I know this is somewhat redundant and as you read it turns into a bit of a swimming coach’s rambling thoughts on a late night before Master’s Swim Team in the morning, but I want to stress the importance of an Early Vertical Forearm in proper Freestyle Technique!  As I mentioned in the previous post, the early vertical forearm (EVF) sets up a swimmer for a more efficient propulsion in the pull.  So, one of the questions that I got tonight with regard to the blog post from yesterday was, “How often do young age group swimmers do the proper catch during freestyle”?

To be quite honest, I smiled and asked myself how truthful I wanted to be with the parent.  Now, this parent (mind you) has swimming experience and knows the technical jargon of the swimming world so I am going to make this user friendly with my response:

“Typically with a swimmer that is just coming out of any regular swimming lesson swims their freestyle (and truly any other competitive stroke that they have learned) with a dropped elbow.  The reasoning behind this, in my opinion, is because it is the natural evolution and modification of their stroke.  They went from not knowing what to do with their arms as a very very beginner to all of a sudden getting some sort of propulsion from their pull.  This improvement in their overall stroke was highly rewarded by (most likely) the instructor as well as the parent.  So, moving forward, the instructor now concentrates on the recovery portion of the stroke and the finish of the stroke in order to make it look more like a freestyle stroke.  Once the student has the general concept of the follow-through and the recovery into entry the actual pull is never truly corrected or adapted to its fullest potential.  It’s at that point that the swimmer now has the general concept of freestyle, backstroke, and most likely breaststroke that the parent moves the swimmer either out of lessons or into swim team.  So, they have about 2 – 3 years of practicing an advanced version of doggy paddle.  The long and short of it, in all honesty, is that very few age group swimmers have the proper entry/catch/pull/recovery for freestyle”.

Now, before all of the swim lesson parents out there panic and take their kids out of a lesson program, please keep in mind that this is truly (at least in my opinion) the natural progression of the stroke.  For example, if you look at the progression of the competitive backstroke it looks completely different now than it did in its origination.  Your swimmers’ stroke is the same way.  With the right coaching and the right instructors in the corner for support your swimmer will learn and have fun at the same time!  And not to turn this into a my swim lesson program vs any other swim lesson program, but I (as the Aquatic Director and the Head Coach) have a lot more say in what technique as well as how much technique we will be teaching the swim lesson participants.  I also develop the curriculum for each of the levels based on the YMCA of the USA and my experience with our community.  Anyway, before this turns into a plug for our YMCA Swim Lessons, the best answer to this question is:

The stroke will evolve properly with time and effort from the swimmer, coach(es), and parent(s)!  Until they are seconds away from qualifying for YMCA Nationals, let the swimmers have fun!

Now, if you were to ask, “What can you do to help your swimmer achieve the Early Vertical Forearm”?  I would say that it were an excellent question and show you different games that you can play with your kids while you are in the pool as well as on dry land.  However, if anyone wants these “games” and ideas please feel free to let me know via e-mail or leave a comment; I cannot give away all of my trade secrets to the internet world!

As always, all the best and happy swimming!  Go Hamden North Haven Swim Team (the YMCA Typhoons, of course)!!!