An EN athlete – a guy who’s been to Kona three times, knocking on the door of sub-10 hours there – asked about exercises to improve his swim catch and pull. Although I am a particularly mediocre swimmer, this is something I;ve given a lot of thought to. So I wrote:
Grabbing and holding firmly onto the water perpendicular to your direction of travel is in my opinion the key to successful swimming. It is very hard to see in underwater videos, but it is probably (along with preternatural flexibility especially of shoulders, knees and ankles) what separates us from the folks who can really swim. Back in the ’60s, when I was learning how to swim and coach others, leading swim coaches talked about having a good “feel” for the water. I think this is what they mean.
And, holding those hands in the proper position throughout the length of the stroke is in part dependent on the strength of your forearms. I proved this to myself in 2010/11 when I damaged my spinal cord at levels C 5-7, weakening specifically those muscles and even losing function entirely in two of them on my right hand and arm. Once my fitness returned after about 4-6 months, I discovered that I had lost swim speed, despite not losing any run or bike speed. Specifically, my times were 10% lower than 6 months earlier, about the same as suddenly having my times for yards be the same as they had been for meters. I can only explain this by the strength I permanently lost in my upper extremities due to the peculiar nature of that injury.
I started physical therapy then which I have continued, including weight training for wrist flexion (wrist curls) and extension (what might be termed “french wrist curls”). It’s provided a small amount of benefit (which has been overwhelmed by the inevitable effect of getting older, but that’s another story). You could see if your wrists are as weak as mine with two simple dumbbell exercises. The flexion – rest your forearms in your knee with palm facing you – came back fairly quickly. I started at 10 lbs, 3 x 12, and quickly doubled that. I can now routinely do 25 lbs. The other way – rotate your forearms 180 degrees inward, holding the weight in your fist, lifting it up and down – I went from 3 lbs slowly over years to 10 lbs. I don’t know what “good” is for these exercises, but if you are not doing better than that, then consider yourself on a par with a 67 y/o guy who’s had a spinal cord injury. My PT says these particular muscles can handle work like this on a daily basis, and that high reps is better than heavy weight for making them stronger. Or, play a lot of tennis with both hand; become a carpenter, wielding a hammer 3 hours a day. I’ve noticed those folks seem to have pretty strong forearms!
If you pass that test, and don’t seem to be lacking raw strength, then consider using paddles specifically for this purpose. Years ago, Coach Rich wrote about how to become a ninja with paddles – the end result being black and brown belts don’t use the rubber straps to hold the paddles on their hands. Brown belt: grab the outside edges of the paddles throughout the underwater stroke. Black belt: shift your fingers while underwater so they are on the surface, not the edge of the paddle. If your hand position is weak and/or fluttering through the water, you’ll quickly find out as the paddles slide off your hands.
So I started using the paddles without straps, and often will throw in a 50 or 2 at the end of every mini-set, just to re-set in my mind the feeling of pushing properly against the water. Also, the paddles make it real obvious where your hand is pointing at any point in the course of the stroke.
Remember, your wrists are not meant to be fixed during the stroke. Instead, they start out flexed 90 degrees, and move during the course of the stroke to extended 90 degrees.