Can anyone suggest drills to help me swim as fast without a pull buoy as I do with one?
I work hard at practice 5 days a week and make incremental gains every so often. But my improvement over the past year can't compare to the amount I improve when I grab a pull buoy.
So - I need to be working on my body alignment? Keeping my legs high in the water? Strengthening my abs? I try to work on all of those things but I would really appreciate any drill or workout ideas.
Thanks!
First off, if your full stroke is built around 2beat kicking, the odds of getting as fast over longish distances without a pull as you would be with the pull are very low.
If you want to gradually try to get there, my favorite drill for this is band around the ankle. No pull.
Try to learn to swim with a constraint around the ankles, preventing you from using your legs. Often we use a rubber band, hence the name of the drill.
By doing so, you are forcing your body to improve its natural balance. The fun begins when you remove the band a try the 2beat kick again. You'll notice how easy it will feel.
So typical sets of these involve switching with/without the band to see how well you're doing with the two beat.
Also, to avoid one of the most common flaw related to 2beat (wide scissor kick), there's this very simple drill I like so much. You just get into a relaxed full stroke state, almost catch up. Two beat kicking with an emphasis put on making sure your two big toes are always close to each other. You gently touch the right big two with the left foot big toe and make sure the feet stay close, then the left foot big toe touches the right foot big toe etc...
Best if to combine both drills. Like 50min of band around the ankle followed with 100m of smooth 2beat touching toes stuff. That should feels great.
First off, if your full stroke is built around 2beat kicking, the odds of getting as fast over longish distances without a pull as you would be with the pull are very low.
If you want to gradually try to get there, my favorite drill for this is band around the ankle. No pull.
Try to learn to swim with a constraint around the ankles, preventing you from using your legs. Often we use a rubber band, hence the name of the drill.
By doing so, you are forcing your body to improve its natural balance. The fun begins when you remove the band a try the 2beat kick again. You'll notice how easy it will feel.
So typical sets of these involve switching with/without the band to see how well you're doing with the two beat.
Also, to avoid one of the most common flaw related to 2beat (wide scissor kick), there's this very simple drill I like so much. You just get into a relaxed full stroke state, almost catch up. Two beat kicking with an emphasis put on making sure your two big toes are always close to each other. You gently touch the right big two with the left foot big toe and make sure the feet stay close, then the left foot big toe touches the right foot big toe etc...
Best if to combine both drills. Like 50min of band around the ankle followed with 100m of smooth 2beat touching toes stuff. That should feels great.
