MONS Athletics
Swim drills

Fingertip Drag

Swim easy freestyle and let your fingertips skim the surface as each arm comes forward, elbow highest. It teaches a relaxed arm and a clean, quiet hand entry.

catch · No equipment · In Find the Catch

Why it works: Chapter 34, What does a long swim stroke need from your body?

The one cue

Elbow high, fingertips skim

How to do it

  1. 1

    Swim easy freestyle

    Your normal stroke, kick and breathing, just slower. No kit. The part you change is the recovery: the arm travelling over the water from your hip back to the front.

  2. 2

    Elbow up first

    As your hand leaves the water by your hip, lift the elbow and let it lead. The hand hangs loose below it, a little out from your side, never swinging wide.

  3. 3

    Let the fingertips skim

    Fingers soft, tips trailing along the surface all the way forward. If the fingers keep losing the water, drag the back of your wrist instead.

  4. 4

    Roll to make room

    Turn your body so the shoulder of the moving arm comes out of the water. The roll lifts the elbow. Shrugging does not.

  5. 5

    Slide in fingertips first

    The hand goes in ahead of you, between your head and your shoulder, then reaches long. Get it right and the hand slips in with barely a sound. Keep the drag going on breathing strokes too.

Watch for

  • Swimming flat. The shoulder takes the strain and the elbow drops.
  • Stiff fingers. They catch the water and pull the hand in early.
  • Hand swinging out wide. The elbow drops below it and the fingers lose the water.
  • Dragging, then slapping in. The drag is the means; the quiet entry is the point.

Questions

What does it fix?

An arm that swings round low and stiff, then lands thumb first or in the wrong place. When researchers filmed 31 college swimmers, about half the shoulders they looked at dropped the elbow on the recovery, and that error went together with thumb-first and misplaced entries (Virag and colleagues, Sports Health, 2014).

Do I have to recover like this in my normal stroke?

No. The drill teaches a relaxed arm led by the elbow; in your own stroke a slightly wider, straighter arm is fine, and in choppy open water it clears the waves better. If the drill pinches your shoulder, roll more; if it still pinches, stop the drill and swim normally.

Is it the same as the zipper drill?

No. The zipper drags your thumb right up along your side. Here the hand travels a little out from your side, with only the fingertips touching the water.

How much, and when?

2 × 30 seconds, 20 seconds rest, after Catch-Up near the start of an easy swim, while you are fresh. Hard swims skip drills: their job is the effort, and they need you fresh.