Many beginner swimmers jump in the pool and start swimming, back and forth, with no thought about stroke or technique. Without fail, the coach will soon walk over, stop the swimmer and give him specific things to work on. To break down the parts of a stroke, coaches create exercises or drills that force the swimmer to focus on one or two specific areas. These drills can make you a faster swimmer.
Feel for the Water
When a swimmer complains about not getting a feel for the water, she means her center of gravity is off and body balance needs to be adjusted. There are drills that you can do to help get your feel back. The most basic freestyle drill is called the rotation. Lie face down in the water with your arms at your side. Start kicking and slowly rotate, or roll, your shoulders, hips and legs from right to left, making sure your body is rotating together as one.
Injury Prevention
To prevent injury, especially to the shoulders, adapt your stroke during specific drills. Work on body position and hand placement in the water. Injuries can occur when the body is out of alignment or when the hand enters outside the correct plane. An effective drill is the double-arm backstroke. Start on your back, and rather then rotating your arms opposite of each other, both arms recover, enter the water and pull through the water at the same time.
Utilizing Strength
To get faster, swimmers must be efficient in their strokes as well as strong. Efficiency and strength are measured by stroke length and stroke rate, or how many strokes it takes to get from one end of the pool to the other and how many strokes are taken per minute. The fastest swimmers in the world have found the right balance between length of stroke and rate of stroke. Ideal stroke length and rate vary by swimmer and distance. Your coach can determine the numbers for you.
Dry Land Training
In addition to doing drills in the water, swimmers can do stroke drills on dry land. A efficient drill, especially for beginning swimmers, is to stand in front of a mirror and perform each stroke. It will help you see yourself and can often show inefficiencies in the stroke. To improve mobility, rotation and core strength, incorporate pushups, pullups and core exercises into your preswimming workout routine.
References
- Mountain View Masters Swim and Social Club: Swimming Drills
- "Swimming Drills for Every Stroke"; Ruben J. Guzman; March 1998
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