Some of us have had the luxury of having a swim coach for most of our lives, but for others this is not the case. If you are new to the sport or someone who doesn’t have access to coaching for any reason, watching and emulating instructional videos can help enhance your swimming by improving technique, efficiency, and ultimately make you a faster and fitter swimmer. It’s also beneficial, if you can, to find a partner in which to train with who will watch the videos with you so that you can observe each other’s drills and provide feedback at the pool.
Even if you do have a coach, sometimes it can help to get different ideas and perspectives on stroke technique. The bottom line is, spending time watching and analyzing video discussing technique and trying to implement the new information learned can be greatly beneficial to your swimming.
For this week’s post, we’ve selected the following drill videos from GoSwim.tv’s YouTube channel to help combat some common issues with stroke technique or break down the stroke to make it easier to learn proper technique. We hope you enjoy them!
Freestyle: 6-Kick Drill
This drill aims to help learn how to drive the hands forward from the legs to build a complete stroke. The drill focuses on extending and holding the arm while kicking during the entire length, as well as learn a better breath timing.
Breaststroke: Finer points
In this video, there are some helpful tips on head position on the underwater pull as well as arm positioning and the speed of the recovery part of the stroke.
Backstroke: ‘Topher Drill
It can be easy to fall into the trappings of using a straight-arm backstroke pull. This video shows a method to help correct this issue.
Butterfly: Progression (Dolphin/Skipper)
The following video breaks down specific movements in butterfly, before putting it all back together, with the goal of making it a more comfortable and smooth stroke for each individual swimmer.
GoSwim.tv has an extensive library of drills to help you isolate and work on specific aspects of your strokes. We encourage you to explore all that their YouTube channel has to offer.
Happy Swimming!
