SNZ Events
Epic Swim
High Performance
SNZ Events
Epic Swim
High Performance
To help develop feel for freestyle arms ask swimmers to imagine there are solid swiss balls in the water that they can curve their arms around, hold on and slide past.
To lengthen your freestyle stroke try to splash water at the ceiling every time your hand exits the water. To do the drill correctly, you will have no choice but to finish at your hips. If you try to exit the water early, you won’t be able to splash water up.
Distance per stroke (DPS) is exactly what it sounds like. You should try to cover as much distance as possible with each arm cycle. Count your strokes on each length. Then as a challenge try to take one less stroke each length.
Try teaching arm circles while your students are standing. You can talk about what you are seeing plus correct and reinforce while your swimmers are practicing the skill.
Encourage beginner swimmers to press the water from entry to exit building a feel for the water. Then encourage big straight arms by using "from thigh to sky" which works on gross motor skills. You can work on this when standing, walking, walking with eyes in and continue when you add the stroke to the automatic kick.
Truck and trailer is a great game to play with your more advanced swimmers. Get swimmers to concentrate on their arms and legs while experiencing drag and resistance.
Balance a bottle of water on forehead while performing backstroke. This helps to keep the head still and inline with the spine whilst performing the whole stroke. Start off with kicking to get a feel for balance then add in streamline arms. When ready add in the stroke!
Problem; swimmers pulls right under tummy when swimming breaststroke. Solution; lie swimmers on poolside and practice breaststroke arms against the wall.
