Things to remember on all technique swims...

• You are not trying to add fitness. This is a skill session that helps active recovery. Keep your HR down at all times. One exception is band work (see notes).

• Do the drills slowly and relaxed. The goal of the drills is to help you become comfortable in the water.

• Some of the drills are pretty tough at first. Stick with them. A balanced stroke is a more efficient stroke. Efficiency means more energy for the bike and the run.

• Relax when doing the drills. The balance drills in particular are tough if there is tension in your body.

• Long rest intervals between all intervals and sets. The goal is to hold perfect form throughout the workout.

• The drills are mixed with free swimming. Maintain the drill focus with your free swimming.

• Only work on one aspect of your stroke at a time. For example, when I work on my off-side balance, the rest of my stroke falls apart. That's OK! Once my off-side is balanced, I can start adding the other pieces of the puzzle.

• On all these drills, your head stays down. Head down in the water. The hips rotate and the chin rotates. The neck and spine remain aligned at all times.

• Speed doesn't matter. In particular, the kicking drills only require a very light kick when properly balanced. I used to think I had a weak kick. I really have weak balance.

Feel free to extend or reduce the workouts. They are just guidelines. Distance covered has no meaning in a technique session!

Good luck,

gordo

PS - Just in case it didn't come through, most of us need to improve our balance! ;-)

Karen Buxton adds:

• Another good balance drill is to have the swimmer kick on their side with their arms at their side--as with most head position is key to get those hips up. Take six kicks and rotate to the other side, initiating the rotation with the hips and repeat. Often the shoulders are the first to go which affects body alignment. By initiating with the hips, the rest of the body follows, staying in line. For those with a poor kick it might be beneficial to use fins.

• Another good tool to aid with hand entry is "the stick." I use either PVC piping or a wooden dowel about 8 inches long. It can be used in the "catch-up" drill--extended arm has the stick, stroke, grab the stick and repeat. Alleviates the cross over and helps with the reach.

Francois Modave adds...

Fins: these are a good tool for several reasons.

• You can use them for drills and kicking sets (50% of the sets) they allow you to maintain proper form when not really good swimmer yet, and even when you are a good swimmer. Drills are useless if you can not maintain proper form, and this is often the case when you look at most average swimmers. Fins allow you to stay high on water when doing drills.

• They are useful to improve ankle flexibility.

• They are good to do overspeed work (this is where I would restrict them to good swimmers) like vo2max over 100m... also if you want to develop a good fly, they can help.

• Finally, for specific swimming leg strength (like kicking with fins and board perpendicular to the water)

Paddles: good too if used properly, and good size...they are not uniquely designed for strength. Using them with no wrist band can help improve your stroke. If you have an incorrect stroke and do not orient your hand properly, with no wrist band, your paddle will move and you lose your stroke. With proper stroke mechanics, the paddle stays on the hand. So, they can be a useful tool for proper form in swimming. Just choose a good size, no arm paddles!

Band: unless you are a really good swimmer, limit yourself to sets of 50m. It is very unlikely (unless you have unusually good buoyancy) that you will maintain proper technique over more than 50m. Try not to modify breathing pattern, specially breathing at the front instead of the side. These can be good for swimmers who have trouble increasing the frequency of their stroke.

Although Terry Laughlin explains extremely well the basics of pressing the T and so on to be more buoyant, actually, at some stage if you want to swim fast you need to raise your head slightly compared to what is recommended by TL. Look at all the top swimmers (except sprinters who tend to be higher on the water because of the speed) but anything at or longer than 400m, the position of the head is roughly "hairline at the surface of the water" so just slightly higher than prescribed by TL. I would say this applies to anyone with an "efficient" kick, or who can swim a 1500m at or faster than 1'30''/100m (22'30'') or so. Actually, the head slightly higher reduces the drag more than having your hips higher as the head is in contact with the water first. Besides this head position allows you a more natural breathing "in the wave" created by your head. The other position implies it takes longer to turn your head as it is deeper in the water and it modifies your breathing pattern.

Regarding breathing pattern, you will notice with AG that have not learnt swimming as youngsters that a poor breathing pattern is very often responsible for several technique problems. One needs breathing as short as possible in order not to modify body position. Therefore, one needs to expire IN the water. The 10x50m with a 3 strokes breathing pattern would naturally correct several other mistakes. I think breathing is an aspect often neglected in technique.

Your drills are pretty exhaustive and I like the approach to include them in normal swimming as drills to do drills is pointless if you can't replicate it in your swimming. The following 2 drills can be really helpful.

• Swimming (with or without pull buoy) with closed fists with emphasis on high elbow. If you drop your elbow with closed fists you are going nowhere. With high elbow you feel the use of the forearm. This can be included in a threshold set like 10x100m closed fists high elbow on 2' for someone swimming 1'45'' aerobic followed by 10x100m threshold on 1'45'' focusing on high elbow and form or in the warm up like 500m free-400m pull closed fists etc...

• Hand entry - something that helped me a lot. 20x50m on 1' - odd focus on making as few bubbles as possible, even free keeping good form. This helps you with catch and helps to have an efficient first 20cm stroke (most triathletes are inefficient in this portion as is obvious when asked to do sculling drills).

Francois is a coach with CompetitionZone.

T1 - Catch Session

Warm up with 200m of easy swimming

10x50 alt side kick (25 each side) / free

100 back

10x50 alt opening fist drill / free

100 back

10x50 alt band only (most swimmers will need to use band/buoy) / free

100 back

10x50 alt catch-up / free

200 easy

Total 2,700 meters

Notes:

• Opening fist - 25m of closed fist swimming, focus on using forearm to catch the water. Slowly open one finger at a time for the second 25.
• On catch-up, focus on front-end of stroke, bend in elbow, elbow above wrist in catch phase.
• Band only will elevate your HR - lots of rest.

T2 - Balance Session

Warm up with 200m easy swimming

10x50 alt side kick (25 each side) / free

100 back

10x50 alt single change / free

100 back

10x50 alt triple change / free

100 back

10x50 alt breathe every stroke catch-up / free

200 easy

Total 2,700 meters

Notes:

• On free swimming, it is very important to let leading hand "float" while breathing, a common error is to push down.
• Side kick can vary between chin up (breathing) and chin down (kicking). Most swimmers will find it helpful to roll slightly onto their backs when breathing. Resist the urge to lift the head. Only nose and mouth should be out of the water when breathing. When kicking on side, low arm is extended, high arm should be clear of the water from shoulder to wrist. Spine is straight, you will need to "press the buoy" on your side to lift your hips.
• All free swim should either be catch-up, or 3/5/7 stroke swimming. Focus on leaving the leading arm floating when breathing.
• Single change and triple change have arm recovery underwater.

T3 - Body Rotation

Warm up with 200m easy swimming

10x50 alt side kick change / free

100 back

10x50 alt two stroke drill / free

100 back

10x50 alt triple catch-up / free

100 back

10x50 alt bilateral breathing / free

200 easy

Total 2,700 meters

Notes:

• Side kick change - three breaths on each side then slowly rotate on to other side while exchanging leading arms (underwater). Maintain buoy pressure throughout rotation to ensure hips stay up. Remember, three breaths each side and stay calm.
• Two stroke drill - Two left strokes, breathe, two right strokes, breathe, repeat. Focus on a strong rotation in the transition. Breathe on the second stroke on each side.
• Triple catch-up - Bilateral breathing done with catch-up swimming. Really focus on body rotation.

T4 - Balance

Warm up with 200m easy swimming

10x50 alt side kick change / free

100 back

10x50 alt triple change / free

100 back

10x50 alt triple catch-up / free

100 back

10x50 alt off-side / free

200 easy

Total 2,700 meters

Notes:

• Triple catch-up - goal today is keeping the head down and the hips up. Breathing starts at the hips. Rotate to the air.
• Off-side - 50m swimming on your least favorite side. Remember to let leading arm float while breathing.

T5 - Stroke Length

Warm up with 200m easy swimming

10x50 alt side kick (25m each side) / free

100 back

10x50 alt buoy bilateral / free

100 back

10x50 alt rear emphasis / free

100 back

10x50 alt triple catch-up / free

200 easy

Total 2,700 meters

Notes:

• Buoy bilateral - slow stroke down and focus on stroke length, ensure that you push through. Less balanced swimmers might find a buoy helpful.
• Rear emphasis - focus on back end of stroke, speed arm in second half of stroke and ensure that you push through.

T6 - Hand Entry

Warm up with 200m easy swimming

10x50 alt side kick (25m each side) / free

100 back

10x50 alt buoy bilateral / free

100 back

10x50 alt 3-stroke breathing / 5-stroke breathing

100 back

10x50 alt catch-up / free

200 easy

Total 2,700 meters

Notes: