The 3 Types of Grip and the 8 Ways to Train Them | Breaking Muscle

You often hear me talk at the clinic or at the pool about the importance of grip strength with age and in competitive sports, especially swimming.  Upper extremity strength shoulder irradiate distal to proximal beginning in the finger tips and progressing through hand, wrist, forearm, shoulder and finally the core.

In freestyle, several key factors must be in play first such as posture, body line and balance with buoyancy points in the water.  These variables of PLB help set-up the alignment of the lead arm as it drops into the catch position, creating the opportunity for the hand, wrist and forearm muscles to anchor securely to the water.

Keys:

1. Lead arm sets-up the axis of rotation
2. Alignment directly in front of the shoulder line or 2 line.
3. Early catch results from wrist flexion to "lock" the fingers, hand and forearm to the water.
4. Pull along the contour of the body

Here is a link to a article on building grip strength.

Forearm muscles

Just as a rock climber must be able to reach and grip with the tips of their fingers, so must swimmers be able grip the water with the same conviction and up-front strength to propel them forward in the water. However, swimmers are a little different because they need to do it several thousands times in a training block which requires more endurance strength.

The 3 Types of Grip and the 8 Ways to Train Them''

There will be more on this subject later, but start thinking about how your going to train for better grip strength.

Dr. Brett