Drills are exercises, both easy and more difficult, that train a specific aspect of your swimming technique. By repeating this exercise you adjust your movements with lifeguard training perform them more consciously and they become a habit so that you make much less effort (physical and/or mental).
In short, if your goal is to develop a perfect swimming technique (an ambitious goal), you will have to struggle through a number of drills! Breathing, sliding, propulsion, coordination… Drilling yourself will improve all these aspects of your technique.
Since it’s biceps month, we specifically focus on the most effective drills to perfect your arm technique.
Swimmers, swimmers, time to get better!
CRAWL WITH THE FISTS
Attention, it is not the intention to fight with the water! Your glide and range of motion continue to prevail.
This drill is an exercise based on thrust experiences. Weir experiences are extremely important to develop the necessary water feeling and thus support better on the water. The more water you pull behind you, the faster you go.
By training in crawl with your hands clenched into fists, you are actually doing the same as swimming with ‘anti-paddles. huh?
The name says it all: anti-paddles are a handy accessory for learning to swim, they create the opposite effect to the well-known hand paddles with lifeguard training. In contrast to increasing the weir surface, their convex shape gives you less support. A bit like a clenched fist!
The purpose of this drill is twofold:
– First of all, you will have to compensate for the smaller support surface with your forearms. Yes, in swimming you do not only propel yourself with your hands. Your forearms are also very important in the pulling phase.
– Second, by alternating between fist crawl and hands open crawl, your pull and thrust experience is ten times stronger.
Mind you, don’t do this drill too often, or you will become a real outboard motor!
SURFACE CRAWL
This drill is a very effective exercise to fine-tune your arm movements above water. He is also very pleasant.
The drill has something of the classic crawling motion, with the difference that your hands don’t leave the water. The tips of your fingers should be touching the water all the time. The idea is to draw a straight line on the water with your fingers.
The main purpose of this drill is to force your elbow to bend and protrude nicely above your head while relaxing your arm. After all, the more you raise your arms above your head, the less you get out of balance in the water…and the straighter you swim.
In addition to the purely technical setup of this drill, this exercise also feels fun. You will feel a certain satisfaction.
The exercise is based entirely on relaxing your arms. So use them to discover how soft the water feels, how nice it can sound and how fun sliding can be.
Combining the useful with the pleasant is always good. In short, enjoy!
CATCH UP CRAWL
There are very few swimmers who are not familiar with this drill. It is a rhythmic exercise that initially seems a bit difficult.
But the instructions are dead simple:
You swim in the crawl, but you don’t start the movement of one arm until the other’s hand is all the way in front. One arm always remains motionless in front of you while you move with the other. Think of it this way: Like a relay, at the end of its cycle, your right arm’s hand must touch your left arm to initiate a new move.
The difficult thing about this drill is making sure that your arm movements are nicely synchronized with your breathing and swimming pace. After all, you can’t stop while switching arms. The transition should be smooth and flawless. Inhale at the end of the pull.
With this drill, you isolate the movement of each arm, so that you can master your arm movements above and below the water. And because you are obliged to touch the other hand with every move, you keep a nice straight line.
This is one of the most complete drills. For both novice and experienced swimmers, this is the perfect way to train coordination, breathing, alignment, and propulsion.
The exercise is even beneficial for your leg work and forms tension. So definitely do it!
CRAWL WITH ONE ARM AND SWIMMING BOARD
“Crawl isn’t easy, let alone with one arm…”
Don’t worry, just take this drill as a challenge, and you’ll succeed!
This exercise uses a plank and kicks the legs, much like exercises to work on your leg technique. The difference here is in the position of the plank. Instead of keeping it lengthwise, lay it widthwise.
The aim is to move forward with one arm. When the air phase of your arm is almost complete, pass the hand under the plank to lengthen the movement and get ready for the next cycle. Keep your head above water the entire time and make sure that your leg stroke does not stop.
Like any other drill, this exercise also consumes energy. Of course, you can change arms every 25 or 50 meters (your choice).
The great strength of this drill is that it is very versatile. The alignment in the water, your thrust, the range of motion, and your arm movement above the water all benefit from it.~And your form tension and leg technique are also put to the test, a drill that you can repeat endlessly!
CRAWL WITH OUTSTRETCHED ARMS
Do you think this will look like a watermill in the pool…then you’ve thought right!
Again, little explanation is needed (the name of the drill says it all): you have to swim crawl with outstretched arms.
Given the name and the explanation, this drill may seem easy, but the execution certainly isn’t, believe me!
When Simon says “Swim arms outstretched”, you have to swim with arms outstretched…all the time. Both when your arms are in the water and above the water!
You will notice that keeping your arms straight during the pulling phase is not a breeze. Make sure that you commit yourself to effectively train the rotational movement of your shoulders and the underwater trajectory of your arms.
This drill also encourages you to pull yourself out and thus increase your range of motion.
So put on your bathing suit and have a blast with the water!
To get the most out of your drills, you need to focus on your movement as much as possible. You will notice, eventually, it will become automatic. If you finish this exercise in a hurry, it will be of little use.
On the other hand, it is useless to do drills during all your sessions. It’s about alternating them with regular swimming workouts, in order to put the technical aspects of swimming into practice. One or two drills over a short distance per training are more than enough.
