Swimming
Drills &
Technique
As you probably know, swimming is the most technique-orientated of the three triathlon disciplines. Water
is rather more dense than air and, so, any errors in your technique will have a significant impact on
streamlining and resistance. This wastes energy; so, good technique = efficiency.
Drills are a way of exaggerating certain parts of the swim stroke in order for the body to learn position and
movement. The drills allow us to put specific movement into our muscle memory. If we do it enough – and
we do it right – correct technique should become second nature.
The following is a collection of drills and skills articles culled from ‘triangles’ over the last three years.
Technique Basics (by Brad Goggin)
Swimming is 70% technique and 30% fitness for most triathletes. Getting a ‘feel for the water’ is a key
factor in improving technique. This is why small children who have been swimming for years can swim
faster than most adults: they are probably not stronger and may not be as fit, but have a much better feel
for the water and years of technique behind them.
It is important to be able to apply pressure against a fluid and maintain that pressure so that you can
move your body relative to it along the pool. It is not only applying pressure but applying it at the right time
so as to get the most efficient propulsion from your stroke.
To get an idea of how it should feel on your hands and forearms, tread water and start to only use your
arms to keep afloat. Keep your hands in front of your body with your palms facing the bottom of the pool,
angling your hands and forearms as paddles (remember to keep your fingers close together). Try to make
the movement fairly slow and under control. Now you have a ‘feel for the water’, and how you can apply a
force to a moving fluid.
Breaking the propulsion part of the stroke down into 4 phases produces 4 separate drills. Using a pull
buoy, concentrate on the feel for the water and propel yourself down the pool using the sculling drills.
These drills are tiring if done correctly and should be done as 25m drill, 25m swim, thinking about the drill
on the recovery swim and trying to recreate the ‘drill feel’:
a.
Initial catch of the water. With your hands out in front, arms slightly bent with elbows higher
than your wrists, move your hands together as paddles to move forward through the water.
Palms facing to the bottom of the pool, similar to the treading water drill.
b.
Catch phase. Moving the water is the next step once you have got hold of it in the initial
phase. This drill is similar to a doggy paddle stroke, alternating the arms, but stop the drill just
before your hands reach your chest. Remembering the high elbow, extend the hand forward
and try to scoop the water towards and under your body. This is the slowest part of the stroke,
so do not rush it! Apply a force down towards the bottom of the pool at the start of the drill;
when you get the feel of the water on your hands, apply pressure to start the stroke.
c.
Pull phase. This drill is best described as ‘using your arms together as windscreen wipers on a
car’. Your hands and arms should be directly beneath your shoulders, bent at about 90º. Move
your hands and forearms in and out under your body together. Again, keeping a feel for the
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water.
d.
Push phase. This is the final propulsion phase and the quickest part of the stroke. It mainly
uses the tricep muscles, so fixing you elbows by your sides is important. Start with you hands
together under your body, hands facing rearwards, fingers pointing towards the bottom of the
pool. Extend both arms together and finish the drill with your thumbs brushing the top of the
thigh.
Now is the time to perfect your swimming technique; don’t put garbage yardage in the pool and, remember,
practice makes permanent! Any questions on these drills, drop me an email at brad@raftri.org.uk
Fist Drills (by Mike Potts)
Whilst I seemed to be getting the body-rotation and arm-recovery bits right, one session, after watching for
a couple of minutes, the coach asked me to swim 2 lengths of the pool with normal stroke and then 2
lengths using fist drill. When I got back from the last, he told me something I found quite surprising: I only
took 2 more strokes per length using fist drill that I did in normal stroke! Aiieee!
What he thought the problem was, was that I wasn’t keeping a bent elbow during the pull phase of the
stroke and was losing a lot of force and letting the water slip past my hand/arm. This is because my elbow
was dropping and my arm straightening, rather than staying at about 90 degrees. This also means I wasn’t
using the powerful back muscles to aid the stroke and was relying more on the arm muscles, which—as they
are smaller– will tire more quickly.
The fist drill is ‘Ronseal’ - ie, does exactly what it says on the tin. Swim as normal but close your hands into
fists. What this does is force you to bend your elbow and use the forearm for propulsion in the pull phase;
otherwise, you’ll just stop in the water! It also impresses on you how much water you can catch with your
forearms and not just your hands. Also, combined with the body roll, it brings the stronger lat muscles on
your back into play.
To get the best out of this drill, swim a length of fists, then follow it immediately with a length of normal
stroke. When you get better, just up the number of reps. Try to recreate the feeling on the forearms and
maintain a bent elbow during the full stroke.
Single
Single-arm Drills (by Mike Potts)
One of the problems I find with a lot of drills is that they don’t allow you to improve weaknesses in one limb.
By that, I’ll give you an example:
I’m right-handed and my right arm was noticeably stronger than the left. I could feel this in my drills,
especially those where you have to pull and glide for a bit, like catch-up. The glide following the right-arm
pull would feel smooth and powerful but the glide following the left-arm pull would ‘lose’ the water and I
wouldn’t move as far. This was showing 2 things: my left-arm catch was not as good as the right; and, my
left-arm was weaker than the right. What to do…?
So, what could I do to help sort these problems out? The answer was ‘single-arm’. This is a ‘Ronseal’
drill - it does exactly what it says on the tin. I swim in sets of 4 lengths: 2 left-arm only, 1 right-arm only, 1
left-arm only. Then 2 lengths normal swimming to try and recreate the stronger catch feel and left-arm
power in the full stroke. And then repeat
There are a few important things to remember: keep the arm you aren’t using straight out in front
of you (if you feel like you need some support, put a pull-buoy under your hand); you must do the correct
body roll—don’t just swim flat as it’s drills like this where you’ll realize how much power comes from that
body rotation; you can look at your hand entering and ‘catching’ the water, over and over again—make
adjustments to the catch and the pull each stroke until you get it right; remember the feeling of the rightarm (or stronger arm) on the 3rd length and compare it with the left arm (weaker arm) on the 4th length.
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OpenOpen-water Swimming (by Mike Potts)
Just thought I’d bung down some ideas and experiences that I’ve had in my first open-water season. At the
start of the year, I was pooing my pants at the thought of having to swim in the open water. This was not
helped by my scary experience in Lanzarote, courtesy of a wetsuit that was too tight. I am, however,
nothing if not stubborn, so it was a case of get a wetsuit that fits and start racing.
Like most of you, swimming is not my strongest discipline and I started the year in the frame of mind that I
just wanted to get the swim over with and then start my race with the bike. Since Windsor, Pembroke,
Salford, Swanage and recently Wolverhampton, my swimming still may not be up there with the fish people
but it has got better, it is becoming more pleasurable, and I’m much more confident. However, if you’re not
that confident yet, think about the following:
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Your wetsuit is very buoyant. It would be extremely difficult to drown while wearing it—
believe me, I’ve tried. So, trust in the rubber (!). If you panic, just turn onto your back.
It’s also warm! I’ve done couple of races where the water has been Baltic but, once you are in
and moving, you warm up quickly. Alternatively, I’ve been told that weeing in your suit also
warms it up but, personally, I don’t want to come out of the water with yellowing pants and
smelling like my grandma. Wear a swim hat or two - they provide loads of insulation.
Navigation is a bloody nightmare. There’s only one way to get better and that’s to practice
open-water swimming. However, it is easier to lift your head and ‘sight’ in a wetsuit than it is in
the pool, as the buoyancy of the suit aids lifting the head. Top.
Drafting is legal! Woo-hoo! You can tuck in behind someone on the swim and, bearing in
mind that the suit’s buoyancy will lift your legs and give you a better position in the water, your
swim times will be faster in open water than in the pool! Ace!
Even if the water is choppy (like in the sea), all that happens is that, once you’ve passed
through the surf close to the shore, you just go up and down a bit. I was quite concerned at
Swanage at the size of the waves but it was actually really good!
You need to practice breathing on either side so you can breathe away from any waves.
Above all, make sure your wetsuit fits properly. It’s a false economy if it doesn’t.
So, stop putting it off and start entering those races with open-water swims—it’s really not that bad!!!
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