Fitter And Faster Drill Of The Week: Separation Drill

Welcome to the “Drill of the Week” sponsored by The Fitter and Faster Swim Tour presented by Swimoutlet.com. Swimming World will be bringing you a drill, concept, or tip that you can implement with your team on a regular basis. While certain weeks may be more appropriate for specific levels of swimming (club, high school, college, or masters), Drill Of The Week excerpts are meant to be flexible for your needs and inclusive for all levels of swimming.

This week’s drill is perfect for developing an efficient breaststroke by focusing on the timing of your pull and your kick.

This drill aims to help swimmers develop an awareness of their timing by totally disrupting it. In this drill, you take one full breaststroke pull and then one full breaststroke kick. It is important to maintain your lines throughout this drill. When you pull your legs should be straight out behind you, and when you kick your arms should be in front with your head down. This will allow your swimmers to feel the propulsion and resistance that is present in each phase of their stroke.

In breaststroke, you want the pull to come before the kick, with the initiation of the kick happening during the insweep of the hands during the pull. When they transition back to full stroke swimming after practicing separation drill, they will be able to tell if they are initiating their kick too early or too late. The biggest takeaway from this drill is the awareness of any “dead spots” in their stroke. A dead spot will be any time they are encountering resistance or slowing down. Combining this with other breaststroke timing drills, such as the popular 2 kicks/1 pull, is a great way to minimize these dead spots and develop a consistently efficient (and fast!) breaststroke.

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