Coaching the Catch

Key takeaways from July’s Coaching ‘the Catch’ Propulsion Workshop with Stuart Hacker and Keri-anne Payne

The ‘catch’ is the least instinctive part of the front crawl, but one that your clients will often obsess over without having a full understanding of what it is and how it fits into the mechanics of their stroke. In fact, even the term ‘the catch’ is controversial: at Straight Line Swimming we prefer to use ‘scaption’ instead. So what is the mystical ‘catch’ – and how can we demystify it and effectively coach the propulsion phase of front crawl.

Ask your clients to explain ‘the catch’ and you will get many weird and wonderful answers and demonstrations. Triathletes in particular like to focus on the elusive catch as they believe it is key to speed and power. So what do we mean by ‘the catch’? Swimming is simple: get water, move it back. The catch is essentially the position to get into to then move water in the most effective way possible. Moving water is ‘the pull’ phase.  

Points to remember when coaching the propulsion phase

• The ‘paddle’ to move water backwards is from the fingertips to the elbow. It is important that your clients understand that their paddle is not just their hand.
• Swimmers will use terms like ‘early vertical forearm’ and ‘high elbow catch.’ The paddle is most effective when vertical – hence the term ‘early vertical forearm’. Unfortunately, early vertical forearm is chasing an extreme that very few people, other that professional swimmers, can achieve. We are not all capable of getting our bodies into that position.
• Don’t chase an extreme with your clients – experiment to see what works with them and their bodies. Every degree a swimmer improves the angle of their paddle adds power to their propulsive force. The elbow should be above the hand.
• Slow to fast. Don’t rush the catch. The fastest part of the propulsion phase is the end of the stroke. The pull phase is a gradual acceleration through to recovery.
• Be careful of terms like ‘feel for the water’ and ‘reaching over the barrel’. Pushing straight down can feel amazing and powerful because of the amount of water you are moving – it is just a shame you are moving it in the wrong direction! Likewise, reaching over a barrel can lead a swimmer to have an exaggerated bend in their wrist, when their paddle should be flat and straight.
• Beware of over-extension at the finish of the stroke. Overextending will move water upwards instead of backwards, and risk injury.

Coaching points

• Start out of the water and ask your swimmer to tell you and show you what they think they should be doing.
• Experiment with slow swimming trying different triggers and thought processes. Try:

o   ‘Scaption’ – the multiple factors that need to be in place to get a good catch position. What position does the body need to be in to move water effectively? Think long levers vs short levers – which are more powerful? How would you pull yourself out of the pool? Think of throwing sports and the relationship between body position and power

o   Thinking of the hand being stuck in the water and moving the body past it

o   Relationship between elbow and surface of the water

Drills

Be wary of drills that put you in a different position than you would be in full stroke. There aren’t many effective drills that work on catch, but it can be worth experimenting with:

• Single arm drills to slow down the stroke
• Catch-up drill can give the swimmer time to experiment with the catch

Common errors

• Pulling with hands
• Dropping wrists 
• Dropping elbows
• Speeding up the stroke while concentrating on the catch. Swimmers may start to windmill or lose reach because they are trying to catch too quickly.

For a more detailed discussion of coaching the propulsion phase, watch this video recording of Keri-anne Payne and Stuart Hacker’s Propulsion Workshop.