Freestyle - Heavy-Hand Side Kick

Posted by Glenn Mills on Aug 30, 2011 08:54AM (17,102 views)

Learn to connect the pulling arm to the recoverying arm to give you another option for strong freestyle.

Why Do It:
Options! Swimming is all about options, and learning which one works best for you, in sprinting, or long-distance swims. Sometimes what ends up being right, is the absolute opposite from everything you've heard. If you've not tried it, you'll never know.

How to Do It:
1. Start by developing great balance by kicking flutter kick on your side.
2. Keep the lead arm out front, eyes directly down at the bottom, and use fins if you have a need for a bit more push during your kick.
3. Slowly begin to recover the trailing arm and, as you do, feel the weight on your lead hand.
4. Don't fight the weight. Instead, allow the hand to be pushed down into the catch by the weight of the recovering hand.
5. You know you're doing it right when your body snaps to the other side.

How to Do It Really Well (the Fine Points):
Rather than having the hands in a front quadrant timing, they should be much farther apart... nearly opposing. When you learn to use the weight of the recovering hand to help drive the pulling hand down into the catch, you can also choose to either add rate for sprinting, or add effeciency for longer swims. The most important thing is to keep playing, and don't get stuck in a rut.

freestyle, flutter kick, fins, pull, pulling

Responses

Javi	Responded Aug 30, 2011 04:04PM Cool! Freestyle drills are super-welcome!!!
Francis Riley	Responded Aug 30, 2011 04:13PM Sorry, I just do not agree with your comment or indeed the prime motive of this drill: "Rather than having the hands in a front quadrant timing, they should be much farther apart... nearly opposing". "Don't fight the weight. Instead, allow the hand to be pushed down into the catch by the weight of the recovering hand" Novice and Age Group swimmers almost always start with a "kayak" timing where the arms are opposite most or all of the time. This is because they have not developed the flexibility within their shoulders and tend to windmill, often also creating a "snaking" effect. It is sound advice to play around with the timing so that swimmers understand what's required, but I fail to see any gain from advising, "nearly opposing". What would be the benefit? I appreciate there is a subtle difference between a "weighted hand" and pressing down but again I feel this is doubtful advice, as I cannot see any positive gain. Why not emphasise rolling the lead hand to catch the water, as the recovery arm comes over; this would make sense of your footage.
Glenn Mills	Responded Aug 30, 2011 04:33PM You have to take each drill as part of the complete collection. You'll have to choose which drill applies to which swimmer in which circumstance. I knew people would freak over this one, but I wouldn't have typed anything until I got in the water and gave it a try. But hey, that's me personally. This is something I've been working on for my own swimming. I've been swimming for 45 years. I use this exact technique at different spots in my open water swim. It takes pressure off the arms both above and below. It helps me maintain easy swimming for an hour or so, or offers variations to the repetitive motion of swimming for miles. Like I said, not for everyone, but try first. Also, my footage makes perfect sense to me. Edited Aug 30, 2011 04:35PM
Gary	Responded Aug 30, 2011 04:55PM thanks Glenn.
aboled	Responded Aug 30, 2011 07:00PM nice drill!!! i always have a problem bringing my arm from the "out- front" position to the "catch" position. very hard to master.
Onofre	Responded Aug 30, 2011 08:27PM While doing drills like this I've found that a bad rotation of the head during breathing spoils all. I know because I usually get suffocated after many meters of doing them. But I supose that would be part of another drill.
James	Responded Aug 30, 2011 08:50PM Nice drill! Looks to me like this might be something Cesar Cielo has incorporated in his stroke. See http://youtu.be/2VAkN-RTH2k at about the 3.00 min mark. (50m free, Beijing, 2008).
Fi	Responded Aug 30, 2011 09:11PM It is so good to see somebody else advocating this timing. I was coached and then coached for the great Duncan Laing and he always told us to "lift and pull" and it certainly felt good when you 'get it'. Then at a coaches conference I attended a couple of years ago we had Milt Nelms talking to us. He talked about the transfer of momentum from lifting the recovering arm and then transferring it to the leading/pulling arm. I try and get my swimmers to do this and find it helps stop the overgliding also.
Glenn Mills	Responded Aug 30, 2011 10:02PM Efficiency for old guys like me, and transferring power for young guys like Cesar. We can't ever discover if we don't watch, and experiment. Thanks for all the posts, and Onofre, thanks for being so persistent! I took care of the extras.
FishTail	Responded Sep 01, 2011 02:53PM This hurts my knee just looking at it! I do breaststroke, but only when I swim an IM!
Reemi Wentzel	Responded Sep 01, 2011 07:04PM Never a dull moment in swimming! Keeps me going with those drills to try or integrate in my style of swimming! Thanks a lot Glen to keep this site so invigorating!
Don	Responded Oct 03, 2011 12:00PM I have not seen this since my high school coach preached it! Fortunate to have had a coach who wasn't indoctrinated into thinking there is only 'one way' and the proof was in the stop watch. Being tall and lanky overgliding was a prob for me at times and this broke me of it and just stuck. Flash forward 27 years and having played around with every new freestyle technique this is how I always revert.
Nikos Andrianos	Responded Dec 08, 2011 02:20PM Hi, my name is Nikos Andrianos and i'm from Greece. I was a sprinter at tracks but now i swim for a while. I would like some advice for my problem: my shoulder are not flexible at all and it is very dificult for me to do the freestyle right. What should i do about it?
Glenn Mills	Responded Dec 08, 2011 05:51PM Hi Nikos, and welcome. First... try to work on some shoulder flexibility. However, here's a drill meant just for people with a bit of limited flexibility in the shoulders and arms: http://www.goswim.tv/entries/5901/freestyl... There are always solutions... which is why you have to be creative in solving individual problems. Keep coming, and hopefully we'll figure out ways to help you. Thanks.
Nikos Andrianos	Responded Jan 06, 2012 10:58PM Thanks m. Mills. I'm working on it and i will let you know about my progress
Ian	Responded Feb 14, 2012 08:49PM Unfortunately not available to view in Germany because of some soundtrack copyright b/s. :-(
Glenn Mills	Responded Feb 14, 2012 09:00PM Let me know if you can see it now. Thanks.
Ian	Responded Feb 21, 2012 08:16PM Yes..works now. thanks a lot :-)

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Freestyle - Heavy-Hand Side Kick

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