Inspired by some of the discussion in the fly thread , I was wondering how you all feel about drills.
Personally, they drive me nuts, yet everywhere people rave about TI and boy do my coaches like 'em. I find that generally drills just make me feel as though I'm learning to swim a way I will never actually swim, as opposed to helping me focus on one aspect of the stroke. For instance, last night, we were doing breaststroke drills and I spent the entire time trying to learn the drill as opposed to focusing on what we were meant to learn.
Also, I tend to learn technique by figuring out what feels right, but with drills, it feels different because you aren't doing the full stroke.
What about you?
Originally posted by geochuck
Perception - kick a few lengths then swim and you seem to be swimming better, but are you?
sigh.. yeah.. I know you're right.. darnit! and I thought I was doing so well!!! ;) lol
I like drills a lot. I think there is no better way to work on certain aspects of your technique.
The guy who writes the plans for my coach usually doesn't include any drills so I usually throw in some drills in those long endless freestyle swims (speaking of a 500 and up) to include some spice and improve my swimming while actually getting some cardio workout.
I try to make sure I have a good kick set in every workout. And I really try to focus on my technique when I start to get tired. The only drill I really do is the one arm fly. I'll like the 2-2-2.
I hate it when we're supposed to be doing a drill set, and the person behind me doesn't, and rides me the whole set, and they refuse to go ahead.
We seem to go through phases, I think in the fall we do more drills, then Jan-Mar more emphasis on distance. There are a few drills I have found extremely useful, especially one arm, when you keep your other arm at your side.
I especially love doing one arm fly. Since I have a really bad back, the one arm fly really helps me to loosen my back enough to make it through practice or a meet. :cool:
All the one-arm fly lovers. On the one hand, it's easier than two arm, but on the other, I always end up leaning on the side I'm stroking with, and then it doesn't feel like fly.
my relationship with drills comes in waves. Sometimes I'm just NOT in the mood and I want to swim, other times I start to feel like I'd love to do a drill set.
I have to say I think they've helped me. For instance, Fist drill forced me to realize how much I used my hands for balance in the water and changed the way I use my forearm in freestyle. I can tell after I do drills my stroke feels much smoother. (though that may be just a perception thing coming off a drill set)
Other than some of the basic freestyle drills, finger drill, fist drill, and r&r, we don't do much else in our coached practice besides regular swim sets :)
Originally posted by some_girl
I find that generally drills just make me feel as though I'm learning to swim a way I will never actually swim, as opposed to helping me focus on one aspect of the stroke. For instance, last night, we were doing breaststroke drills and I spent the entire time trying to learn the drill as opposed to focusing on what we were meant to learn.
The purpose of drills is not to help you "focus on one aspect of the stroke." It is to allow you to break out of bad swimming techniques you have been practicing for so long that they have become habit. For example:
When I learned to swim at age 7, they taught us to breathe on only one side. Many years later, I learned that this is not recommended because it tends to make your stroke lopsided. So I tried to learn to breathe on the other side. But it was a total failure. I'd start down the lane breathing on my new side, but by the end of the lane I'd somehow switched back to my familiar side. I'd been breathing on only one side for so long that it was too deeply engrained for me to be able to break out of it.
But then I went to a TI weekend workshop and they gave us drills which we practiced on both sides. My engrained habits didn't cause me any trouble because the drills didn't feel like swimming, and therefore my brain didn't invoke it's lopsided habits. As the workshop progressed, the drill sequence moved closer and closer to whole stroke swimming, until by the end of the weekend I was doing whole stroke freestyle, breathing on both sides.
Bob McAdams
Just a thought I think drills were made up by coaches to make workouts to be fun, but drills are not fun.
Drills are an excuse by coaches to not coach proper technique.
The best swim coach I ever knew always said you have to swim to be good.
The only drills we ever did were arms only, kicking front and back with out a board and bilateral breathing. Lots of fartlicks and timed swims. We did fartlicks or pyramids before they had a name.
