Swim Drills
Swim drills break the freestyle stroke into smaller, manageable parts allowing the athlete to work on technique. Developing skill takes time, patience, and consistent practice, so drills should be incorporated into nearly all sessions.
The most common drills in our plans are listed below. Each drill serves a unique purpose, and should be performed slowly and intentionally. Often when a drill feels challenging, it is highlighting a weakness in your stroke. So, don’t avoid the difficult drills!
High Elbow Recovery: Efficiency
Catch Up (Touch and Go)
Lead arm remains fully extended in front of you until your working arm completes a full stroke. The working arm now becomes the lead arm and remains fully extended in front of you until your working arm completes its full stroke and “catches up”.
Fingertip Drag (Zipper)
Keep elbows high and lightly drag your fingertips across the water as the arm recovers. As a variation, lightly scrape your thumb against your thigh as the hand exits the water (thumb to thigh). These two actions can be done individually or combined.
Archer Drill (3/4 Drill)
Start your pull when the recovering arm has just passed your head (3/4 of the way through the recovery cycle). Pause while swimming on your side with the arms positioned like an archer. This extension teaches you length and front quadrant swimming.
Six Kick Switch
Swim on side, bottom arm extended, top arm at hip. Do 6 flutter kicks and switch sides with core-initiated roll. Breathe during switch to non-breathing side.
Catch & Pull: Propulsion Drills
Fist Drill
Swim with clenched fists and focus on rotating your shoulders and bending your working elbow during the catch such that you create a pull that's nearly as powerful as one done with an open hand.
Single Arm
Swim with only one arm, keeping the opposite arm extended in front or at your side (advanced). Drive rotation with the core and hips. Use fins (optional) with a moderate kick.
Sculling
Sculling is a small controlled motion of the hands in a figure-eight pattern. Elbows stay relaxed with minimal shoulder movement. Use a snorkel and pull buoy to focus on the feel, not breath or alignment. Many types of sculls mimic different parts of the stroke. Be patient!!
- front scull (catch): arms extend overhead to 11 and 1, palms face down
- mid scull (mid-pull): arms at chest level (mid-body), elbows up, fingertips pointed down, sweep palms side to side
- hip scull (back, finish): hands near hips/thigh. Palms down fingertips point back
- full scull: start with arms forward, slowly scull the hands through the entire path of a freestyle pull
Dog Paddle Freestyle
Pull for half a stroke with an underwater recovery. Once you have pulled to below your shoulder, bring the arm back to the starting position but under the water. Keep your elbows high near the surface and your fingertips pointed down. Can be done head up or down and with fins. This can also be a scull drill.
Thumb to Thigh
Swim freestyle, not bringing the arm out of the water for recovery until the thumb touches the thigh.
Wide-Tracks
Swim while intentionally entering hands wider than 10 and 2 o'clock. Focus on rotating your core to move, rather than pulling with your arms, to help eliminate crossover and improve Direction.
Length: Rotation and Extension
Side Kick
Swim on your side with lower arm extended, palm down, and upper arm resting at your side. Head should rest on your shoulder. Use only your kick to propel you forward. Head should face down, but rotate your slightly to inhale (trying to keep one goggle in the water.
Distance Per Stroke (DPS)
Count your strokes on one length of the pool, aiming to reduce the number of strokes during the next 2-3 lengths by taking longer, more powerful pulls, rotating more & gliding a bit longer.
Kick Drills
Kick (Regular)
Hold the kickboard out front, with arms extended and head in neuatral. Breathe as you would during a freestyle stroke with your face in the water to exhale, and turning your head. Focus on “pushing” your chest down while keeping your legs & hips up toward the surface as you practice balance & kicking technique. Use a small, steady flutter kick - with only a slight bend in the knee and toes pointed.
Vertical Kick
Kick in place in the vertical position with your head above the water - wear fins
Streamline Kick
Stretch your arms straight above your head, stacking your hands one over the other like pancakes. Squeeze your arms tightly against your ears, forming a sleek arrow shape with your body. Push off the wall in this position and begin kicking before initiating your strokes.
Streamline Kick on Back
While on the back, start tight streamline (torpedo) with one hand on top of the other and stay long. Bring your hips up, and keep your hands near or under surface of water. Keep a narrow kick with knees just touching surface of water and the toes pointed.
Open Water Specific
Sighting
Raise your head to "sight" a landmark ahead. Breathe just as you would when turning to the side by inhaling before lowering your head, exhaling underwater. Try to maintain a smooth stroke, with little disruption.
Swim Session Intensity
| Session Category | Session Goal |
|---|---|
| Aerobic Endurance | continuing at low intensity for an extended time |
| Speed | the ability to make efficient movements with the arms (not overall swim speed) |
| Strength | the ability to overcome the resistance of the water |
| Muscular Endurance | ability to continue at race pace/moderate intensity for an extended time |
| Power (VO2Max) | ability to sprint at high power for a short time |
| Tactics | drills to improve your swimming technique |
| Technique | drills to improve your swimming technique |
| Active Recovery | easy, low intensity sets to help recover the body from harder sessions |
| Testing | CSS test or 1K TT performed once every 6-8 weeks |
Aerobic Endurance, Strength, and Speed are the foundation for your swim fitness. These must be well established before we work on power or muscular endurance. That’s why we spend considerable time in our offseason and base period working on the basics along with technique. You’ll see power and muscular endurance sessions, along with tactical sessions pop up as you get closer to race day and both testing and active recovery will be sprinkled throughout.
Swim session intensity can be measured qualitatively and quantitatively and coaches use a variety of descriptors to indicate the desired intensity. Sometimes intensity may be indicated in the workout title (along with workout goal), such as Easy (Aerobic endurance) Race Pace (muscular endurance) or Technique. Or you may see a zone, RPE or the word “CSS” in your workout description. This chart can help you better understand the intensity of your swim workouts.
Swim Session Goals
| Zones | Description | RPE | Rest Interval | Pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1– Easy | Easy | 1-2 | as needed | Technique or recovery |
| 2– Light Aerobic | Steady | 3-4 | 10-30 sec | CSS + 10 sec - 140.6 pace |
| 3– Moderate Aerobic | Mod Hard | 5-6 | 10-30 sec | CSS + 5 sec. - 70.3 pace |
| 4– Threshold | Hard | 7-8 | 30-60 sec | CSS or Threshold - sprint tri pace |
| 5– Above Threshold | Very Hard | 9-10 | 30-60 sec | Fast as possible |
For many triathletes, swimming can be the most challenging discipline to get faster. These same athletes have a tendency to swim nearly the same pace for all training. Despite hours in the pool, they only see small gains in speed. CSS (critical swim speed) training is a simple way to help an endurance athlete understand pacing, while also improving swim fitness and endurance. This also serves as a method to test our swim fitness throughout the season.