What are swimming drills?

“What are swimming drills? I have heard lots about them and there’s hundreds of YouTube videos about them, but I have no idea where to start.” British freestyle swimmer and Head Coach at Wavecrest Swimming, Cassie Patten has your guide

“What are swimming drills? I have heard lots about them and there’s hundreds of YouTube videos about them, but I have no idea where to start. I swim in the open water and in the pool, should I be incorporating drills into my swims? If so, what do you recommend I should try and what should I avoid?”
Alexa, Outdoor Swimmer reader

Well, before we open a Pandora’s box, let’s try and simplify what we mean by swimming drills. I believe a drill is anything that is not full stroke, and its aim is to perfect a singular element of technique by isolating it and repeating it continuously. Little disclaimer here, I don’t necessarily count kicking or pulling as a drill, they are standalone practices.

There are hundreds if not thousands of different drills for the four swimming strokes, from very technically simple drills, for example, swimming with your hands in fists, to extremely difficult and hard to coordinate drills. 

My recommendation is to pick one or two that sit within your swimming ability and focus on them. Each drill will have a specific part of the stroke that it will assist in improving. There can be some overlap in this, for example, the extended doggy paddle drill can work on rotation as well as the catch.

I was a competitive swimmer for close to two decades and I know the tendency to want to pick the easiest drill that takes the least amount of brain power to get the metres done. However, as I matured and understood the reasoning behind drills, I tried to ensure that every drill I did had a clear outcome. 

I always recommend doing them with fins and small finger paddles on, as you don’t want to be getting a lot of propulsion from the broken-down element. If you have a snorkel that is even better as that allows you to keep your head still while focusing on what your arms are doing.

When I’m coaching, I use a handful of tried and tested drills to improve catch and rotation, these are:

• 11 and one – kicking 

• 11 and one – press

• 11 and one – catch

• Extended doggy paddle

• Archer

Simple and easy to follow videos of all these drills, alongside my break down of why you need to do drills, can be found at on my YouTube channel. I hope that helps in unpacking what a swimming drill is and which ones you should do.

Cassie Patten is a British freestyle swimmer and Head Coach at Wavecrest Swimming. Cassie won bronze in the 10km open-water event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Read more advice from Coach Cassie.