How often do you incorporate drills into your workouts?

The reason I say drills are a waste of time and don't do them is that I believe that most Masters swimmers usually have enough skill that rather then doing just a drill like say the zipper drill, we can integrate the movement we want to work on while doing our regular stroke. I have never done a zipper drill in a race. I am always working on EVF - early vertical forearm - I do it while I am swimming my regular workout. I just consciously think about where my elbow needs to be and do it.

I see no smilies in Glenn's post, so I will counter with, "only if your stroke is already perfect." Perhaps here's the question that should be asked: when you return to normal swimming, has the drill you've just completed done anything to affect your stroke? If it has not, then I'd say, yes, drills are a waste of time.

Perhaps here's the question that should be asked: when you return to normal swimming, has the drill you've just completed done anything to affect your stroke? If it has not, then I'd say, yes, drills are a waste of time. Well said, thank you!

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.

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:

Thanks so much for all of your replies. Its great to see that drills do play an important role and I appreciate your having shared some details into what types of drills you use and how exactly you incorporate them into your swimming routine. Happy New Year!

Perhaps here's the question that should be asked: when you return to normal swimming, has the drill you've just completed done anything to affect your stroke? If it has not, then I'd say, yes, drills are a waste of time. This is related to my earlier comment (not the one in response to Glenn) that without feedback from the deck you can't really know if you're doing the drill correctly. Mind you, I'm looking at the issue from a different perspective than all you ex-college/Olympic swimmers. As someone who is best classified as slightly more than a recreational swimmer, I definitely need more help. Drills help, but really only if I get feedback. Some of that can come from me observing myself, but the most good would come with the feedback from an external observer.

Drills are a total waste of time.

I see no smilies in Glenn's post, so I will counter with, "only if your stroke is already perfect." I recall Michael Phelps coming to Chicago a few years ago for something or other (not a meet, some sort of publicity thing) and took the opportunity to hop in the UIC pool for a short workout. Our masters coach at the time happened to be at the same pool. She said his entire "workout" was something like 2000 meters, all drill.

I only do the drills that will help me. Some of them I don't do because they don't fix anything in my stroke. If you have a coach giving feedback, they need to be someone who can understand your particular stroke mechanics and how to fix them. Otherwise they aren't any better then getting feedback from what you feel. When I was getting back into the water from a shoulder injury, I felt that the drills really helped me to focus on my stroke. I was able to find parts of my stroke that would put more stress on my shoulder and pick up better habits instead of the ones that were causing injury.