Given the importance of swimming technique in preventing injuries and increasing speed and efficiency, I'm interested to find out how often masters swimmers include drills into their workouts. Are drills important to many swimmers, or are intervals and full stroke sets the main emphasis? Thanks for your help!
There are about 4 areas of BR that I tend to get sloppy with when I am not paying attention.I do drills in warm up to focus on these areas so I am more aware during the workout.
Exactly! After warming up with freestyle, I like to do breaststroke pull drills to just focus on the technique and warm-up of the front half of my stroke. Next, I do easy kicking to gradually warm up my adductors and get my feet used to turning out at the ankles. Once I feel like my legs are ready for full breaststroke kick, I put my stroke together focusing on stroke technique for the entire stroke.
I know from past experience that if I go straight into full breaststroke, I will kick too hard and hurt my leg. The same thing will happen to my shoulder with butterfly. For me, one arm drill is a MUST to warm up the joints and get my shoulder working properly. Just swimming freestyle isn't enough. Once I am able to get the full motion with each arm without soreness, I move on to full butterfly.
If nothing else, drills are great for warming up the muscles and joints before moving into full breaststroke and butterfly. (In my case, it's the short axis strokes where injury is going to happen without a proper warm-up.)
Hey, King Frog? Please give my warmest new year wishes to Seal Girl. And, a very happy 2014 to you, too! :wine:
There are about 4 areas of BR that I tend to get sloppy with when I am not paying attention.I do drills in warm up to focus on these areas so I am more aware during the workout.
Exactly! After warming up with freestyle, I like to do breaststroke pull drills to just focus on the technique and warm-up of the front half of my stroke. Next, I do easy kicking to gradually warm up my adductors and get my feet used to turning out at the ankles. Once I feel like my legs are ready for full breaststroke kick, I put my stroke together focusing on stroke technique for the entire stroke.
I know from past experience that if I go straight into full breaststroke, I will kick too hard and hurt my leg. The same thing will happen to my shoulder with butterfly. For me, one arm drill is a MUST to warm up the joints and get my shoulder working properly. Just swimming freestyle isn't enough. Once I am able to get the full motion with each arm without soreness, I move on to full butterfly.
If nothing else, drills are great for warming up the muscles and joints before moving into full breaststroke and butterfly. (In my case, it's the short axis strokes where injury is going to happen without a proper warm-up.)
Hey, King Frog? Please give my warmest new year wishes to Seal Girl. And, a very happy 2014 to you, too! :wine:
