Frontcrawl high elbow recovery enable the student’s arm and hand to re-enter the water smoothly, setting up for an early catch phase of the stroke. The Salute drill is one way to teach this to younger students.
When the student is proficient with Frontcrawl straight arms recovery, we can then teach them High Elbow Recovery. The Salute drill is one of the effective method to introduce a smooth hand entry which setup an early catch phase of the stroke.
How to do it
1. As the arm recovers out from the water, maintain the straight arm until the apex.
2. Bend at elbow, allow the hand to touch the forehead, like doing a salute.
3. Hand (fingers first) enters the water like an “spear”.
How to do it well
1. Resist the urge to bend at elbow before arm reach the apex.
2. Hands touch the top of the head instead of forehead.
3. As your hand re-enters the water, extend your “spear” by rotating your shoulder.
Gradually, ask the student to “forget” about the Salute, you will notice the high elbow recovery will still remain.
Here is a video that shows how it is done. Notice the child is not able to “spear” with her hands yet.
