PHILIP TORIELLO: Hi. I'm Philip Toriello, and this is how to do one-arm swim drills. Basically, I like applying the one-arm drills to the backstroke, the freestyle, and the butterfly. The reason I omit the breaststroke portion is simply because it throws your body off balance and it takes quite a bit of time and coordination. So today, we'll just focus on the backstroke, the freestyle and the butterfly. With the backstroke, what you'll do is you'll simply get your hips up high on the water, keep one arm at your side and you'll just use one arm rotating your shoulders, so your shoulder lines up with your chin and push and just work on that arm. The next thing you'll do as far as the freestyle is concerned, which is quite simple is you'll simply put one arm out in front to help keep that balance in the water and you'll just do a one-arm stroke. Breathing approximately every two strokes. Now, some of the confusion that happens with people is that they'll tend to get stuck in the breathing every three strokes and so they'll breathe on this side and then they'll breathe right into their arm on the other side. No need to do that. Simply breathe on the same side that your arm is working every two strokes or so. Rotating your body, this will really help you rotate your body and glide through the water, working on that reach, catch, pull and push portion of your freestyle. As far as your butterfly is concerned, the same principle applies as the freestyle. You're going to keep one arm in front and then you're just going to practice your stroke, breathing every other stroke or every two strokes. The positive thing about one-arm drills is that it really helps you focus on how much power you have in one arm and how much distance you can get per stroke. The more you repeat it, the more comfortable you'll become, and then when you put both of your arms together simultaneously, whether it's the backstroke, freestyle or butterfly, you'll feel that much more power. It's basically like working out with dumbbells, one for each arm, relative to a straight bar in doing curls with both arms. The more you strengthen one arm, the stronger it becomes. The more you strengthen another, the stronger it becomes. In turn, when you then go to lift a bigger weight together with both arms, you'll more than likely be able to lift more weight with both of those arms at the same time. Same thing applies to one-arm drills. To learn more about one-arm drills, please contact you local swim instructor or swim coach.
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