The Catch - How To Swim Front Crawl | Freestyle Swimming Technique

Swimming fast is a combination of fitness and technique, one is about physical hard work the other more mental. We are going to be looking into the catch part of front crawl and showing how you can improve this important part of the stroke.

You can break the front crawl stroke into phases, the catch, the pull, the exit and the recovery. The stroke starts with the catch where your hand enters the water, the pull is the main underwater phase, the exit is as sounds, when your hand and arm come out of the water then the recovery is your arm coming over the surface of the water and back past your head.

Without a good catch the rest of the stroke is going to struggle, getting hold of the water at the front of the stroke is vital for a strong pull. But what exactly is this part of the swim stroke we are talking about.

The catch is when your hand enters the water at the front of the stroke; when your movement changes from moving forwards to pulling back and down under your body. The moment when your hand and forearm start to make this new movement is the catch, in theory you are “catching” this new body of water.

There are lots of drills you can do to help improve the catch phase of your stroke and these include:
- Front scull
- Single arm drill
- Fist swimming
- Scull starts

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[gtn]

What is your favourite drill for front crawl technique? Let us know in the comments below 👇

[astro]

I'm learning this so the lifeguard doesn't think I'm drowning whenever I'm trying to swim.

[katyar]

This was really helpful. I've been sticking with breaststroke and now feel ready to push myself more so hoping this will do that! Thanks 😊

[WorldElectronica]

I've never seen more natural presenter than Heather! Like omg, is she even real. Goals.

[becmango]

Can you do a video on breathing timing with sighting?

[MarcosSoni]

Appreciate these drills, simple explanations. Swimming requires such precise technique.

[markfoz]

You two are great, so natural at presenting 👍

[helenjeffery]

I found this very useful, thank you. Great presenting skills and some very practical suggestions of things I can now try.

[neme]

wow i am learnign so much from this channel!! thank you so much for being so helpful and clear. i can't wait until i register for my first triathlon

[alexw]

Just got back from swimming. Will focus on these drills. Thanks 🙏

[xaviheredia]

Owesome video, it is helping me a lot improving my technique. Specially usefull the underwater images, Thanks!!!

[phillwhitlam]

Great video guys really simple, easy to follow and well explained. looking forward to the others.

[denaimbergamo]

Thank you! My newly messed up catch and pull is wrecking my shoulders. All the details help

[DeepakSharma_Tao]

Namaste and thank you to both of you. I find your videos helpful. I am 35 yrs old and learning.. It's too hard for me to take out my mouth to breathe. Hopefully, I will learn. I just can't figure out what I am doing it wrongly. A day, I will learn for sure. Thank you guys :*

[soggz]

Hi.
I’ve just started swimming again, but I’m only using ‘my’ version of the breaststroke ( I’m not too good at timing my arms with my legs, if I’m being honest). I would love to be able to do the crawl properly, but I can’t seem to time the strokes with breathing ( not drinking half the pool). Any tips please, as it may save the lifeguard a job.
All the best.👍🏾🏊🏼‍♂️

[run]

To everyone! You are beautiful just the way you look! You are important! You do have worth and meaning! I love you! You are important! You do not need to be skinny or have abs to be Beautiful! You are beautiful just the way you look! Never forget that! Always be loving and kind to everyone! Jesus loves you! Never forget that you are so beautiful and you do have meaning and worth! Everyone is beautiful! Never forget that! Always be nice and kind! Be loving! You are special! Never forget that you are beautiful and important and you have worth and meaning! Never forget that you are meaningful and never forget this message you saw today! Never forget this! You are special and important! You are beautiful just the way you look!

[danielcercasgarcia]

Thanks so much for to show this very nice and illustrative examples in this video greetings from Mexico and Erica is my wife

[christine]

Thank you I needed this ! I just started swim training seriously, aiming for my first 70.3 in a year ... possibly a few aquathons in between 😁

[K.mersch]

You forgot to mention to keep your elbow high which is the most important part of the catch.

[pfimpel]

Excellent Video! Thank you soo much! Keep up the great work!