Training Drills with Thor Bendix II

Continuing on through the Training Drills Series together with Thor Bendix we have an edition focusing on improving the catch. But what do we mean by “the catch”?

The catch is the first part of the stroke. It begins when the swimmer first puts their hand in the water and positions it in a way that allows them to pull themselves forwards. It’s a fundamental part of the stroke and is ideally trained in a specific way.

In order to carry out the following exercises we recommend using a pull buoy and a snorkel so as to pay closer attention to the movement.

1. Sculling: face down we execute the first phase of the catch using both arms at the same time, sculling; a figure of eight movement that will help us to balance our body and move through the water.

2. Underwater sculling catch technique: we repeat the previous exercise and, alternating arms, we execute the complete catch but without completing the pull, and we carry out an underwater recovery. We return to the sculling position and repeat with the other arm.

3. Underwater stroke: we alternate sculling, the catch and the pull until raising our elbow, but we keep the stroke completely underwater and complete the recovery as in the previous exercise.