Swimming provides an effective aerobic workout, as well as helping build endurance and muscles. While it's not a weight-bearing exercise, so it does not build your bone density, it is an ideal exercise in combination with a variety of weight-bearing workouts. The downside to swimming is that it can become a bit of a bore. By trying swimming drills, you can enhance your technique and spice up your workout.
Focus
Most drills are focused on perfecting a specific technique. While many drills are specific to a stroke, certain drills are common across strokes. Make sure you practice drills slowly, as swimming is a sport that is about refined technique as well as speed. In addition, for endurance swims, which tend to be wearing, the better your technique, the more efficient your swim and the lower your chance of injury.
Distance Per Stroke
Efficient technique maximize the distance you swim per stroke. Several drills focus on maximizing distance per stroke. The simplest focuses on counting the number of strokes in one lap and then working to minimize it by one for each lap you swim. Swim Count and Turn, or SCAT, adds the number of strokes per lap -- or set if you're swimming more than one lap -- to the time taken to complete the stroke, or set. The goal is to maintain or lower your SCAT count over a series of laps or sets, resting about 15 seconds between sets or laps.
Kick Drills
Some drills break your stroke down into component parts to focus exclusively on improving one part of your stroke. Kick drills focus on maximizing the power of your leg movement. You typically use a kickboard for a kick drill, which keeps your upper body afloat. Kick drills can also enhance the social aspect of your workout, as you can chat in the swimmers in the lanes on either side.
With kick drills, you can simply complete a series of laps using only your favorite stroke's kick, or try a more complex drill. Laps help build muscle endurance, but require some focus as you also want to ensure you're kicking correctly. More complex drills include dropping the kickboard and keeping your arms at your side, or on either side of your head. This allows you to focus on your body position and core while kicking, which can help power your stroke. Kick-glide, for breaststroke, for example, requires that you keep your body in breaststroke position as you kick and then maximize your glide. You can also try this drill on your back.
Specialized Equipment
Besides a standard kickboard, some drills benefit from changing your hands. A fist drill, for example, forces you to focus on your freestyle arm position and maximizing your underwater catch. Using paddles and a float buoy helps a pull drill, which trains your arms and helps sculpt your upper torso and core.
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