No frills in drills?

OK, so I've habitually neglected doing lots of drills. I've done some, but not many, and fixed a few things, and I've improved. I mean, my swim time at the Columbia Triathlon in 2003 was under 25 minutes. That's not too bad, right?

Then I joined Masters Swimming, and found out how truly slow I am. So I started looking for ways to improve, and attended my second Swim Technique clinic by Beth Baker. After that, I knew I had to drill some more, but just could not get the umph to do much of it. But I kept at it, albeit without too much dedication. Then one day I found something I was doing wrong, and that lead to some others and then yet still others.

Now I am a drill freak! I'm working on the things I do wrong. Getting them incorporated into my normal stroke takes time and concentration but I am patient. I've changed my swim practices to one swim session a week and two drill sessions (45 min or more each). And you know what? I am swimming faster, even though I am swimming less. Following is a rundown of some of the things I've found to date, in hopes it can help you improve, or at least encourage you to try. These drills are from the DVD "Fishlike Freestyle" by Total Immersion, written Terry Laughlin and company.

Drill: Skate
I was off balance on my left side. Normally I breathe right side. Just not stable on the left. This drill fixed that problem. I think of skating as the railroad tracks. If the tracks are not smooth, the train ride will be bumpy. I then graduated to going from left to right side skates to practice balance while moving rolling. Mastered it, moved on.

Drill: Under Switch
This drill allows me to focus on front quadrant swimming and being needlelike. When I do this drill well, I move along at a decent pace. If my arms are too wide, I'm out of balance, or I don't do front quadrant swim well enough, I slow down. This drill also allows me to think about connecting my hips to my fingertips in a smooth, connected but powerful way. Beth Baker calls it a "swoosh" feeling. Don't ask me to explain that, but she's got it dead on.

I discovered that I had no swoosh on the left hand side, but a great swoosh on the right side. That lead me to work on my hand position a bit. I pulled my fingers together a bit more, and cocked my wrists outward. That gave me a better pull, and for a bit tired shoulders until I adapted, which took three good hard swims.

Even with a bit of swoosh on the left, I was still missing something as the left just did not feel as good as the right. I'd go back to the right for reference on occasion and really going slowly and mindfully think about each little movement. Then, eureka, I found it! My elbow movement when I start the catch was different. On the right, I bent me elbow early and pulled backwards soon. On the left the elbow was straighter and going in a lot of directions, including out, down and sometimes backwards.

Drill: One Arm Catch Up
I started doing this drill because I figured my left side was just weaker than my right. While that was true, it wasn't as true as I thought. Once I was feeling really good at the above two drills, I went to work here to try and incorporate them into my stroke. Since I was focusing on so many things, I just remembered to be patient and take my time. The result was amazing. After getting the elbow in the right place and cocking the wrist, I noticed that when I pulled hard on the left I bobbed up and down, but not on the right. The goal was to go forward, so I figured up and down was bad-I'm so smart!

After continuing to futz with the bobbing problem, I finally fixed it by pressing down more with my chest and making sure my head was pointed to the bottom of the pool and tucked against my outstretched arm. Now, left and right are smooth. I don't have a concrete time yet, but my rough little test revealed a whopping 2 seconds faster doing 25s. That could translate to as much as 2 minutes in a race!

The Next Drill
My plan is to do one arm catch up 25s alternated with regular swimming until I am certain that the things I mentioned above are part of my muscle memory, two or three more sessions perhaps. Then I will move on to the next set of "Fishlike Freestyle " drills, the Zipper Switch. In the past, I've been a mess when doing this drill, sometimes horrible, sometimes bad, on occasion good. I'll keep doing the previous drills, but go through them more quickly, just like I only do 100 yds in sweet spot now, versus much more when just starting out.

In Summary
Doing the drills on "Fishlike Freestyle" in the prescribed order and fashion has definitely improved my swimming. Since I am learning new things about my stroke, or correcting bad things, drills have become much more cerebral and at least to me fun and exciting. I heard someone explain that swimming is very technical. I put that together with playing golf-you need to hit a lot of golf balls to do well. In kind, you must do a lot of swim drills to swim well. Now that I am learning, I don't mind.

Just so you know, I don't own any stock in Total Immersion, and if you are male, age 35-39, forget everything you just read and go eat some pizza.