally rotated position. At most my fingers will get even with my elbow towards the end of my stroke down by my hips, but typically my elbow leads my hands as it passes down my side, by just a fraction.
Oh and oddly enough regarding your thought on depth of EVF. I feel this is another widely misunderstood OR missed opportunity to maximize one's individual pull. Meaning I don't feel there is any one fixed position for all body types, but unfortunately many coaches preach 1 position for all their swimmers as mine did:( I'm 6'1" with long lanky limbs....180 lbs. Not big, but not small. I was taught to keep my profile extremely shallow and it never felt right, but at some point I just said no more and dropped my streamlined position another 6" in depth and BOOM everything clicked. I don't attribute mine to arm strength, but arm length.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dan for the kind words. I just felt that there was a lot of written stuffs all over the net and also books but none of them used video illustrations to show the internal rotation. As a fitness instructor and swim instructor, i thought putting them together will help people to understand it easier.
ReplyDeleteYou're right in terms of keeping them passive and waiting just for the right time to feel a power phase occur. However, if you consciously activate the lats right at the point when you felt the resistance, you'll be able to release a much more substantial amount of power after the insweep at the upsweep phase.. or in layman terms, the Push phase.
You're also right that it is extremely important to be patient with the catch and insweep so that the elbow will not get out of place or drop.
An extremely rotated shoulder will cause the palm to be pitched upwards and you'd be scooping the water slightly upwards if that does happens so its good for you that you aim to keep the elbow - wrist - fingers in line.
Regarding the HAND DEPTH of EVF, it is affected by arm length but if you're talking about the ELBOW ANGLE of EVF, it will be not be affected by arm length. What your coach was saying is not exactly wrong because there is no other way to phrase it than to say "try to keep your profile shallow" or "keep your elbow as close to the surface as possible.".. it really depends on how you read it because having understood how this work, i read those two phrases as :
"Go as deep as you felt optimum to give you propulsion but the elbow should still aim to stay high near the surface. "
Reason is the deeper the elbow goes, the more likely you drop it and if you do keep the EVF with a deep elbow, the frontal surface area created by the whole arm at the catch will be causing a lot of drag.
With the deep arm approach, it is "efficient" to a point when you are doing short sprints.. 50-100? But if you're doing middle to long Distance that approach will cause you to slow down at the end when fatigue sets in aerobically and you're not able to generate enough propulsion to overcome the frontal surface drag.
Lastly, what's the event you're doing? Which country are you in? :) You got a Facebook?:)
Sorry, I meant when fatigue sets in, you won't be able to generate enough propulsion to overcome the frontal surface drag of the deep arm and hands and also the amount of resistance you're generated from the deep catch.
ReplyDeleteCheers
KK
Sorry not a facebooker:(
ReplyDeleteJust as a friendly request....if you ever do another video I would love to see a head on view as if I were treading water in front of you so I could see your internal rotation synchronized with your elbow bend and subsequent EVF.
Great, great stuff here thanks again.
hey Dan.. its already done some time back..
ReplyDeletehttp://sapphireswimmers.blogspot.com/2011/04/dry-land-evf-catch-insweep-upsweep-av_08.html
It is not the exact thing as in the water but i believe my muscle memories served me well doing it so many times that I can replicate as close as it is on dryland already. =)
Let me know if you want to see more other posts. Even about fitness and training sets. =)
Cheers
KK