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One Arm
Swim freestyle with only one arm, your non-working arm should be extended resting on your side. Breath to the opposite side of the arm doing the stroke. When you stretch your arm forward breath and rotate to get you shoulder out of the water.
How will it help?
- Improve your balance
- Help with your rotation
- Focus one arm at the time
-Variations-
One arm straight
Like the one arm drill but keep the non-working arm in front, and you will breath to the side of the arm doing the stroke.
How will it help?
- Improve your reach
- Do not cross your arm
Tarzan
Swim with your head out of the surface of the water looking straight. This will make the hips to sink so you have to engage your core and do a strong kick to keep your hips up.
*Swimmers shouldn’t be taking long, loping strokes and rotating from side to side. Rather, they should be entering the water a little short, driving their arms right into their catch and pulling back fast and strong before the next stroke. Instead of a dramatic rotation on each side, swimmers should focus on having as little movement as possible in their lower body and keeping their hips stable to ride the momentum from each stroke. “James Sica”
If you’re having trouble maintaining the tarzan position you can add fins.
How will it help?
- Body awareness
- Core control
- Faster tempo (sprinters)
- Clearer view (open water)
Finger Tips
When doing the stroke on the recovery of the arm keep your fingers pointing down touching the surface of the water with your fingers on every stroke. Keeping your finger somewhat rigid.
By doing this drill you will see where and how you are entering the water.
How will it help?
- Have a relax recovery.
- Keep a high elbow.
Strokes and Glide
Gliding is an important part of the stroke, specially in distances over a 100. Doing 3 strokes and gliding for about 6 kicks will help you improve your gliding position. Notice the position of your hands and head and adjust if they’re causing frontal drag.
How will it help?
- Rotate better
- Make your stroke more efficient
Dip & Kick
Useful equipment: paddles, snorkel, fins.
One arm resting on the side of your body, with the other arm you will do one stroke once the arm is gliding in front of you will put it back to recovery position doing this 3 times the 3rd time you will do it fast and you will start kicking explosive. Then change arms.
How will it help?
- Improve your explosiveness
- Coordinate your stroke and kick
- Correct hand entry
Glide Rotate Glide
Useful equipment: snorkel, fins.
Some of us don’t rotate enough. This goes hand in hand with the gliding. You need a good rotation in order to glide and to grab more water with each stroke. So practice gliding and rotating your shoulders, then come back and rotate again before taking your next stroke.
How will it help?
- Make your stroke more efficient.
- Swim smoother long distances
Catch-Up
Do one normal arm stroke, keep the other arm still in the front waiting for the arm doing the stroke to catch up. Once the arm doing the stoke reaches the arm in the front do a stroke with the opposite arm.
How will it help?
- Help your distance per stroke
- Improve hand entry so it doesn’t cross over.
- Have a better glide
DPS (Distance Per Stroke)
The distance traveled (in meters or yards) from each individual stroke. Count each stroke per length of the pool (25m, 25y or 50). Counting your strokes is very important. Knowing how many you are doing, and then having a goal of how many you want to do.
Get used to count how many strokes you are doing on a normal rate pace and when you are sprinting. When sprinting the DPS will increase around 30%
How will it help?
- Make your stroke more efficient.
- Understand your swim better.
Closed Fist
Closed fist freestyle just like freestyle but swim with closed fists you will feel like you’re not pulling water and that is the point. Focus on grabbing water with your forearms and upper part of your arms by doing this you will improve your catch and you will feel how important the other part of your arms are to pull effectively.
You will increase your strokes per length when having your fists closed, but once you open your hands feel the power of the pull with your hands. It will eventually help you increase your DPS (distance per stroke)
How will it help?
- Help you use the whole arm to improve the pull.
- Get a better feeling for the water
- Increase your distance per stroke.
-Variations-
Fist sprints
Just like the normal closed-fist drill but FAST!
How will it help?
- Help you spin faster for freestyle sprinting.
- Catch the water faster.
Tube
Try swimming through a tube, not moving around to the sides or/and up and down, just as straight as possible and at the surface of the water. Don’t worry about your speed just focus on reducing that unnecessary drag.
When swimming there is a lot of drag remember it’s much more dense than air, what differences the really good swimmers is their ability to move through the water efficiently meaning creating less drag.
How will it help?
- Get less tired when swimming.
- Body line position
-Variations-
Tube with pullbouy.
Just like the tube drill but with a pullbouy on your thighs or ankles.
How will it help?
- Keep your body up on the surface
- Focus more on the upper body
Freestyle with Dolphin Kicks
Do normal freestyle strokes but instead of doing a flutter kick you will you dolphin kicks, try to do them with some synchronization. Start with a normal pace, and as you get better try to increase the speed.
How will it help?
- Improve stroke rhythm and tempo.
- Improve your coordination.
1 & 1
Put your left paddle and your right fin now swim normal freestyle, try to pull as much water as the hand with the paddle on, and try to have an effective kick with both legs. Engage the core to stabilize your stroke.
How will it help?
- Improve your coordination.
- Stabilize your core
- Improve your pull and kick
Zero Kick
Doing a fast kick it’s essential while swimming sprints to do this drill float on the surface with your arms in a streamline and doing no kick, start by kicking as fast as possible. Feel how the kick should originate from the hips all the way down to your feet.
How will it help?
- Improve your kick reaction.
- Kick speed & explosiviness
- Have a more efficient kick
-Variations-
Kick Competition
Try this have you and another teammate race from the flags to the wall the rules are that you can only use your legs to move forward you cannot push up the floor and you can only do flutter kick have a third person side start the first one to the wall win you will find that it is incredibly difficult to start moving and you will have to move your legs extremely fast in order to move
How will it help?
- Go as fast as possible
Breakout
Break out drill there is really no margin of error in the sprint freestyle event carrying the momentum from the dive or the turn throughout the entire swims is critical for a good fast free a good transition from your underwater to your stroke will help you carry that beep practice kicking in a streamline and doing an explosive breakout leave one arm in front then pull strongly with the other and when the first one is about to finish falling engage the second one as well
How will it help?
- Keep the speed from the dive
- Fast transition
-Variations-
Dolphin Breakout
Finally the closer you are to the surface of the water when you do the breakout the better practice this kick and dive about a meter or yards deep slowly come up and try to break out very close to the surface adjust until the first stroke brings your head out of the water remember not to breathe and the first stroke
How will it help?
- Keep the speed from the dive
- Fast and better transition
Underwater Freestyle Recovery
This will help you feel the frontal drag. It will help your body understand the importance of the pull and the recovery. Try to optimize your pull by grabbing all the water you can while reducing the frontal drag of your other arm by positioning your hand to be always pointing to the front. This drill makes it harder to recover since the recovery is underwater, but it will help you have a more relaxed recovery once you do normal freestyle.
How will it help?
- Improve hand speed
- Catch more water.
- Body line position
Sculling
Your arms should be up at the surface of the water, with your forearms and hands pointing to the bottom of the pool. Sculling in + Sculling out – front of your shoulder line, feeling the water with hands and forearms when you are doing this, with a small little flutter kick to make sure the legs stay up.
How will it help?
- Improve hand speed
- Catch more water.
- Body line position
-Variations-
Sculling High elbow
Pull water backwards from the beginning of your stroke, you must have a high elbow on the first part of the stroke. So try sculling three times and not moving your elbow. Just use your forearm and hands. Then do a normal stroke to change arms. .
How will it help?
- Improve the pull technique.
- Feel for the water