Techniques of Swimming

  1. Drills at practice-for injury prevention, skill building, and efficiency
  2. Freestyle Drills: focus on body position, correct hand entry (palm down, NOT thumb in first), Correct breathing (bi-lateral: every 3 or 5) and patterns, rotation, use of core, and balance
  3. Backstroke Drills: focus on body position, correct hand entry (thumb out/pinky in), Correct head position, rotation, use of core, strength of kick and balance
  4. Breaststroke drills: focus on correct head position during breathing and the stroke, correct/legal pull motion, efficient kick, timing (glide), balance and pullouts
  5. Butterfly Drills: focus on Timing of all parts of the stroke, strength/timing of kicks, use of core, correct hand entry (palm down), breathing timing and patterns, correct arm recovery and balance
  6. Technique corrections
  7. Coaches are always talking to kids as they swim to change parts of their stroke that we know are not efficient or can cause injury.
  8. It is up to the swimmer to make the correction once it has been pointed out
  9. Warm-up/Cool downs
  10. We do these daily at practice and at meets (cool downs are done at meets when available). Being on time to the best of your ability is crucial to Warm-ups.
  11. USA swimming has done studies that show that the best way to be prepared for an aerobic workout is by a swimming warm-up. Stretching at this time was not found to be of greater benefit than low intensity swimming to get the muscles warmed up and prepared.
  12. Cool downs help the muscles prepare to recover and lengthen them out for flexibility
  13. Expect variety of strokes to build all muscles
  14. By swimming all strokes and disciplines (sprints, distance, ect.) ALL muscles are being used. This creates a balance of strength that prevents one set of muscles to dominate others and cause injury
  15. Variety also prevents over use of the same muscles daily. Even elite athletes that have a “specialty stroke” like Rebecca Soni (Breaststroke) train in all 4 strokes to keep her body sharp and prepared.
  16. Encourage use of equipment like snorkels or fins to help correct head and body position
  17. Snorkels are a bit tricky, and thus are used with our Junior/Senior athletes, but are CRUCIAL to helping with correct head position and balance. May use during long course warm ups for practice.
  18. Fins are recommended in our Junior/Senior group because of the strength building aspects, kick correction (especially for natural breaststroke kickers who struggle with fly/free kick) and to help support body position during many drills or specific sets. We try to use fins with beginners and Age groupers when we can, but with a shorter practice this will depend on the workout.