FOUR GREAT DRILLS THAT TEACH THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FAST SWIMMING
Drills are our best friend in swimming. Why? Because, none of us, no matter how smart we think we are, can think of two things to do at once. Try, and we will likely get neither one right. When we are swimming, there is just too much going on at once for us to concentrate on any one single thought. Sometimes, it is much better to just slow down, especially at the beginning (warm-up) period of practice, and work on one thing at a time.
Good technique is vital to fast swimming. Regardless, it takes a lot of work, but you might as well swim smart. In the water, little changes can make big differences. I am a great believer in one drill teaches one concept. Here are my favorite drills for the three fundamentals of fast swimming. They can be done with or without fins on.
FUNDAMENTAL # 1 THICK AS A BRICK
Head position drill (for freestyle, butterfly and breastroke):
In the water and on your stomach place your hands over your head and scull with hands (move them side to side, not backwards like breastroke pull) while doing flutter kick. First, scull across the short pool like this with your head above the water looking forward. While doing so, notice where your back and bum (hips) are riding in the water. Now, do the same scull but with your chin tucked down nearly touching your chest. Your head should be nearly submerged (since you are moving slow). When you need to breathe you can turn your head to the side. Take notice of where your back and hips are in relation to the surface. Big difference! They should rise to the surface and put your body back in alignment.
When your head is too high, your hips sink and even strong legs will not keep them up. It is like swimming through the water as if you were a hammock, or pulling a kickboard sideways through the water. Even the small body angle the high head causes creates a huge increase in drag. Drop the head down, the hips come up and you are back in alignment.
Practice this drill by swimming 25 m or yards drill followed by 25 m swim, but maintaining the same head position. At first, you will have the sensation that you are swimming down hill or over a waterfall. That is normal. Your line of sight should be down toward the bottom (when swimming slow) and slightly forward (perhaps 10 degrees) when swimming fast. Only look up when you need to judge where the wall is… then back down with the head.
High elbow drill (freestyle, butterfly):
Swim one arm at a time but positioned somewhat on your side, like you would be if you were rotating your body correctly. Keep the arm that is not pulling above your head so you maintain a streamlined position. Now once the pulling arm enters the water (the arm should be fully extended at the entry point… not the old fashioned way of entering the water above your head with a bent elbow and sliding the hand forward) initiate the pull by pushing down with the hand but keeping the elbow stationary. This creates the sensation that you are lifting your body up in the water. In other words you want the forearm to drop down until the hand is virtually directly below the elbow, then push the hand and forearm straight back (staying shallow) with the elbow high. This is neither a comfortable nor natural arm motion for us. In fact, you will likely feel downright awkward doing it. Remember, the reason is not to gain power, but to reduce drag. You will also find you need to pull wider than usual in order to accomplish the high elbow.
I find too many swimmers (especially beginners) spend too much time worrying about what they should be doing with their hands in the water, ie pull back or to the side or underneath? It is much more productive to think about the position of the elbow and the hand in relation to the elbow, than what the hand should do. Of course, we want the hand to ‘hold’ as much water as possible, ie create maximum lift/hand drag, but while also minimizing body drag with a high elbow.
Practice the high elbow drill by swimming 12 1/2 m left arm drill, followed by 12 1/2 m right arm, then 25 m swim, maintaining the high elbow and head down. Doing the drill one arm at a time enables you to think about and see what your arm, elbow and hand are doing. Over time, the awkwardness of this crucial arm position will go away and you will get stronger with the pull.
FUNDAMENTAL # 2 SWIM WITH YOUR BODY
The body drill (freestyle and backstroke):
The best drill I know for teaching you to use your body is called the 3 stroke/ 6 kick drill. In this drill, you will kick on your side with one arm over the head and the other at your side. The shoulder of the trailing arm should be directed vertically toward the sky. Hold this position for at least 6 kicks or longer and think about where your upper shoulder is pointed. If it is not vertical, then keep rotating until it is. Now, take three strokes (not fast) but with each stroke, rotate the body back to the vertical position and recover with the arm coming over the top (whether straight arm or bent elbow). Nearly every great swimmer recovers over the top, not around to the side. Recovering over the top will help transfer the energy form the arm into a forward body (not side) direction. After the third stroke you will now find yourself on the other side, where you will have time to think about keeping the opposite shoulder vertical. For this reason, do not take 2 or 4 strokes.
The key to this drill is to take it slow and try to make each of the three strokes incorporate good body/shoulder rotation. Stay longer on the kick if necessary to insure that you at least start the first stroke from the shoulder being totally vertical. Once you feel you can maintain the three strokes with good rotation, then practice the drill by swimming 25m drill, followed by 25m swim, trying not to go back to a flat body position.
You will immediately discover that swimming this way, with the body rotation, requires a lot of work. Remember, it is not meant to teach you to swim easier, just faster. It also will not differentiate between a hip driven (requiring strong kick) and shoulder driven technique. Those require a bit more understanding. The intent is to get you to swim with your entire body, not just your arms and legs.
FUNDAMENTAL # 3 SWIM ON THE FREEWAY
The freeway drill (freestyle and backstroke):
Getting swimmers to change their stroke rates can be challenging. Even though we know that up to some critical rate, increasing the stroke rate will increase the velocity, swimmers seem either reluctant or unable to change it.
I love this drill because it forces a swimmer to get out of stop-and-go slow-turnover freestyle and onto the freeway. I call it the dolphin freestyle. Instead of swimming with the flutter kick, use the dolphin kick with freestyle. However, it must be done with one kick per one arm stroke. Most swimmers (especially those with slow turnovers) will try to throw two dolphin kicks in per stroke, but that doesn’t cut it. Use fins if necessary to slow the kick down a bit, but be sure to take one arm stroke per kick. That will force you into a faster stroke rate and up the velocity curve, hopefully onto the freeway. Once you get the hang of it, you will feel the sync or groove and it actually gets quite comfortable. But there is just one speed, fast. You cannot do this drill in slow motion, so it is tiring.
Michael Klim (Australia) actually converted from flutter kick to dolphin for the final 15 meters of his world-record setting lead off leg of the 400 meter freestyle relay in the Sydney Games. Why? Because as one tires in the 100 free, the stroke rate typically slows and this is one way to insure that it doesn’t. I am not suggesting you do this but I do believe that this is a great way to get your stroke rate higher and if you were to practice it, you could swim almost as fast this way as with flutter kick.
Practice this drill by swimming 12 1/2 m freestyle with the dolphin (one stroke per kick) then convert the last 12 1/2 to normal freestyle with the flutter kick. The key is to keep the stroke rate the same with either kick and to NOT go back to slow, stop-and-go turnover. This same drill can also be used for backstroke, but is more difficult to do (perhaps because we are so accustomed to turning over too slow in backstroke).
By the way, watching Michael Phelps or Ian Thorpe and many other great distance swimmers, will give one the idea that slow turnover is acceptable. Just remember that these swimmers are staying on the freeway (maintaining speed) using extremely powerful kick and driving with hip rotation, something most of us don’t have. All of the true sprinters (50 m swimmers) have a much faster stroke rate. Yet, for those who do not have the legs for hip-driving freestyle, one can keep up this stroke rate for 1500 m or longer, so long as the forces generated on each pull are diminished.
DRILL PROGRESSION SET
One way to put all of these drills into practice is to do the drill progression set. This will allow you to focus on one concept or fundamental at a time, while hopefully putting all of it together at the end. I have found most swimmers have no trouble adapting to each drill and tackling that fundamental. However, going on to the next drill, they often revert back and forget what they learned from the prior one. The challenge is not to learn one fundamental but to put all of the fundamentals together in your stroke and keep them there. This set will help you achieve that. The idea is to focus each length (25 m) of the hundred on a different fundamental and put it into practice, hopefully adding the fundamentals as you go so you finish the 100 using all 3 fundamentals correctly.
Drill/Swim 10 x 100′s (freestyle or backstroke):
12 1/2 m Head down drill 12 1/2 m swim
12 1/2 m High elbow drill (left arm 2 or 3 strokes, then right arm 2 or 3 strokes) 12 1/2 m swim
12 1/2 m Body drill 12 1/2 m swim
12 1/2 m Freeway drill 12 1/2 m swim
Good luck with all of these drills and your swimming goals! I hope you will come visit us at The Race Club in Miami or the Florida Keys where I will promise to help you swim faster and more efficiently. We can also study your strokes underwater using Dartfish software and teach you some of the important facets of training in the other 4 disciplines; strength training, mental training, nutrition and recovery. Beware, however, you may not want to leave!
Yours in swimming,
Gary Sr.
Read about our Fundamentals of Fast Swimming DVD that includes all of the concepts explained in this Aqua Note by Gary Hall Sr. Or go to our store if you wish to purchase your copy of the DVD.
