Incorporating Drills ... ideas?

I usually try to do a drill set during or right after warm-up. That way, I get the correct feeling of the strokes so I can swim them better the rest of practice. One drill I like is one-arm swimming, usually done as a 100 kick, right, left, swim by 25's. I also do "drills" that are basically regular swimming with a focus on a certain aspect of the stroke, like reaching forward in freestyle or finishing the kick and gliding in breaststroke.

Heather, I personally recommend using drills instead of whole stroke swimming for warming up. At the risk of blowing my own horn, please see this article I wrote for the Total Immersion web site: www.totalimmersion.net/.../drillforwarming.html I have a few other thoughts about trading off yardage and/or intensity for drills (to the extent there is a trade off), but I don't have time to post them right now. More later. Matt S

Hi, One thing most of us forget is to always keep focus on our technique. This does not mean that we always should do drills, but when we feel that our technique is dropping it is time to think what is most important - condition or a good technique. 15 years ago, when I still was an active swimmer, I changed to this and all my times improved. This meant cutting lots og meters! What worked for me was: a) during warm up - always include 3-400m of drills. That could be 25's or 50's or whatever worked. The drills should be selected so that the focus on your weak spots, wheter that is part of stroke, posture or breating tech. b) during all series - remember technique. When I was not able to maintain the technique, I added extra seconds of rest or in the worst case ended the serie. There was no use learning a bad technique. Unless you only want to do a lactic workout of course. Somehow there seems to have a focus on getting tired, not swimming better or faster. Good Luck Jan