Drill Baby Drill

Drills. We love them, we hate them, we don’t totally get what they are.

Let’s begin at the beginning.

What Is A Drill?
A drill is an exercise you do to focus on a specific element of your stroke. For example: is your early catch when you swim freestyle not super great? Swimming freestyle with your hand in a fist (Fist Drill) will help you with that. Need to work on keeping your elbow up on your recovery in freestyle? Dragging your fingertips along the surface of the water on your recovery (Fingertip Drag) will get you there. Working on keeping your hips up when you swim breaststroke? Swimming breaststroke with a dolphin kick instead of regular breaststroke kick will help you with that timing. Etc, etc.

Drills are meant to be done slowly and with thought. It’s not a race. They allow you to really pay attention to one piece of your stroke, to feel an exaggerated version of the appropriate technique. It helps with muscle memory and can serve as a quick reset, bringing you back to the fundamentals of your stroke even as you focus on speed. And because swimming is SO heavily reliant on efficiency and technique, incorporating them into your workout is important. Even if your stroke is perfect (which it isn’t).

Below are a few videos to give you a sense of what a drill is, and why you should do it.

When Should I Do Drills?
Anytime! Including drills in your warm up, main set, or warm down is just fine. It’s great to allow yourself to do an entire set (or workout even) focusing on your technique. It’s also great to mix drills in between challenging parts of a set, to remind your body of what it SHOULD be doing, even when it gets tired. You know how all health professionals tell you that if you sit at a computer all day you should stand up every 20 minutes and walk around and open up your chest so you don’t end up going through life with a hunchback? That is kind of what drills are. You can spend extensive time on them to improve your overall technique (like a full yoga class), or they can serve as brief reminders of how your body SHOULD be moving through the water. Use them as a quick reset anytime.

So What Are Some Drills?
Below are a few drills you can do for all strokes (google them if you don’t know what they mean):

Freestyle
3-6-3 (three strokes, six kicks, three strokes, works on rotation and body position)
Fist Drill (early catch)
Fingertip Drag (recovery)
Zipper Drill (recovery)
Catch-up

Backstroke
3/6/3 (same as freestyle)
Single arm (make sure your opposite shoulder clears the surface of the water, focus on rotation)
Double arm backstroke
Catch-up

Breaststroke
Two kicks to one pull
Three kicks to one pull
Breaststroke arms with dolphin kick, working on getting hips up
Breaststroke arms with freestyle kick, working on quick recovery

Butterfly
One armed butterfly
3-3-3 (three R arm, three L arm, three both arms)
Dolphin kick on your back
Dolphin kick on your stomach, arms at side

A page with a bunch of drills, explanations, and videos coming soon. But in the meantime, check out the links below to find some drills to incorporate into your training.

Helpful links:
10 Drills for a Faster Freestyle (yourswimlog)
6 Freestyle Drills for Better Technique and Faster Swimming (swimswam)
5 Freestyle Drills to Help You Swim Smoothly
3 Butterfly Drills (yourswimlog)
10 Drills All Budding Backstrokers Should Try (arena)
6 Drills for a Faster, More Effective Breaststroke (yourswimlog)

DON’T BE SCURRED! DRILLS ARE YOUR FRIEND!