Swim: Fingertip Drag Drill

Promotes a Relaxed, Accurate Hand Entry.

The Fingertip Drag Drill involves dragging your fingertips lightly along the water’s surface during the recovery phase of your freestyle stroke. This drill encourages a high elbow recovery and helps promote a relaxed, smooth hand entry into the water, preventing crossovers.

The drill improves stroke efficiency by promoting a high elbow recovery, which reduces drag and creates a smoother, more relaxed arm motion. It also helps refine hand entry, preventing crossovers and encouraging proper alignment for an earlier and more effective catch.

Key Points:

High Elbow: Focus on keeping your elbow high during the recovery phase while your fingertips skim the water’s surface.
Body Alignment: Ensure that your fingertips are moving in a straight line, preventing them from crossing the center line of your body. This improves stroke alignment and reduces drag.
Relaxed Hand Entry: Aim for a soft and controlled entry into the water, allowing for an earlier catch phase during the pull.

Drill Execution:

Start Freestyle Stroke: Begin swimming freestyle and, during the recovery phase, let your fingertips drag lightly across the water’s surface.
Focus on Elbow Height: Keep your elbow higher than your hand throughout the recovery to encourage good stroke mechanics.
Hand Entry: Enter the water fingertips first, directly in line with your shoulder, ensuring a clean, straight path for the stroke.

Progressions:

Incorporate Breathing: Perform the drill while maintaining your regular breathing pattern. Focus on keeping a high elbow even when turning your head to breathe.
Alternate Arms: Focus on one arm at a time, dragging your fingertips on one side while performing a normal stroke with the other. This allows for a more concentrated focus on perfecting the recovery.
With Fins: Add fins to help maintain body position and streamline, allowing you to focus more on the high elbow and fingertip drag.
Single-Arm Fingertip Drag: Isolate one arm while keeping the other extended in front. Focus on fingertip dragging with the active arm while maintaining a streamlined position.

This drill helps refine your freestyle stroke by reinforcing good arm recovery habits and smooth, controlled hand entry into the water.

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