Do you (need to) do drills at all?

Gobears, You are asking for some hard evidence that drills are not beneficial. I might turn that around to ask if there is hard evidence that strict drills work. Part of the answer is in how you define drills. As I previously stated, I believe in doing the whole stroke while concentrating on the part in question. Take kicking for example.. I find a better way to "drill" kicking is to swim with a very easy arm stroke and overkick the kicking part. That way my legs get more of a work load while I am still doing a complete stroke. I also continue to work on EVF and I can do that very effectively while doing a complete stroke with concentration on high elbow. Motor learning was one of my very favorite courses when I was doing a masters in adapted physical education. Here is an excerpt from the book "The Learning of Physical Skills" by John Lawther (page 76) that I think applies: "Part drill" is more effective and more meaningful at higher motor-skill levels At higher levels of skill, the individual can spend practice time very efficiently in polishing weak spots in his performance. The polish of these parts is, at this stage, much more effective with respect to the rate of learning because it is not "part drill". The "part" is now a meaningful act because the learner sees its significance in the total pattern, and fills in the rest of the pattern mentally while he overtly performs the part. He sees the part as it fits into the framework of the pattern, even though his overt action consists of practicing a very small part of the total... Those statements would seem to support the traditional view of drill practice. Here is the part that I feel nails it for me. ...The learner may also carry out the total pattern overtly but with his attention focused on one special aspect which he wishes to change in some manner. The rest of the act is carried out more or less automatically while he attends to the one part. So, it is not that drills don't work, it is more how drills are done. I didn't quite get the drill we did several weeks ago when we were asked to do several lengths swimming heads up. Or what is the value of the finger tip drill when you can simply ask me to concentrate on a flexed elbow on recovery. There are dozens of very subtle changes you can make in your stroke to get it to approach "perfect", I happen to think that working on those changes in the context of the entire stroke is a more effective way to go...at least for me.

Gobears, You are asking for some hard evidence that drills are not beneficial. I might turn that around to ask if there is hard evidence that strict drills work. Part of the answer is in how you define drills. As I previously stated, I believe in doing the whole stroke while concentrating on the part in question. Take kicking for example.. I find a better way to "drill" kicking is to swim with a very easy arm stroke and overkick the kicking part. That way my legs get more of a work load while I am still doing a complete stroke. I also continue to work on EVF and I can do that very effectively while doing a complete stroke with concentration on high elbow. Motor learning was one of my very favorite courses when I was doing a masters in adapted physical education. Here is an excerpt from the book "The Learning of Physical Skills" by John Lawther (page 76) that I think applies: "Part drill" is more effective and more meaningful at higher motor-skill levels At higher levels of skill, the individual can spend practice time very efficiently in polishing weak spots in his performance. The polish of these parts is, at this stage, much more effective with respect to the rate of learning because it is not "part drill". The "part" is now a meaningful act because the learner sees its significance in the total pattern, and fills in the rest of the pattern mentally while he overtly performs the part. He sees the part as it fits into the framework of the pattern, even though his overt action consists of practicing a very small part of the total... Those statements would seem to support the traditional view of drill practice. Here is the part that I feel nails it for me. ...The learner may also carry out the total pattern overtly but with his attention focused on one special aspect which he wishes to change in some manner. The rest of the act is carried out more or less automatically while he attends to the one part. So, it is not that drills don't work, it is more how drills are done. I didn't quite get the drill we did several weeks ago when we were asked to do several lengths swimming heads up. Or what is the value of the finger tip drill when you can simply ask me to concentrate on a flexed elbow on recovery. There are dozens of very subtle changes you can make in your stroke to get it to approach "perfect", I happen to think that working on those changes in the context of the entire stroke is a more effective way to go...at least for me.