What the Catch-Up Drill Is
The catch-up drill is one of the most popular swimming exercises for developing better freestyle technique. In this drill, you swim freestyle with one important change: you wait for your recovering hand to "catch up" to your lead hand before starting your next stroke. Both hands meet in front of your head, touching or nearly touching, before one arm pulls while the other recovers.
Think of it as a slow-motion version of freestyle where you pause between strokes. Instead of the continuous, alternating arm motion you use in regular swimming, the catch-up drill forces you to complete one full stroke cycle before beginning the next. This deliberate pause creates space for learning and allows you to focus on specific aspects of your technique that might get lost in the rush of normal swimming.
The drill gets its name from the "catch-up" moment when your hands meet. This meeting point happens in the glide position, with your arms extended in front of you, your body streamlined, and your head in a neutral position. From there, one arm pulls through while the other stays extended, then the recovering arm catches up again before the next pull begins.
Why It's Effective for Learning
The catch-up drill works because it breaks down the complex movement of freestyle into manageable pieces. When you swim at normal speed, everything happens quickly and simultaneously. Your brain processes dozens of movements at once, making it hard to identify and fix specific problems. The catch-up drill slows everything down, giving you time to think about what your body is doing.
By isolating each stroke, you can feel the difference between a good pull and a weak one. You notice when your elbow drops or when you're pulling too straight. You become aware of your body position during the glide phase, which is harder to sense during continuous swimming. This increased awareness is the foundation of technical improvement.
The drill also builds proprioception, which is your sense of where your body is in space. Better proprioception means you can replicate good technique without constantly thinking about it. Over time, the correct movements you practice in the drill become automatic in your regular swimming.
Another reason the drill works well is that it gives you immediate feedback. When you extend into the glide position after each stroke, you can feel whether you're balanced or lopsided, streamlined or draggy. This instant feedback loop accelerates learning because you can make adjustments stroke by stroke.
Proper Execution Technique
Start by pushing off the wall and establishing a good glide position. Both arms should be extended in front of you, shoulder-width apart or slightly wider. Your hands can touch or be a few inches apart. Keep your head in line with your spine, looking at the bottom of the pool about a meter ahead.
Begin your first stroke with one arm. As that arm pulls back, focus on a high elbow catch and a strong pull all the way through to your hip. While this arm is pulling and recovering, your other arm stays extended in front, maintaining a streamlined position. Kick steadily throughout to keep your hips up and your body balanced.
As your recovering arm comes forward, it should enter the water in front of your shoulder and extend forward to meet your lead hand. Only when the recovering hand reaches the lead hand position do you begin the next stroke with the opposite arm. This meeting point is crucial. Don't rush it.
Breathe naturally, rotating your head to the side during the pull phase just as you would in regular freestyle. Don't lift your head or over-rotate. Your breathing should fit naturally into the stroke cycle without disrupting your body position or the rhythm of the drill.
Maintain a steady kick throughout. Six-beat kick works well, but even a gentle two-beat or four-beat kick is fine as long as it keeps your legs from sinking. The kick isn't the focus of this drill, but it's essential for maintaining proper body position.
Common Mistakes in the Drill
The most frequent mistake is not actually waiting for the hands to catch up. Many swimmers start their next stroke when the recovering hand is still halfway through its recovery. This defeats the purpose of the drill because you lose the pause that allows for technical focus and body awareness.
Another common error is letting the lead arm sink during the glide phase. Your extended arm should stay near the surface, not drop down toward the pool bottom. A sinking lead arm creates drag and disrupts your body position. Keep that lead arm strong and engaged, with a slight pressure on the water to maintain position.
Many swimmers also stop kicking or kick inconsistently during the drill. When your kick fades, your hips sink and your body position deteriorates. This creates bad habits that transfer back to your regular swimming. Keep that kick going steadily, even if it's gentle.
Over-gliding is another issue. Some swimmers extend the pause so long that they lose momentum completely and their body position collapses. The catch-up drill should still have forward motion. You're swimming slowly and deliberately, not stopping between strokes.
Poor breathing technique shows up more in the catch-up drill because each action is more visible. Lifting your head to breathe instead of rotating, or holding your breath between breaths, will disrupt your streamline and body position. Breathe smoothly and naturally, just as you would in regular swimming.
Benefits for Body Position
The catch-up drill is excellent for developing better body position because it gives you extended time in the glide phase. During this phase, you can feel whether your body is balanced and horizontal or whether your hips are sinking. This awareness helps you make corrections that carry over to your regular swimming.
The drill teaches you to maintain a streamlined position with one arm extended. This extended arm position is the same position you should be in at the front of every stroke during normal freestyle. By practicing this position repeatedly in the drill, you develop the muscle memory and core strength needed to hold it consistently.
You also learn to keep your body stable during the stroke cycle. When one arm pulls, there's a tendency to twist or fishtail. The catch-up drill makes this instability obvious because you have time to feel it. As you work on keeping your hips and shoulders stable during each stroke, you develop better core control that improves your overall swimming efficiency.
The drill encourages good head position as well. Because you're moving more slowly, you can focus on keeping your head still and looking down rather than forward. This proper head position helps your hips stay up and reduces drag throughout your body.
Benefits for Catch Mechanics
The catch is the moment when your hand and forearm engage the water at the beginning of your pull. Getting this right is crucial for an effective freestyle stroke, and the catch-up drill is one of the best ways to develop a strong catch.
Because the drill isolates each stroke, you can focus completely on how your hand enters the water and how you set up your catch. You have time to think about extending your arm forward, then pressing down and back with a high elbow. This deliberate practice builds the neural pathways that create an automatic, effective catch.
The drill also helps you feel the difference between a good catch and a poor one. A strong catch with a high elbow creates immediate pressure on your forearm and hand. A weak catch with a dropped elbow feels mushy and ineffective. This sensory feedback helps you understand what you're aiming for.
You learn to be patient with your catch. Many swimmers rush the early part of their pull, essentially slipping through the water without engaging it properly. The catch-up drill teaches you to take your time setting up each stroke, which leads to more power and efficiency when you return to normal swimming.
The extended glide position also helps you practice entering the water cleanly and extending fully before starting your catch. This extension is important for maximizing your stroke length and finding the optimal catch position.
Variations of Catch-Up Drill
The standard catch-up drill has both hands meeting in front, but you can modify this to target different aspects of your technique. In the "three-quarter catch-up" variation, you start your next stroke when the recovering hand is about three-quarters of the way forward, not quite at full extension. This creates a rhythm closer to normal swimming while still maintaining some of the drill's benefits.
You can also try "fingertip drag catch-up," where you drag your fingertips along the surface of the water during the recovery phase. This variation emphasizes a high elbow recovery and helps you focus on the recovery path. The drag creates resistance that makes you more aware of your arm movement.
Another useful variation is to do catch-up with a pull buoy. This eliminates the need to focus on your kick and allows you to concentrate entirely on your arm movements and body rotation. It's particularly helpful if you're working on specific catch mechanics or pull patterns.
Single-arm catch-up is more advanced. In this version, you keep one arm extended at all times and swim using only the other arm for several strokes before switching. This creates an even longer pause between strokes and really isolates the working arm.
You can also combine catch-up with fist swimming, where you make a fist instead of keeping your hand open. This forces you to use your forearm more in the pull and helps develop better catch mechanics and forearm awareness.
When to Use Catch-Up Drill
The catch-up drill works best as part of your warm-up or during dedicated technique sets. It's not a drill you'd typically use during hard interval work or race-pace swimming. Save it for times when you can focus on movement quality rather than speed or effort.
Early in your swimming journey, you might use catch-up frequently, perhaps in every workout. It's one of the foundational drills that helps you develop basic freestyle technique. As you become more experienced, you might use it less often but return to it when you notice your technique slipping or when you want to work on specific aspects of your stroke.
The drill is valuable when you're tired and your technique is starting to break down. A few lengths of catch-up can reset your stroke mechanics and help you finish your workout with better form. Think of it as a technique refresh button you can press when needed.
It's also useful when you're working on a specific technical change. If you're trying to develop a higher elbow catch or improve your extension, doing catch-up sets allows you to practice that change in a controlled, focused way. The slow pace gives you time to implement the new movement pattern.
Use catch-up at the beginning of the season or after a break from swimming. It helps you rebuild your technique foundation and reestablish good movement patterns. Even elite swimmers return to basic drills like catch-up during certain phases of their training.
Progressing Beyond Catch-Up
The catch-up drill is a learning tool, not an end in itself. As your technique improves, you'll want to progress toward more normal swimming patterns while maintaining the benefits you've developed. The three-quarter catch-up variation mentioned earlier is a good intermediate step.
Another progression is to gradually speed up your catch-up swimming. Start at a very slow, deliberate pace, then over several weeks, increase the tempo slightly while still maintaining the catch-up timing. This helps bridge the gap between drill pace and swimming pace.
You can also reduce the emphasis on the pause. Instead of waiting for full hand contact, just touch fingertips briefly before starting your next stroke. Then progress to swimming with your hands passing near each other but not quite touching. Eventually, you're swimming normally but with the longer extension and better timing you developed through catch-up.
Building stroke count awareness helps you maintain your stroke length as you move away from catch-up. Count your strokes per length during catch-up, then try to maintain a similar count during normal swimming. This ensures you're keeping the extension and efficiency you practiced.
Mix catch-up with normal swimming within the same set. For example, do 25 meters of catch-up followed immediately by 25 meters of regular swimming. This helps transfer the technique from drill to swimming. Pay attention to maintaining the same body position and catch mechanics when you switch to normal swimming.
Incorporating into Workouts
Start your swim workouts with a few hundred meters of easy swimming, then add 200 to 400 meters of catch-up as part of your warm-up. This gets your technique dialed in before moving to harder efforts. Break it into 50-meter or 100-meter repeats rather than swimming it all at once.
During your main set, you can insert short catch-up intervals between harder efforts. For example, after a set of fast 100s, do 50 meters of catch-up to reset your technique before the next interval. This helps prevent your form from deteriorating as you get tired.
Create dedicated technique sets using catch-up as the primary drill. For example: 6 x 100 meters, alternating 50 meters catch-up with 50 meters normal swimming, focusing on maintaining the same stroke length in both. Rest 20 seconds between repeats.
You can also use catch-up for active recovery between hard sets. Instead of resting completely or swimming very slowly, do some catch-up lengths. This keeps you moving and helps you focus on good technique while your heart rate comes down.
For longer sessions, include a catch-up set in the middle of your workout. This serves as a technique checkpoint and helps maintain form quality throughout the session. Even 200 meters of focused catch-up can make a difference in how well you swim the rest of your workout.
Experiment with different distances and intensities. Sometimes doing 25-meter repeats allows for maximum focus on each stroke. Other times, longer 200-meter or 300-meter swims at a steady pace help you develop consistency and endurance in your technique.