In my regular training session I do 50% drills and 50% straight swimming(of different distances).Is this a good balance or should I be doing more drills??:cool:
Mark,
Well it all depends on the current state of your strokes and your swimming goals. If your stroke is not technically sound and your goals are not of a competitive nature, then yes you should first focus on drills and the technical aspects of the strokes.
If you have competent strokes you are looking at competing or just having a better aerobic workout, then you should increase the swimming and decrease the drills. Please note that even while swimming (vs. drilling) you should still be concentrating on technique.
i usually warm up with some drill work. then i get into my set and try to concentrate on good technique. if while i'm swimming i start to feel my technique getting really crappy i'll start doing drills to help me pull my stroke back together. i'm trying to redo my free stroke and swim fast at the same time which is often a problem for me but doing drills when need (PRN :) i'm a nursing student.......) has seemed to help a lot. drills are fun too. i used to hate them when i did club swimming b/c i had to rush to make the interval and really couldn't take my time, but now i can........
One of my experiences is that you can do too many drills.
5 years ago I started breaking down and then rebuilding my strokes. For a few years I was doing 50 - 70% drills, with a lot of slow swimming. I worked mainly on developing a long stroke length and efficiency and control of my swimming.
My stroke count and time for 50m and 100m did come down by 20% in real terms, that equates to a 200% increase in efficiency.
However one result is that my stroke rate slowed down too much. I have since been doing more faster swims and I do the drills at various speeds, slow , medium and fast.
My main focus now is to raise my stroke rate, while holding same stroke length so I can be faster in my events.
I would say to still do' focused drills' but make sure to do some solid aerobic sets and some sprints on a regular basis.
Gareth,
Thanks for that advice.I too have managed a good stroke length at a cost to my stroke rate.I now try to swim with a slightly reduced stroke length but at a faster stroke rate.By the way GOOD LUCK FOR SHEFFIELD.!!!
Regards,
Mark Varney
