Swimming made easy

by Terry Laughlin

  The drills work best if you allow yourself to "play" in a free, unstructured way before channeling your developing new relationship with the water into formal swimming. And, most important, get in the habit of feeling more. What subtle errors in your stroke make swimming harder? What equally subtle corrections make it easier? What movements or positions increase the water's resistance, and what adjustments make you more slippery? What habits make you feel more ragged, and which changes make you feel smooth? You will discover none of this so long as you keep doing the same old laps, just trying to keep up with the pace clock or other swimmers. But patient, attentive drill practice will reveal insights like this on every length Your senses will tell you how you're doing. What feels right, usually is right.

  How To Make Every Minute Of Drill Practice Count

  I've said over and over that drills work better than anything else for making significant changes (improvements!) in your swimming. Want to get all the value out of every minute of practice? Follow a few simple guidelines:

  Keep your focus narrow. Do just one thing well. Even though the simplest drills still have three to five "bullet points," pay attention to only one point on each repeat, particularly when first learning the drill. Once you feel confident you're doing it well (and it no longer requires all of your brainpower to do so), shift your focus to the next. After the various points begin to feel more natural, you can begin thinking about two, then three, at once.

  Make repeats short. When teaching drills in workshops, we never have the class go more than 25 yards before stopping for feedback. Follow this simple rule: Don't continue a drill beyond the point where you feel it's going well. Why practice even a little inefficiency? Instead, take a break, regroup, then resume.

  Keep sets brief. Long sets produce fatigue and fatigue mars your execution and blurs your focus. Stay with one drill or one focal point for no longer than 10 minutes, then try integrating that focus in some whole-stroke practice, or switch to a different drill focus.

  Rest. Many coaches put drills on challenging intervals, either to boost yards-per-minute or to test their swimmers' toughness. What they're more likely achieving is ragged drill execution, which makes the entire exercise pointless. Take all the rest you need. Make each repetition as good as — or better than — the first. Besides, if you're genuinely focused on ease and economy, your heart rate will stay in the aerobic range and you won't need much recovery between reps in the first place.

  One way to eliminate interval pressure is to rest for a given number of deep, slow breaths — between three and five is about right. That will not only provide enough rest but also relax and center you for better execution on the next rep.

  But however long you rest, take at least enough time to evaluate your last rep and plan how to improve the next one.

  Focus on mechanics, then feelings. When learning a new drill, focus first on getting the basic movements, coordination, and timing right. Once you've done that, begin working on the qualities of fishlike swimming in the drill, qualities such as comfort, relaxation, economy, silence, "feeling like a needle slipping through a small hole," etc. When you switch from drilling to swimming, vary your focus in the same way, sometimes keying in on specific movements, other times focusing on general sensations.

  Have patience. Spend all the time necessary to master each step. Hurrying means a greater chance of practicing inefficiency — and continuing to waste your hard-won energy when you swim. This is particularly true for the balance drills for both long-axis and short-axis skills.

  Take the pledge. Repeat this to yourself: "A drill done 100% right is 100% right. A drill done 99% right is 100% wrong."

  When you practice every part of a drill as it's designed, you learn efficient, fluent, satisfying movement. When you're off by even a little bit (not hitting your "sweet spot," missing on the timing, over-kicking, not feeling ease or control, etc.) you're forced into some kind of compensation — lifting your head, arching your back, using your arms as support levers, and the like. Those bad habits then make their way into your swimming and eventually become a permanent part of your stroke.

  Practice doesn't make perfect; it only makes permanent whatever you happen to be practicing!

  Drill Practice for Every Swimmer: Novice to Champ

  The great genius of drills, remember, is that they're self-adjusting. The same drill that teaches basic movement to a beginner can burnish subtle refinement into an advanced swimmer's stroke. As a result, each ability level, from novice to Olympic hopeful, follows its own drill "recipe," benefiting most from a relatively custom drill plan: how much drilling vs. swimming; how much work on basic balance vs. more advanced drills; how and when to integrate drilling and swimming; etc. As you'll see in the guidelines below, it's far more than just "beginners need the most drills and experts need the least." Drills, remember, are stroke-builders in the beginning, and stroke-polishers later on. Here are some general principles for when you as an individual should use them, and when you can safely put them away.

  Novice Swimmers

  If you are new to swimming—say a runner who's eyeing that first triathlon, or growing fed up with knee injuries and looking for a new sport — I often advise doing little to no whole-stroke swimming until you've mastered simpler movements or mini skills, particularly the pertinent balance skills for the stroke you're learning. That goes too for swimmers who've been at it a while but have had little coaching (or who, despite years of laps, have never acquired much skill), or who are learning a new or difficult stroke (butterfly is a good example). If you came to one of our TI workshops, we'd teach you just as we teach non-swimming kids or adults, doing nothing else until you had mastered Supine Balance, the first drill in our first lesson. Then you would patiently advance through the other static head-lead balance drills, before attempting any active head-lead balance drills. And so on.

  If you're coaching or teaching yourself, simply follow the same principle. Imperfect balance at step one, or any shaky fundamental at any subsequent step, means you'll employ (memorize!) some form of compensating movement to correct it. That imprints inefficiency. Don't do it.

  How much drilling? Probably 70% to 100% of your total swimming yardage. Your entire emphasis should be on learning skilled movement. As for conditioning, for now that's "something that happens to you while you practice your skills" as we're fond of saying at TI. If you're chronically worried about whether you're staying in shape, either condition yourself with a stroke different from the one you're working on or, better yet, when practice is over just get out of the pool and head for the gym.

  What drills, when? Just follow the lesson plans we've outlined in the Lessons section, and the advice in the drill guidelines above. Also, you'll find additional guidance, and suggested practice schedules, periodically, on our online magazine. Total Swim.

  What to do when you swim? Swim only as long/far/fast as your wholestroke holds together perfectly. That means for as long as it feels as smooth, as controlled, and just plain as good, as your drills feel. Focus on one of the bullet points you were practicing in the drill, such as hiding your head or swimming downhill; or count your strokes; or just evaluate how you feel overall. The instant you start to detect even a little raggedness, stop swimming and go back to drilling.

  Avoid timed repeats on intervals in the stroke you are learning, at least until you can keep the stroke count—or your ease and smoothness, certainly —consistent for at least 10 minutes of relaxed, slow (short!) repeats. Repeats, in fact, should never last any longer than your ability to do them efficiently and easily.

  Intermediate Swimmers

  If you're in this tent, you have lots of company. Perhaps you swam competitively 10 or 20 years ago but never quite got past "middling." Or you did better than that, but it's been a long time since your last race and you know technique has changed a lot since then. Or, maybe you're a triathlete with some good swim-training experience who already races in the upper half of the swim pack, but just knows
you could run and bike much faster if swimming took less of your energy. Or maybe you're an active competitive swimmer with lots of headroom for learning and improvement — whole-stroke swimming at moderate speeds is a piece of cake for you, but pick up the pace and your efficiency evaporates. In each case, you'll reach your goals much more quickly by trading some "training" for concentrated practice.

  How much drilling? Anywhere from 40% to 100% of your overall yardage. The percentage should be up to 100% if you:

  • have just returned to swimming after a year-long "retirement"

  • have finally decided to put a major emphasis on becoming efficient after years of generic, unfocused lap swimming or workouts

  • are working on a new stroke

  • are beginning a new competitive swim season.

  Trim that to 80% when your new drills feel 100% right, by beginning to integrate some whole-stroke swimming in the way recommended for novices. (An 80:20 mix of drill;:swim is also good for any 8-and-under age-group swimmer or novice competitive swimmer.)

  Reduce the drill component to 60% — and no further—only when your stroke is good enough to "take off the training wheels." That means you can swim sets of no-drilling, moderate-speed, moderate-distance, moderate-rest repeats with consistent stroke counts and form. A 60:40 mix of drill:swim is also good for a competitive swimmer of intermediate skill in mid-season, and for any age-group swimmer age 10 years or under.

  You can mix drills with swimming in a 40:60 ratio when you are able to swim timed sets, descending sets, etc., on somewhat more difficult intervals while maintaining a consistent stroke count, and can effectively "trade" strokes for speed (i.e., control the increase in your s/1 and stay smooth and fluent when you increase your speed). This ratio is also good for competitive swimmers of moderately advanced skill in mid-season, or age group swimmers of age 11 to 13 years.

  What drills when? Do all-drill sets whenever you are working intensively on skill improvement or learning something new. Follow our lesson plans in the Lessons section when you do. Do sets, alternating drill and swim, when trying to transfer the new skill or awareness to your stroke. Use either drill or drill-swim sets as warmup and recovery, or in place of kickboard training when you are shifting your emphasis from learning to training.

  What to do when you swim? As an intermediate swimmer your skills are still relatively unformed and your "swimming intuition" has a good way to go. You need to be very diligent about not "practicing inefficiency" in training (unless of course you really don't want to become the best swimmer you can be).

  So, most of your whole-stroke swimming should still be focused on maintaining consistent stroke counts or on making the drills' focal points feel more natural when you're swimming. You can also test yourself with some descending or faster swims, occasionally simulating the pace or effort of your races. For these sets, choose repeat distances long enough to allow you to feel the speed and power you'd like while racing, but not so long that you begin to grow ragged. A good general guide when you're simulating race pace, tempo, or effort, is repeat distances of 10% to 25% of the race distance. And one thing more: Keep your top practice speed down to "easy speed" instead of "all-out speed." Testing your ability to push through the pain will mainly prove that your form won't hold up to the stress.

  Advanced Swimmers

  Even advanced swimmers — up to and including world record holders — can still benefit from focused drill practice. Why? Because the more elite the competition, the more likely that places, records, and qualifying times are determined by tiny margins. And the closer you get to a world record, the tougher those tenths and hundredths of seconds become to shave off. Any advantage pays. Besides that, the faster you go, the harder it is to overpower the drag resisting your body — and drag reduction is built into nearly every TI drill. Finally, even if you are an Olympic swimmer or world champion — the absolute best in your event — your energy efficiency is still less than 10% and, like the rest of us, you can make easier gains by reducing energy waste than by increasing energy supply.

  How much drilling?

  • 80% to 100% if you are correcting a stubborn glitch in a particular stroke; or are beginning a new season; or need intensive restoration after illness or a particularly intensive workout or training phase; or are rehabilitating after a swimming injury (and want to correct the technique errors that almost certainly contributed to that injury in the first place). Highly focused and purposeful drill practice is always better than "garbage yardage" in any kind of recovery workout.

  • 40% to 70% when you're putting an extra focus on efficiency, are doing basic aerobic conditioning or early season gradual buildup, need general recovery from hard training, or are in an off-season maintenance-training and foundation-improving stage.

  • 10% to 30% as a routine base level of drill/technique work; during warmups for any practice or meet; as preparation for an important main set; as recovery between sets or as the "easy" part of fartlek (easy/fast) training; as a far more beneficial alternative to kickboard sets; but never as intensive training.

  What drills when? Even an elite swimmer can benefit enormously from working on the most basic balance drills, as Jenny Thompson discovered during her quest to break the world record in the 100-meter butterfly (see pages 74-75). So use the entire sequence of drills in a particular lesson, or for a particular stroke, including the common-axis drills for that stroke (i.e., backstroke drills for a freestyler, or butterfly drills for a breaststroker).

  The basic drills can also be a routine element of everyday parts of your practice, such as warmup. Think of it as similar to the way an accomplished musician still practices scales backstage to limber up for a performance "out front."

  In early season, practice drills from all the strokes to improve your general library of motor skills for fishlike swimming. Learning (or re-learning) to move more fluently in all strokes will unquestionably help increase your efficiency in any one stroke. Just follow the carefully chosen and proven-to-beeffective sequences in our lesson plans. For your primary stroke or event, identify specific drill sequences that you know help put your stroke in a particularly good groove. Use these before important sets, or during your meet warmup.

  Choose active balance drills from Lessons Two and Three as a useful alternative to low-value kickboard sets.

  And when using drills as recovery between sets or between harder repeats during a set, you may get even more complete recovery by doing drills from a different stroke. Use drills from the same stroke as your recovery if you need a technique refresher to set you up to stay controlled on the next hard swim. Use drills from another stroke if you mainly need more physical recovery.

  What to do when you swim? As an accomplished swimmer, you should be able to do the entire range of swimming repeats, all distances and all intensities, in training without significant breakdowns in efficiency. But just to be certain you keep your focus on s/1 when swimming fast, make stroke counting a habit, and strive to do an ever-improving job of adding the fewest strokes possible as you go faster, or increasing your ability to swim fast at any given stroke count.

  At this point, you've probably heard just about all you want to hear about the value of drills. But the good news is that the classroom part is now officially over. It's time to take these "building blocks" that will eventually become your new and improved stroke, and begin putting them together. As the notice on some products cautions, "some assembly is required." Same thing goes for changing drills into real swimming. So, turn the page and let's discover how to finally fit together the pieces of the puzzle.

  Part 2

  The Total Immersion Drill Progressions

  Chapter 11

  How to Use the Drill Progressions for Maximum Benefit

  This book describes the drills taught by Total Immersion as of the year 2000. These drills are extremely effective, and will help you learn to swim better than you ever thought possible. We strongly recommend, however, that you use this b
ook in conjunction with our Four-Strokes DVD.

  As effective as the descriptions on the following pages are, you will gain a much more complete understanding of the movements of each of these drills by watching them being demonstrated on the Four-Strokes DVD. You will learn physical skills far more quickly, easily, and completely with visual aids than by trying to follow written descriptions in a book. To gain maximum benefit from this book, we recommend that you use the Four-Strokes DVD to learn the drills, and use this book to learn the principles behind the drills and the concept of fishlike swimming. The two products will complement each other - and your swimming.

  To order the Four-Strokes DVD or any of our other products, please visit our website at www.totalimmersion.net or call us at 800-609-7946.

  Chapter 12

  Long-Axis Drill Progressions

  Lesson One: Learn Basic Balance with Head-Lead Drills

  We always start teaching and stroke refinement with head-lead drills, in which you hold your arms lightly at your sides. Even if you feel you already have efficient strokes, if you've never practiced these drills before, start here. These are the drills that most quickly give you the most critical gift of balance - the knowledge of how to get the water to support you. Once you do that, all of your movements will be more relaxed, more natural, and less inhibited.

  Head-lead drills are critical to this process because for most swimmers, the tendency to use the arms as stabilizers - just as you might instinctively reach out for a wall while standing on one leg - will be powerful. Until you learn to fully master balance using only your head and core body, you will have a difficult time using your arms only to lengthen your body and hold on to the water as you propel with the kinetic chain. Because you cannot use your arms for support in head-lead drills, they teach you the purest sense of balance. They are also effective in creating greater self awareness because, without your arms extended, you'll know immediately if your head, neck, and torso are out of alignment or are moving incorrectly.