Do you (need to) do drills at all?

I think drills are great for correcting stroke problems and reinforcing good technique.Some stroke flaws are just hard to correct by just focusing on them.A couple of examples-1)for people who kick out at the beginning of the BR kick,they are generally unaware of how much they do this.If they swim some BR with a pullbuoy between their knees-voila instant feedback.2)if the problem is flexing at the hip in BR kick then doing the kick vertically holding the gutter facing the wall will again give instant feed back.

Gobears, You say your evidence lies in the fact that the swimmers you have swum and trained with seem to benefit and use drills. OK, I don't use strict drills and I have had some success, one of my training partners, Bob Strand, doesn't use drills and he is a world record holder in the breastroke. I just don't believe in the "part- whole method". But that's me. I think most people expect to do drills in practice so that becomes a part of the routine. I also think that coaches who produce videos know that swimmers are looking for that magic drill so they include drills in the video. Again, I feel that I do drills in a way, as I concentrate on various parts of my stroke while practicing the entire stroke. Again, that's me and I feel that it works. If others feel that drills work for them, I have no problem with that.

Gobears, You say your evidence lies in the fact that the swimmers you have swum and trained with seem to benefit and use drills. OK, I don't use strict drills and I have had some success, one of my training partners, Bob Strand, doesn't use drills and he is a world record holder in the breastroke. I just don't believe in the "part- whole method". But that's me. I think most people expect to do drills in practice so that becomes a part of the routine. I also think that coaches who produce videos know that swimmers are looking for that magic drill so they include drills in the video. Again, I feel that I do drills in a way, as I concentrate on various parts of my stroke while practicing the entire stroke. Again, that's me and I feel that it works. If others feel that drills work for them, I have no problem with that. Fair enough. I'm not sure everything that applies to masters swimmers applies to swimming in general, though. I'd be lost without drill-work with my summer league kids--especially getting them to breathe to the side on freestyle. I've never done the vertical breaststroke kicking on the wall, Alan. Great idea!

Of course I need drills. I particularly enjoy isolating body undulation action of butterfly (that's kicking Butterfly with no board and with full breathing pattern). I am faster doing this than kicking with a board (can book endless sets of 100s off 2min). I also like doing the same with free style, that is kicking no board with full breathing pattern as well as rotating body action. One arm can be added to this drill which can then become a progression from kicking only, to one arm, the other arm then full stroke. That develops 6beat sprinter specific type of Freestyle www.dropshots.com/solarenergy www.dropshots.com/solarenergy I find that the most important component in swimming is Economy/Efficiency which can better be improved by isolating any critical phase of any stroke. "Divide and Rule!!" Though being kind of alone in my camp, I like isolating the pulling action of the Butterfly by using a pull buoy. I am a butterfly specialist though. And I would never prescribe this to anyone else unless I have good reasons. (However, like Donna mentioned earlier in the thread, I am against doing drills just for the sake of doing drills. Every swimming should focus on the drills that can make a difference in their own respective strokes given their own respective strengths, weaknesses and goals)

Drills can also break up the monotony of working. I like to explore and think of new drills to do, almost never encountered a counterproductive drill

Drills can be great because they help you isolate and focus on one part of your stroke, as others have said. But every time you're doing a drill, it's important to be aware of which aspects of your stroke you're sacrificing to focus on the drill. For example, in "catch up" swimming, the focus is on taking long strokes, but you're sacrificing a good side-to-side rotation. If you don't know that, you might end up with a worse stroke if you swim too much catch up, but with that caveat in mind you can avoid those issues.

Wow. Every great coach I ever had broke down our strokes and did drills with us on a regular basis (for each stroke, each turn, starts, finishes). I find drills invaluable when teaching non-swimmers how to do the stroke correctly. The best drill EVER, IMHO, as far as teaching non-swimmers to lengthen their freestyle and rotate is kicking on the side. As I understand it, just about every elite swimmer does drill work. I can't see how one can argue that drills aren't valuable and have solid evidence to back that up. I think you are presenting two separate ideas here. I agree: elite swimmers do a lot of side kicking. But the point of doing that drill is not to "lengthen their freestyle and rotate," it is to overstress the legs. Overstressing a movement can lead to strength gains that lead to faster swimming. You are calling that a drill, which is fine, though that kind of drill is significantly different than, say finger-tip drag freestyle. With Finger-tip drag you exaggerate a movement - often times at a slower pace - in an effort to perfect form. I would dispute that there is a consensus that those drills work. I think you would find that when those drills are employed they serve a recovery purpose, not a training purpose and that they have minimal value beyond a certain point.

I think drills are great for correcting stroke problems and reinforcing good technique.Some stroke flaws are just hard to correct by just focusing on them.A couple of examples-1)for people who kick out at the beginning of the BR kick,they are generally unaware of how much they do this.If they swim some BR with a pullbuoy between their knees-voila instant feedback.2)if the problem is flexing at the hip in BR kick then doing the kick vertically holding the gutter facing the wall will again give instant feed back. Word.

A lot of swimmers like one arm fly drills. this lets them do more of the stroke before going into the 3rd phase of fly called butterugly !!

i was at a clinic where Dennis Baker said that one arm fly is fine as a drill,but that if you are losing form on your fly in workout you should switch to fast free instead.He said it was too easy to slack off in one arm fly,fly is a very aerobic intensive stroke, and that keeping your energy expenditure up was the important thing.