Improve you FC with Catch-it

​In my 20 years of coaching swimmers, there has always been the debate on what is the correct hand entry and position throughout the front crawl stroke. I hope with this article we can simplify things and show you how you can use a simple piece of equipment to take away the worry of the hand entry, allowing you to focus on other things.
Let’s break down the issues into smaller steps so we can get a better picture of all the complications.

Coaches too often teach hand entry and catch the same way for all swimmers, but everyone is different and have a different experience in the water. This requires a difference in how and what coaches should be doing in their training

• Beginners who have joined the swimming world as masters swimmers will have decreased range of motion and strength
• Youth swimmers, because of their age will have a wider range of motion, but will lack strength
• Elite swimmers may have the strength, a larger range of motion but this will make coaching them significantly harder to correct any issues. This is because they have the ability to fake the correct motion due to their talent and time spent in the water.

Different approaches to how you coach each of these types of swimmers is important, but not something that isn’t always appreciated!

• One size fits none! – Yes there are common faults that many swimmers will need correcting on, but the history of any injury or functional limitations should all be taken into account when coaching. As an example swimmers with history of shoulder pain, may have problems understanding what their shoulder is doing and may therefore, have problems identifying what their hand is doing on the entry. Working on stabilising the shoulder maybe where the focus is needed, which should be considered before focusing on the hand position.
• I have heard so many times from swimmers that they have studied videos of elite swimmers and that mimicking what they do will be the way forward. Although it’s fascinating to watch what these Olympic athletes can do, they have been swimming for years and because of this have developed strength and range of motion that is not possible to reproduce as a novice. By all means watch the videos and look at what they do, but don’t try to replicate what they do.
• Fingers apart or together? – well there have been so many studies discussing this with evidence supporting  that the fingers should be 3.2mm apart. Now I am sure the study was correct, but who has a ruler available to them when swimming?! This is also very dependant on spee , with the fingers needing to be further apart as you speed up. A natural position is fingers slightly apart in a relaxed position, helps relax the muscles and conserves energy.
• Paddles are often used by coaches to improve strength, which for the elite swimmers is important. However they allow swimmers to misuse, to get away with an incorrect hand entry and still move forward at speed but with potential flaws. This would increase the chance of shoulder pain, if not correctly used. Swimmers should only use paddles with care and focus on the correcting of the stroke as a priority.
• Should the hand be flat or cupped? – the answer is flat with a slight cup. A flat hand will introduce a lift at the catch of the stroke, which will make you less streamlined and will this is not natural and requires more energy.

It’s complicated and as I have said, one size fits no one! Coaches should consider all of the above whilst working with their swimmers, but a tool that works on the correct hand entry by taking away the thinking and sending you a message that you need to change things, will allow coaches to focus on some of the above issues, knowing hand entry is taken care of, must help!

​CATCH-it can do this and it’s so simple to use! CATCH-it can be worn throughout your training session and will put your hand in the natural relaxed cupped position and if you have a tendency to flatten the hand will give you the feedback to change and relax.

Wear it for a few sessions to get the feel of the relaxed hand before then trying sessions without it, once you have that feel. Using it now and then the remind yourself how it feels, maybe in the warm up of a training session. Simple!

---