SAMPLE: Do you teach back of hand or little finger exit in back crawl?
If yes, have you asked yourself why? Is it because your course tutor told you this was required?
Some years ago, we held a week long clinic* for club swimmers, the purpose of which was to look at all the aspects that were not being covered in their club environment (physical assessment, swimming fitness, land training, competitive psychology, stroke technique, etc) and during one of the sessions, we carried out an exercise (without telling the swimmer what we were looking at) to swim a length of backcrawl and we found that there was no consensus at all in how the hand exited the water, it happened every which way.
What this tells us is that it’s totally unnecessary, because if the propulsive hand action is correct, then it will happen automatically, or will it? and if not, does it matter? Moreover, the correct hand action is a subject of some debate and will vary depending on the swimmer. What is important is that each swimmer is using the propulsive arm action as effectively as they are able, the rest will follow.
It’s fair to say that there is probably reasonable consensus on what constitutes the most effective path and this will be covered at a later date, in the meantime, think about what you are teaching and as yourself whether its right or wrong, necessary or unnecessary, useful or pointless, getting effective results or making imperceptible difference.
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