FINIS Tip Of The Week: Head Up Freestyle

Welcome to the “FINIS Tip of the Week.” Swimming World will be bringing you a topic that we’ll explore with drills and concepts for you to implement with your team on a regular basis. While certain weeks may be more appropriate for specific levels of swimming (club, high school, college, or masters), each tip is meant to be flexible for your needs and inclusive for all levels of swimming.

This week’s tip looks at the advantages of using head up freestyle with your freestyle sprinters. Head up freestyle is a great drill to work on developing an early catch during the high tempo swimming necessary for shorter sprints.

The drill is simple: swimming with their head up, swimmers will use a short, high tempo stroke to move themselves down the pool. But the drill helps zero in on important elements of sprint freestyle.

The head up position naturally lowers the hips and legs, forcing swimmers to change their stroke from a long hip-driven stroke to a shorter, flatter, and higher tempo stroke. That change forces swimmers to instinctually drive their arms immediately into their catch and increase their stroke rate, something that makes a natural transition when you move back to traditional sprinting.

Additionally, the change in body alignment in the water also creates a heightened sensory awareness of their body line and what resistance they may be creating in the water.

This is a fantastic drill to include as a progression up to full sprints or in warm up to get ready to sprint. It is also a great tool to use for those who may not naturally be sprinters to examine their strokes in a different way and discover the early vertical forearm catch that is so crucial in sprint swimming.

All swimming and dryland training and instruction should be performed under the supervision of a qualified coach or instructor, and in circumstances that ensure the safety of participants.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use