Alright, we've established that dictatorial behavior can be appealing when you're doing the dictating. Now, you get to select your favourite swimming drill for any stroke and proclaim it as officially the best drill ever. Please supply info as to: what does this drill accomplish & for what stroke(s)? what is the proper technique in performing this drill (diagrams &/or video optional); why is this drill so much better than others? Equipment needed or not? Sample set using this drill; why is it the best?
Or-
Drills are a waste of time & why.
I used to make extensive use of video cam/tv monitor. At each workout. If there's something I want to show, I film, take the swimmer out of the water and give the feed back where it's quiet, letting the other continuing the massive drill set.
I wish more USS and masters coaches would do this. It's so helpful.
Given that pool time is limited, all drill sets should be banned, along with kick sets. If any drills must remain, I dictate it must be the 2-2-2 fly drill only.
A drill I named Core kicking is the most important for learning free style. It's like yoga swimming. It forces the swimmer to learn good behaviours orelse he/she will sink.
As a dictator, I enjoy reading my newspaper during the sets and still know that my swimmer citizens are learning hard. This is exactly what this drill allow me to do.
It helps improving :
- The kick
- The body motion
- The balance
- The bilateral breathing
- The timing
All that in one single drill :
www.dropshots.com/day.php
Its execution is very simple. That's freestyle without the arms. Period.
Then it can progress to one-arm drill (bilateral breathing please) :
www.dropshots.com/day.php
And then it can progress from Core Kicking to One-Arm to full stroke.
Typical sets would be :
400 core kicking
400 one arm
400 the other arm
400 swim
(Sometimes newspapers are long to read you know !)
SolarEnergy nice drill!
My favorite is 6:1 backstroke for a variety of reasons. It really helps me feel the water and what the stroke is supposed to feel like. I feel the rotation of my hips and my shoulders, while keeping my head looking up. It also aids my kicking, by forcing me to concentrate on getting 6 kicks to every one pull. With each stroke, I rotate my body to the side and pop my other shoulder up and rotate the other shoulder down with my arm pull. Great drill.
2x {
10x50
odds - kick back
evens - 6:1 back
200 back focus on rotation
}
I hate all drills. I curse all ye who make me do drills. If I weren't in a group with a coach who doesn't give a darn about who we are or what our professions in real life are, I would never ever do a drill. But he makes us do them and beats me over the head with a broomstick if I don't do it right. I think he might be one year younger than I. How about swimming with a parachute attached to your butt? And kick only freestyle, how can you not drown completely? My coach tied my arms to my body with that medical stuff and made me do my kick sets like that. Okay, I confess I like to swim with finns. Yesterday we did 33 repeats of 100 meters freestyle every minute and forty five. Here is the deal: everytime I read that doing drills is dumb and won't help you that reinforces my thoughts on this. Everytime I do a specific drill and feel it works it reinforces the contrary. On weekends alone, there are two drills or workouts I will do: the three dolphin kick followed by three cycles of butterfly followed by freestyle till the end of the 25 meter pool. Repeat until you are tired. The other stuff I do alone is using the finns (the specific speedo, not the diving finns) to kick. I do sideways 25 with 25 on the back and that makes my legs truly tired. I also occasionally take my mask and snorkel and do longer leg sets with finns. Take care, billy fanstone
I hate all drills. And I hate coaches who don't give a sh.. about the fact the the water is cold. They talk and talk and talk:blah: :blah:
The horse is dead they keep beating it :dedhorse:
Don't they realize that all we want is to swim instead of listening to their endless speaches :(
Swimmers are smart animals. Let them swim, cut the talk, get a newspaper and let them them find their way and make their own discoveries by proposing good drills, mixed with full stroke.
(for the record, I don't read newspaper. I used to make extensive use of video cam/tv monitor. At each workout. If there's something I want to show, I film, take the swimmer out of the water and give the feed back where it's quiet, letting the other continuing the massive drill set)
Using fistgloves for any stroke, but esp. freestyle. I like to use them on straight swims of 30 minutes, throwing in some accelerations. Fistgloves are magic.
-LBJ
