Has anyone done this drill before? I did it for the first time with the age group team. It was a 600, the first 300 I used the right hand paddle only and the left fin only. On the second 300 it was reversed, left hand paddle and right fin only.
At first I was like wtf, how am I supposed to just pull swim using one arm and kicking with one leg. Luckily I misunderstood, just swim regular freestyle during that drill. It works on your body balance. I certainly noticed a differece after the 600.
Donna H. once gave me a drill similar to this. I was working on getting a regular rhythmic kick. I would make sure to get 6 kicks between each paddle stroke. It helped me focus on the kick and gave me a measuring stick to test myself with.
careful that "pull" doesn't become 1fin/1paddle. i know a fellow coach who has done just this, having swimmers use the paddle on the weaker hand during most pull sets.
in my opinion, the key to this drill is alternating the fin and paddle so that both sides get the same work. leaving everything set up for your weaker hand just creates more imbalance and does more harm than good. if you're concentrating on what you're doing while swimming, you should notice some good benefits from this drill and others like it.
I've never been a finner... but a variation on the one paddle is alternating one hand as a fist and the other open. You have to concentrate on early forearm position to get more pull out of the fisted arm.
