Sculling teaches you a “feel” for the water.  Rather than pushing the hands against the water, sculling helps you learn to slide your hand with a bit of a tilt so the hands act a like a propeller.

Vertical sculling allows you to practice this movement without having to worry about your breathing.

To get started, some people like to use floatation to make things a little easier.  Here our swimmer is using a pull buoy to help him stay afloat while he practices sweeping his hands inward and outward.  You’ll notice that when the hands are coming inward, the thumbs are tilted UP, and when the hands our sliding outward, the thumbs are tilted DOWN.

Another method to help take some pressure off the hands is to use fins.  A gentle kick while practicing sculling can help keep the focus on what your hands are doing.

As you progress, you may be able to take the fins off, and use a flutter kick to help you stay up.  This starts to work a couple skills at the same time.

In sculling, try to only move the arms from the elbows down.  Don’t use the entire arm, but treat your forearm, from the elbow down, like a windshield wiper, sweeping back and forth while the hands adjust their angle.  Thumb UP coming in, thumb DOWN going out.

Graduation of this drill is to use no floatation and no kick.


Sign In to watch video

Vertical Sculling