Catch-up is probably one of the best-known freestyle swimming drills.
If you’ve spent much time swimming with a squad, you’ve almost certainly done it. One arm remains extended in front while the other completes an entire stroke. The recovering hand “catches up” with the stationary hand before the next stroke begins.
It’s simple. It’s easy to explain. And it has been used by swimming coaches for decades.
But I’m not a big fan of it.
That’s not because catch-up is automatically a bad drill. There are situations where it can be useful.
My concern is that for many adult swimmers and triathletes, catch-up exaggerates something we’re actually trying to remove from their freestyle: a pause at the front of the stroke.
Rather than asking whether catch-up is a good or bad drill, we should ask a much better coaching question:
What problem are we trying to solve?
Because the best drill is the one that helps correct the problem in front of us.
What Is Catch-Up Drill?
Traditional catch-up drill involves completing one full arm stroke while the opposite arm remains extended in front.
The recovering hand returns to the front and effectively “catches” the stationary hand before the other arm begins its stroke.
The drill is commonly prescribed to help swimmers:
- lengthen their stroke;
- improve alignment;
- slow down a rushed stroke;
- develop front-quadrant swimming;
- concentrate on one arm at a time; and
- improve awareness of hand entry and extension.
Those can all be legitimate objectives.
The problem is what else the swimmer may learn while performing the drill.
The Problem With Waiting Out Front
Good freestyle shouldn’t involve simply throwing one arm forward and leaving it there while we wait for the other hand to arrive.
The lead arm should be doing something.
After entering and extending, the swimmer needs to begin establishing the catch so they can progressively apply pressure against the water and move into the propulsive phase of the stroke.
Think:
Entry → Extension → Catch → Press
rather than:
Entry → Extension → Wait → Wait → Catch.
That difference matters.
When we deliberately leave the hand stationary at the front during catch-up drill, we introduce a period when neither arm may be producing meaningful propulsion.
The swimmer slows.
Then they have to accelerate again.
For swimmers who already pause at the front of their stroke, traditional catch-up can therefore reinforce the exact behaviour we’re trying to change.
Catch-Up Can Make an Overglider Even More of an Overglider
This is particularly relevant to the swimmer Swim Smooth describes as an Overglider.
An Overglider typically has a relatively low stroke rate and an obvious pause at the front of the stroke. They can look long and smooth in the water, but that apparent smoothness isn’t necessarily efficient.
They repeatedly accelerate and decelerate.
Often these swimmers have spent years being told things such as:
“Make your stroke longer.”
“Reach further.”
“Glide.”
Or:
“Try to take fewer strokes per length.”
They’ve become very good at doing exactly what they’ve been taught.
The problem is that they’ve confused stroke length with pausing.
You can have a long, effective freestyle stroke without stopping your hand at the front.
If I have an Overglider in front of me, prescribing catch-up drill doesn’t make much sense.
I’d effectively be saying:
“Let’s take the thing you’re already doing too much of and practise doing even more of it.”
Stroke Length Doesn’t Mean Glide
This distinction is worth emphasising.
A good swimmer can have excellent stroke length while maintaining continuous movement.
The lead arm can remain in the front quadrant while the recovering arm moves forwards without becoming stationary.
There’s a progression:
Extend → establish the catch → apply pressure → press backwards.
The movements overlap and flow into one another.
That’s very different from reaching forwards, stopping and waiting for the other hand.
One coaching cue I particularly like is:
Patient, but never stationary.
We don’t necessarily want the swimmer rushing into the catch.
But neither do we want them parking their hand at the front of the stroke.
What Does the Research Tell Us?
Swimming researchers have examined the timing relationship between the two arms using what is known as the Index of Coordination (IdC).
Broadly, freestyle coordination can be described as:
Catch-up: there is a time gap between one arm finishing its propulsive phase and the opposite arm beginning propulsion.
Opposition: one arm begins propulsion approximately as the other finishes.
Superposition: the propulsive phases overlap.
Research by Chollet and colleagues has shown that swimmers can alter this coordination depending on swimming speed and other demands.
As speed increases, swimmers commonly increase their stroke rate and move towards greater continuity or overlap between propulsive phases.
That doesn’t mean every swimmer should use exactly the same timing.
There isn’t one universally perfect freestyle stroke.
Body dimensions, swimming speed, skill level, event distance, buoyancy, kick contribution and the individual swimmer all influence effective technique.
But the research does reinforce an important coaching principle:
Freestyle coordination isn’t simply about making the stroke as long as possible.
Rhythm and continuity matter too.
Catch-Up Coordination Isn’t the Same as Catch-Up Drill
There’s another important distinction.
Research papers sometimes describe elite swimmers as using catch-up coordination, particularly at slower swimming speeds.
That can sound as though elite swimmers are effectively performing catch-up drill when they swim.
They’re not.
“Catch-up” in this context describes the timing between the propulsive phases of the arms.
It doesn’t necessarily mean the lead hand is sitting stationary while the recovering hand travels all the way forwards and touches it.
The lead arm may already be transitioning through extension and into the catch while the opposite arm recovers.
That’s very different from deliberately performing traditional catch-up drill.
What I Prefer Instead
One reason I’m rarely inclined to use catch-up is that there are other drills I think do a better job of addressing the problems for which catch-up is commonly prescribed.
This is where the Swim Smooth drill methodology is particularly useful.
Rather than dramatically changing freestyle and hoping the movement eventually transfers back into normal swimming, we can progressively build the stroke.
For body position, alignment and rotation, a very useful progression is:
Kick on Side → 6/1/6 → 6/3/6 → Freestyle
Each step adds another layer of complexity.
Step One: Kick on Side
Kick on Side removes most of the complexity of freestyle.
That allows the swimmer to concentrate on:
- posture;
- head position;
- body alignment;
- rotation;
- balance; and
- lead-arm position.
Instead of trying to fix six things while swimming freestyle, we isolate some of the foundations first.
Once those are established, we can begin adding the stroke back in.
Step Two: 6/1/6
The swimmer kicks on their side for approximately six kicks, performs one stroke and rotates onto the opposite side.
Now we’ve introduced:
catch → pull → recovery → rotation.
But only for one stroke.
The swimmer can concentrate on maintaining the posture and alignment they established during Kick on Side while learning how the stroke connects the two sides.
Interestingly, there can be something resembling catch-up timing within this drill.
That’s okay.
The difference is that the exaggerated timing is being used temporarily as part of a progression.
We’re not telling the swimmer that this is how their normal freestyle should ultimately look.
Step Three: 6/3/6
Now we make the task more challenging.
Instead of one stroke between the two sides, the swimmer performs three strokes.
We’re getting progressively closer to normal freestyle.
The swimmer has to maintain their:
alignment → rotation → catch → rhythm
across several strokes rather than just one.
Then we transition back into normal swimming.
The progression becomes:
Kick on Side → 6/1/6 → 6/3/6 → Freestyle.
For many swimmers, I find this much more useful than simply prescribing catch-up.
What If the Problem Is the Catch?
Then I’d use a different progression.
If the swimmer struggles to establish an effective catch or can’t feel pressure against the water, I like the Swim Smooth progression of:
Scull #1 → Doggy Paddle → Freestyle.
Sculling allows the swimmer to concentrate on feeling pressure against the hand and forearm.
Doggy Paddle then introduces more of the underwater stroke while removing the distraction of the recovery.
Then we put everything back together.
A particularly useful sequence can be:
5–10 m Scull #1 → 10 m Doggy Paddle → Freestyle to the wall.
Rather than doing an entire length of a drill, we’re asking the swimmer to immediately transfer what they’ve just felt into their freestyle.
That’s an important part of effective drill work.
Drill, Then Swim
This is something I think gets overlooked.
Being good at swimming drills doesn’t necessarily make you a good swimmer.
The purpose of the drill is to improve your swimming.
That’s why I often prefer short doses of a drill followed immediately by normal freestyle.
For example:
25 m drill + 25 m freestyle
or even:
6–10 strokes of the drill → freestyle to the wall.
The question becomes:
Can you maintain the sensation from the drill when you start swimming normally?
That’s where the real learning happens.
So Is Catch-Up Ever Useful?
Absolutely.
Catch-up still has a place in the coaching toolbox.
The important thing is prescribing it to the right swimmer for the right reason.
A Swimmer Who Drops Their Lead Arm Too Early
Some swimmers immediately collapse the lead arm as the opposite arm begins its recovery.
This can be particularly noticeable when they breathe.
Instead of maintaining support and alignment through the front of the stroke, the lead arm disappears underneath them.
A small amount of catch-up can exaggerate the opposite behaviour and teach the swimmer what it feels like to retain the lead arm for longer.
Once they’ve experienced that sensation, however, I’d begin moving them back towards normal freestyle.
A Swimmer Who Rushes Their Stroke
Some swimmers have extremely rushed or windmill-like timing.
Again, catch-up can temporarily exaggerate the opposite end of the spectrum.
It allows them to experience what having an arm in the front quadrant feels like.
But the objective isn’t necessarily to turn them into a catch-up swimmer.
It’s to help them find an appropriate point somewhere between their original rushed stroke and an exaggerated catch-up stroke.
Teaching Hand Entry and Alignment
Catch-up can also give swimmers additional time to concentrate on where the hand enters and extends.
This can be useful when addressing a crossover or excessively wide entry.
But again, other drills—particularly Kick on Side and 6/1/6—may achieve the same objective without introducing as large a pause into the stroke.
Try “Almost Catch-Up”
If I do want to alter a swimmer’s timing, I often prefer something closer to three-quarter catch-up rather than traditional full catch-up.
Instead of waiting until the recovering hand reaches the lead hand, the swimmer begins establishing their catch earlier.
For example:
As the recovering hand passes the head, the lead arm starts moving into the catch.
The swimmer still experiences having an arm out in front.
But we’re reducing the artificial dead spot.
The goal isn’t:
Wait longer.
It’s:
Improve the timing between the arms.
That’s an important difference.
Match the Drill to the Problem
This is ultimately the bigger coaching lesson.
Don’t perform a drill simply because it’s a famous swimming drill.
Ask what you’re trying to change.
If the problem is body alignment, consider Kick on Side.
If it’s rotation and stroke integration, try 6/1/6 and 6/3/6.
If it’s feel for the water, use Scull #1.
If it’s catch mechanics, progress from Scull #1 into Doggy Paddle and then freestyle.
If it’s overgliding, catch-up probably isn’t your friend.
And if the swimmer is dropping the lead arm or dramatically rushing their stroke, catch-up may be exactly the temporary exaggeration you need.
That’s coaching.
The drill should fit the swimmer—not the other way around.
My Take on Catch-Up Drill
I don’t think catch-up deserves to be banned from swimming programmes.
But I also don’t think it deserves its traditional position as one of the default drills every swimmer should routinely perform.
For many adult swimmers and triathletes—especially swimmers with a low stroke rate and an obvious pause at the front—it can reinforce exactly the movement pattern we’re trying to remove.
Instead, I prefer progressive drill sequences such as:
Kick on Side → 6/1/6 → 6/3/6 → Freestyle
for alignment, posture and rotation, and:
Scull #1 → Doggy Paddle → Freestyle
for developing the catch.
Catch-up then remains available as a specific corrective tool.
Use it when the swimmer needs it.
Use it briefly.
And then transfer the correction back into normal freestyle.
Because ultimately, the goal isn’t to become better at drills.
The goal is to become a better swimmer.
References and Further Reading
Young, A; Newsome, P; Swim Smooth: The Complete Coaching System for Swimmers and Triathletes
Chollet D, Chalies S, Chatard JC. A new index of coordination for the crawl: description and usefulness. International Journal of Sports Medicine. 2000.
Carmigniani, Remi & Seifert, Ludovic & Didier, Chollet & Clanet, Christophe. (2020). Coordination changes in front-crawl swimming. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.
U.S. Masters Swimming. Freestyle recovery and catch-up drill resources.
Coach Ray. Coach Ray’s Top 3 Swimming Drills to Get You Swimming Smooth.
Coach Ray. Saturday Swim Session: Technique Sandwich Session.