What is Sculling
WHAT
Sculling is the technique of moving yourself through the water using only hand motions. Often times it is done wearing a pull buoy, so you aren’t utilizing your legs at all. It is not a complete pull, only your hands and/or forearms should be moving. Sculling can take various forms (on your stomach, on your back, head first, feet first) but the concept is you are using hand movements to propel yourself through the water. Repeat: it is not a full stroke or pull. Because a picture (or video) is worth a thousand words, below is a short video of what sculling looks like:
above video via myswimpro
The actual hand motions you use can vary greatly (more of a scooping hand motion, figure 8s, moving your hands in and out of a Y position…), depending on what part of your catch you want to work on. How will you know you’re doing it right? Your forearms will be completely dead by the end.
WHY
Why do we do this ridiculous looking drill? A few reasons:
To improve your feel for the water. A scull should simulate the very early part of your catch (when you put your hand in the water and begin your pull). When people ask, “Should I cup my hands when I swim?” or “What does it mean to keep your elbow up?”, sculling will answer those questions for you. You will feel what works, what hand position and angles move you forward and keep the focus on your hands and forearms as opposed to your shoulders. This in turn will…
Help prevent shoulder injuries. Really isolating your hands and making sure you aren’t putting unnecessary pressure on your shoulders encourages proper technique.
Strength. You will FEEL this in your forearms.
HOW
Again, please see above video. This article from SwimSwam (also linked below) lists out some of the basic ways to scull if you’d like a written version.
WHEN
Really anytime. You can use sculling at the beginning of a workout to warm things up, in the middle of a workout—or mixed in as part of a swim set—to kind of re-set your catch, or at the end of a workout to engage those muscles when they are fatigued. It is a great drill to include on recovery days. Sculling is not a race. The whole purpose is to slow down and bring your attention to your catch.
Once you get the hang of it (and realize that slowing down is sometimes the best thing you can do to get yourself to go fast), sculling is a wonderful use of your time in the water. Everybody should do it. Highly recommend. Get on it.
Some additional resources:
Sculling for Swimmers (yourswimlog)