Hi can anyone suggest to me drills to improve distance per stroke? or to reduce stroke per length. I find that my glide in freestyle is too short , example when i glide into a flip turn, sometimes i underestimate the distance and my leg does not bend much, and kick off with little power. Also i am trying to learn loping freestyle stroke now so i really want to improve my distance per stroke.
Any drill that works your shoulder roll. And making sure you finish every stroke completely, not pulling your hand out of the water early.
I'd think something like a catch-up drill might help, or modify the catch-up drill to leave your trailing hand at your hips (or lower) while you are on your side. There are other drills to work on roll, but I'm not quite sure how to describe them or what they might be named.
Relative to turns, you shouldn't be gliding in anyway; you should be working on carrying speed into each turn.
There are a few freestyle drills that you can incorporate into your workout to improve distance per stroke. The most important drill would be the side-to-side. A variation on this drill that would allow you to transition from the drill to the fullstroke is the 3-3-3 drill (3 side-to-side strokes followed by 3 fullstrokes). Some additional drills would include:
- Single arm
- 3-3-3 drill (3 single arm left, 3 fullstrokes, 3 single arm right)
- Thumb lead above and under water
You can check out the Swimspire website (www.swimspire.com/videos) for a video collection of drills that provides more instruction on how to do them, as well as online coaching options!
Good luck!
Julia Galan
www.swimspire.com
Also wanted to mention three more drills that would help you to improve your distance per stroke in the freestyle:
- Single arm hesitation drill : similar to the regular single arm, but you pause for about two seconds at the highest point of your recovery phase before continuing;
- Fullstroke hesitation drill: same idea - fullstroke freestyle but pause at the highest point of the recovery phase during each stroke cycle;
-And you can always incorporate fingertip drag into your workouts, which is an excellent drill to allow you to slow down your pull (upper body) and focus on increasing and strengthening your kick as well as developing a greater distance per stroke
Distance per stroke is such an important, yet often overlooked, element of swimming. Good luck on working to improve your swimming!
Julia Galan
www.swimspire.com
