Myth #8: All swimming drills are good for you.
I am a great believer in doing drills. In fact, if most swimmers would spend a little more time doing drills and not worry so much about getting their hour or so of aerobic fitness in, they might come out ahead. The biggest problem with drills is that too often, they are being done without any real understanding of what they are supposedly teaching you. Unless you are planning to enter a drill race, there is not much point in doing a drill unless you understand what it is for. Coaches often go to great lengths to explain how to do a drill properly, but then forget to mention what the drill is for.
And sometimes the drills that are being recommended actually teach you the wrong thing. For example, if you have no kick and you are trying to get faster by learning how to increase your stroke rate, then a catch-up drill may be doing you a big disservice. Or if I ever see anyone who has been told to flick water with their hand/wrist out the back end of their stroke, I kindly ask them to hit the delete button. Or what does sliding your finger tips across the surface of the water (finger tip drill) teach you that helps you swim faster?
So all I ask is that you do drills nearly every time you jump in the water, even if for warmup. But that you understand what the drill is trying to teach you AND that the drill is designed for the technique you are trying to learn.
Gary Sr.
The Race Club
Parents
Former Member
1. Bilateral breathing does not make you faster. How many elites do you see bilateral breathing? Some do, but most do not.
2. When you get to the longer 7 and 9 breathing schemes, you'll naturally shorten your strokes and quicken your turnover to get your next breath sooner. This is a negative, not a positive.
3. I typically take 11-15 strokes per 25 yards in freestyle. So on the 7 and 9 lengths, I should take only one or two breaths. Why does it matter when I take them?
4. If you want to restrict your breathing in a way that will have a positive effect, do it on every pushoff and take as many dolphin kicks as you can. In practice, I normally start backstroke swims by dolphin kicking well beyond the 15 meter limit. I sometimes do this in fly and free swims as well. The idea is to make the 12 dolphin kicks that I can do in competition feel easy.
Thank you That Guy, that was very well put. I love #4 and would like to add that a real breath control set would be executing your race breathing pattern on a high rest set.
1. Bilateral breathing does not make you faster. How many elites do you see bilateral breathing? Some do, but most do not.
2. When you get to the longer 7 and 9 breathing schemes, you'll naturally shorten your strokes and quicken your turnover to get your next breath sooner. This is a negative, not a positive.
3. I typically take 11-15 strokes per 25 yards in freestyle. So on the 7 and 9 lengths, I should take only one or two breaths. Why does it matter when I take them?
4. If you want to restrict your breathing in a way that will have a positive effect, do it on every pushoff and take as many dolphin kicks as you can. In practice, I normally start backstroke swims by dolphin kicking well beyond the 15 meter limit. I sometimes do this in fly and free swims as well. The idea is to make the 12 dolphin kicks that I can do in competition feel easy.
Thank you That Guy, that was very well put. I love #4 and would like to add that a real breath control set would be executing your race breathing pattern on a high rest set.
