If you have a backstroker who habitually overreaches into their catch, here’s a quick and simple way to help them understand what they’re doing.

Why do it:
Overreaching is typically the athlete searching to grab the most water, so they send their arm over their head toward the opposite shoulder. It slows down rate and puts the arm in a non-productive position... so it needs to be fixed!

How to do it:
1 - You can tell the athlete to move their arms out further, but typically, it’ll look pretty much exactly the same.
2 - What we like to do is hold the iPhone over the swimmer and film them straight down.  We meet them at the end of each length and ask them how wide it felt, then we show them the video.
3 - We continue the process until they actually move their hands out into a productive position.

How to do it really well (the fine points):
Have the swimmer show you where they feel their arms are entering the water.  Chances are, they feel they’re putting their hands in a LOT wider than they actually are.

The goal here is to associate the FEEL for the location of entry, with the VISUAL of the location of entry.  Until they know how wide it has to feel before it starts to look correct, they’ll continue to focus on force rather than the quick catch.  This typically only takes a couple lengths to help them fix the overreach.

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Overreach Fix with Video