Taking Stock

We’ve been able to swim regularly for the last few weeks. It’s a blessing with mixed feelings. I do need swimming for health and fitness, but the benefits towards mental health outweigh the physical benefits. Knowing this I try to keep a positive attitude with our new culture of swim reservations and the limited access that it entails. Mostly, we are grateful to be able to swim and to have reconnected with a swim community that we have been absent from for too long.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve managed a few short workout sets, a lot of drills and easy swimming, and a few short swim tests just to see where I’m at. I’m getting a better feel for the water and inching closer to where I once was. I’m not sure how long we’ll be able to sustain this under current circumstances. So, we’re trying to take it one day at a time.

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Today I did some freestyle pulling with fins as a combination of easy swim, scull and a fast 50. I like pulling with fins because it does not provide the buoyancy of a pull buoy. This requires you to engage your core for better balance and rotation. I also kick off the walls, working on streamline and building up the kick. As soon as I breakout and start a stroke, I stop the kick and focus on the pull. Pulling with fins is also a lot of fun and a way to get the feeling of fast swimming! The fast ones were within 1 sec of where I once was… so, not too bad for a few weeks of work.

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I just recently started to work in a few drills and very short swims with fins. This is a great way to ease into the rhythm of the stroke. One of the drills we call “Stone-skipper”. It’s a way to break up the stroke into two parts… the recovery phase and the pull phase with a long gentle glide in-between. It’s great for rhythm and timing. I also did a dolphin kick breaststroke. This also helps with the rhythm and timing of both breaststroke and fly.

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A 50 yard sprint kick with fins is another thing I like to do to gauge where I am at. I was surprise to find that I’m within a second of my best time here as well… very happy with that! 💪🏽

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@2swim_ | FINIS Ambassadors

Core Connection and Body Position

Core connection and body position are essential for balance and easy power. Some of these drills come from the University of Arizona in Fast Lane Freestyle. This video gives excellent instructions and tips on many essential drills with world class swimmers demonstrating technique. The Elevation and Bow Drills are two that I do regularly. They are also the foundation for all the other drills from UA. The idea here is to hold a body position at various points of the stroke to gain better balance, strength and understanding of how to move through these points while swimming. A snorkel is the one essential tool for these drills. It allows us to hold these positions without being interrupted by the breath. Finally, the kick. If you do get to watch Fast Lane Freestyle, you will find that all these drills are kick heavy. The kick is the anchor to our stroke, giving us something to leverage against and provides us forward momentum.

• Elevation Drill- bottom arm relaxed at your our side, top arm with finger tips to elbow in the water, bicep just out of the water, and elbow near the top of your head. In this position the elbow is above forearm, forearm above wrist, wrist above finger tips.

• Bow Drill- bottom arm reaching forward about 10 inches below the surface, top arm with hand held just before the entry point about 10 inches above the water.

• Rotation Drill- a very slow and deliberate freestyle stroke with a body position pause into a quick, snappy rotation.

• Easy Swim- put it together and stretch it out, maintain a quick and snappy rotation.

@2swim_ | FINIS Ambassadors

Rotation Drill

There are many drills designed to help with core connection and rotation in freestyle. In this video I’ve combined many aspects of these drills into one. It’s basically a very slow and deliberate freestyle stroke with a body position pause into a quick, snappy rotation.

If you had to choose only one piece of swimming gear, what would it be? I’ve been asked this question a number of times and my answer is without a doubt the center mounted snorkel. FINIS was the first company to introduce this gear back in 1995 and they are always improving it. The snorkel is the best tool for all of these drills and for doing long hard workouts. Why? Technique! It allows us to keep our heads centered in the optimal position for balance and rotation.

Breathing in freestyle is the moment where most swimmers fall out of alignment, throwing our balance off causing drag and slowing us down. This is why the snorkel is so great for technique.

Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

@2swim_ | FINIS Ambassadors