3/30/05 Freestyle: Straight-Arm Recovery
Text and Photo/Video by Glenn Mills
Demonstrated by Scott Tucker
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I received an email recently from a swimmer who had been reading about the pros
and cons of swimming freestyle with a straight-arm recovery. This seems to be a
controver-sial topic these days, and I admit that I had some reservations about
the effectiveness of straight-arm-recovery freeuntil I had a chance to film
Scott Tucker and then watch his stroke in slow motion from a dozen different
angles. Scott, a two-time Olympic medal winner in the 400 free relay and
four-time US National Champion in the 100 free, has convinced me that
straight-arm-recovery free is worth a tryor at least some seri-ous study.
There are many elements of straight-arm-recovery freestyle that we could talk
about, but Id like to address only the main question raised by the swimmer in
the email: If you swim freestyle with a straight-arm recovery, does your upper
body lift out of the wa-ter when you hand enters the water? And would this
cause the lower part of your body to sink?
Lets take a look Scotts stroke and see.
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The first photo shows that, without a doubt,
Scott recovers his arm in a very straight position. His swings his forearm,
wrist, hand, and fingers high above his body during the recovery. Scotts
shoulder comes out of the water, but this doesnt cause the lower half of his
body to sink, i.e., he doesnt lose his balance. You can see this more clearly
in the second photo.
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Why doesnt Scott lose his balance when he swims
this way? There are several rea-sons.
#1. Scotts recovery is very fast. The momentum of his arms helps him to rotate
his body quickly and cleanly. He turns the momentum of his arms into FORWARD
move-ment (rather than up-and-down movement) when he places his hand in the
water. No-tice that Scotts shoulder comes out of the water, but that the rest
of his body stays low and horizontal.
#2. Scotts hand entry is clean and precise. When we think of straight-arm
freestyle, we usually think of a swimmer slamming the hand and arm into the
water on every stroke. Theres no hesitation when Scotts hand enters the
water, but theres no thrash-ing, either. As you can see in the third and
fourth photos (tucker03 and 04), Soctt di-rects his fingers and wrist down into
the water. The hand enters cleanly, fingers first, and is in position to grab
water the instant it enters. What Scott has mastered is the ability to swing
the arms forcefully through the recovery and yet send the hands into the water
with great control. When done correctly, theres more to this stroke than what
most people imagine.
#3. Scott reaches full extension on every stroke. Again, our image of
the straight-arm freestyler is of someone windmilling through the water, never
reaching full extension on any stroke. The fifth photo (tucker 05) shows that
Scotts body continues to rotate as his arm extends completely to get ready for
the next pull.
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These images were captured when Scott was swimming smoothly and slowly. When he
swims faster, a few things change, but Scotts hand continues to enter cleanly
and ex-tend fully, even if just for a moment, on each stroke. If youre a
premium member, youll be able to see Scott hammering some freestyle. Its only
a couple strokes, at the end of the clip, but youll notice that Scott
continues to extend on each stroke.
One thing you wont be able to see on the last part of the video clip is that
Scott is pull-ing a parachute. Youd think that, under this much resistance,
Scott would shorten his stroke and try to grab and pull as quickly as possible.
But no. Scott STILL reaches a bit forward. You can tell by the fact that the
bubbles drop off his hand as it extends for-ward. Bubbles dont fall off like
that if you pull DOWN as the hand enters.
Straight-arm-recovery freestyle isnt for everyone, but it IS for some people,
and de-serves to be experimented with by swimmers of all levels. When executed
properly, it DOESNT cause the body to go out of balance, it DOESNT add more
stress to the shoulder during the recovery, and it DOESNT cause the body to
pop up during the en-try.
The trick is to do it properly, not like an out-of-control, crazed windmill.
