Front Crawl Drills - Swimming Advice Video

Today we're going to be taking a look at some front crawl drills to help you improve your stroke and technique. The first drill we're going to take a look at is trickle. Trickle is a great drill for improving your arm position and getting your elbow slightly higher. So it's great for those who swim front crawl with straight arms or have poor body rotation. This works by swimming front crawl and dragging the fingertips along the surface of the water in the recovery phase. As you can see, the elbow is slightly higher, and the swimmer focuses on her hand entry. By entering the hand in line with the elbow, it encourages your body to have better lateral rotation, whilst lengthening the stroke. So the key areas to focus on, other than a high elbow, is extending the stroke and getting more rotation while swimming if you swim quite flat in the water. So, next up is catch-ups. Catch-up is a pretty easy drill that can really help to lengthen your stroke, so it allows you to travel further in the water with minimal effort. This drill works by pulling with one arm and leaving the other extend in the streamline position. Bring both hands together before pulling with the other arm for the next stroke. If it helps, touch the other hand so you are sure you keep both hands streamlined for a second. And finally is fists. Fists is literally as it sounds, so make your hands into fists. It makes you very aware of how important your hands and catch are in the water, and so encourages you to do a lot more kick. This drill is great for those who tend to let their legs drop and are poor kickers. One thing to pay attention to when swimming fists is not to shorten your stroke too much, as this is easy to do if you aren't aware. Thanks for watching, and don't forget to check out our other advice videos and our online swim store at SimplySwim.com