Howdy,
Let’s get after a high-performance freestyle pull.
The freestyle pull is straightforward enough.
Stuff a bunch of water into your mitt and hurl it down towards your feet.
Rinse and repeat.
At least in theory.
For those who want to get a little more velocity from their freestyle pull, here are some proven ways to go about it.
A major review (Van Houwelingen et al., 2017) pooled decades of experiments, simulations, computer models, and flow-tank testing to answer one question…
What makes a freestyle pull go fast-fast?
Three of the biggest takeaways included:
Fast freestyle is mostly about drag, not lift
The debate between drag and lift and its role in freestyle propulsion has raged for
decades in our sport.
But the reality is pretty simple:
Your freestyle goes fastest when the hands are using backward-oriented force (and yes, this is different than “pushing water backward”).
It’s why we obsess over:
➡️ An early vertical forearm
➡️ A strong forearm and hand position
➡️ Rolling the body to get into stronger pulling angles.
Lift does play a role, especially during the entry and catch, but the bulk of propulsion comes from when the palm is pointed at the wall you just pushed off of.
Excess hand sweeping increases lift (but slows us down)
On the heels of that point, sweeping the hand lots (creating an exaggerated “S” during the pull) can increase lift, but comes with a trade-off: less total forward thrust.
Some lateral hand motion is normal and will happen naturally over the course of the stroke.
Why?
Because a majority of the hand path during the pull is done to
counteract body roll and keep the palm pointing backward.
Swimmers are usually
straightening their hand path and not exaggerating it.
The key is to avoid arm-led sweeping that:
➡️ Reduces thrust
➡️ Wastes energy
➡️ Increases frontal drag
➡️ Shortens the main propulsive phase of the stroke
Let the curve of the pull path come from rotation and not from steering the forearm and hand side to side.
Hand acceleration > hand speed
One of the quickest fixes swimmers of
all levels can make to their freestyle pull is to prioritize hand acceleration in the pull.
This was one of the strongest findings in the study and is something I think about every time I hit the water:
➡️ Give your hand a moment to grip the water
➡️ Lock the water in
➡️ And then accelerate your hand under your body
Instead of trying to muscle or sprint your hand through the water, intentionally accelerate the hand from entry into the catch/pull phase and then into the money-maker phase—the push phase.
Smooth first. Violently fast later.
Keep these tips top of mind, bubbling just under your swim cap, at the pool this week and let me know how it goes.
See you in the water,
Olivier
