One very important aspect of drills is they are done correctly. To do this you must concentrate on form. Understand why you are doing a particular drill and what the correct hand, head body position is for that drill. If you are not sure what you are meant to be doing ASK.....some one who knows. I will post sessions here from now on as they get lost in Whatapp cyberspace.
Swim Drills
The purpose of the following drills is to be able to improve the feel for the water and economy of effort. Improved efficiency will help your swim fitness and to be as fresh as possible for the bike and the run. Being economical will make swimming fast seem easier and allow you to swim longer and faster before slowing down. Swim drills should be carried out slowly, concentrating on technique and form. Here are some of the common ones for front crawl.
CATCHUP:
superman position, long and tall in the water. Do not pull thru until recovery hand has stretched past outstretched hand. Keep movement slow, catching as much water as possible.
FINGER DRAG:
Recovery of stroke trail fingers thru water parallel to the body. Helps improve high elbow and shorter route back to entry of hand into the water.
6/3/6: A great drill for developing body balance and rotation. Great swimmers are constantly balanced on one side or the other, or moving between the two. They NEVER swim flat in the water. Think of your arms as levers to help you rotate from one side balance to the other side, and you won’t go far wrong. The 6-3-6 drill is great at developing this.
Leave the other one out in front of you as you take six kicks (three with each leg) balanced on your side, so your tummy button is pointing at the wall, not the floor of the pool. Your face should be looking down at the bottom of the pool, but your tummy pointing at the wall. After six kicks, perform three strokes (and breathe while you are doing them!) so that you end up balanced on your other side, tummy button pointing at the other wall, face looking at the floor of the pool.
The key to this drill is to feel as though you are trying to balance on your armpit – you’ll need to consciously ‘press down’ that armpit into the water. Kicking should be light and relaxed. Fins will really help you keep momentum.
FIN KICK DRILL:
Hated by most swimmers but is good workout for you to improve swim balance. Aim to kick from the hips and not the knees. Back stroke kicking putting your arms around a float is a good way to learn this and allows you to work harder than front crawl kicking because you can breathe all the time.
Front crawl kicking try and breath every 5-10 seconds otherwise you will keep lifting your head and change your position plus this can cause strain on your lower back. You can breathe sideways like you would do front crawl.
FIST:
Swim normally, but instead of having an open palm, make a fist with both hands and keep it like that through the whole stroke. It will feel VERY strange – at first it will feel like you have nothing to pull against! That is OK –the purpose of this drill is to help you realise that you can use your whole forearm as a paddle – but again, you will have to keep your elbow high as you catch (under the water) and feel as though you are ‘reaching over a barrel.’
PULL BOUY:
Breaststroke with a pull buoy is a good sculling exercise and helps you learn the art of good feel for the water and improves shoulder power.
OPEN FINGERS:
Fingers opened are good for warm down or warm up high cadence like riding a bike in an easy gear. This drill is used by top triathletes in the lake swim warm up, helps get the blood into the right muscles without creating too much fatigue.
SHOULDER TAP:
After exiting hand from water get your fingers to brush on top of your shoulder then your top of head before entering the water. Improves high elbow recovery.
CHICKEN WING/UNDER ARM TOUCH:
with thumb at right angles to fingers touches armpit fingers (below knuckles) trailing slowly thru water. This causes a high elbow which gives you a slow recovery, a swinging round of the arm has to cover more distance hinders recovery and causes you to be imbalanced in the water.
SIDE ZIPPER:
Trace your thumb of your recovering arm from your hip up to your armpit, before placing it into the water normally. Excellent for getting you to swim on your side and learning to balance on that side.
Regards
Mike