{"id":15975,"date":"2022-07-14T18:46:47","date_gmt":"2022-07-14T16:46:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/?p=107552"},"modified":"2022-07-14T19:03:16","modified_gmt":"2022-07-14T17:03:16","slug":"how-to-make-your-swim-drills-more-challenging","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/rss_feed\/how-to-make-your-swim-drills-more-challenging\/","title":{"rendered":"How to make your swim drills more challenging"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Andrew Sheaff\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 14 July 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Improving your skills can be tough. To optimise learning, you need a lot of repetition, and you need novelty. Unfortunately, these two requirements are somewhat contradictory!<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can perform the same activities over and over again to get your reps in, but there won\u2019t be much novelty. In contrast, you can constantly switch up the drills you use, but you won\u2019t be getting enough repetitions in.<\/p>\n

When\u2019s best to do swim drills in a session?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
However, there is an alternative. You can take the same old drills you love and make slight changes to them. Now you have the best of both worlds \u2013 you can perform lots of repetitions with the same basic drills while still getting novel challenges.<\/p>\n
Below are some ideas for how to do exactly that.<\/p>\n
How to make your swim drills more challenging<\/strong><\/h2>\nChange your hands<\/strong><\/h3>\nIf you change the shape of your hands, I guarantee you\u2019ll experience the drill differently. You\u2019ll move water differently and your ability to stabilise your body position<\/strong><\/a> will be dramatically different as well.<\/p>\n
How to stop wiggling in your swim<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
The same drill will suddenly be a whole new experience. Fortunately, there are lots of different ways you can adjust the size and shape of your hands. Here are some great hand positions:<\/p>\n\n<h3>Change the speed<\/strong><\/h3>\nMost triathletes will perform their drills at a smooth and controlled pace. There\u2019s no rule that says you have to do so!<\/p>\nYou can practise building the speed of the drill over the course of each repetition or you can increase the speed from repetition to repetition.<\/p>\nBy adding some speed, you\u2019ll be challenging your coordination and you\u2019re almost guaranteed to expose some weakness in your execution of the drill.<\/p>\n<h3>Add a buoy<\/strong><\/h3>\nMany drills, particularly those targeting the pulling action, take on a new life when you remove the legs from the action. All of a sudden, the arms are required to do all the work.<\/p>\nWithout throwing in a buoy, you might not realise how the legs were compensating for the arms. Adding a buoy tends to change the entire dynamic of the drill, and this provides another context for you to master your skills.<\/p>\n<ul><li><a class=\""standard-card-new__article-title"\" href=\""https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/training\/swim-training\/swim-training-session-with-tools-get-more-power-per-stroke\/"\">Swim training session with tools: get more power per stroke<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a class=\""standard-card-new__article-title"\" href=\""https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/news\/gifts-for-swimmers\/"\">Gifts for swimmers: 12 top gift ideas for those who love to swim<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul><h3>Add fins<\/strong><\/h3>\nTake the opposite approach of adding a buoy by adding <a href=\""https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/training\/swim-training\/swimming-with-fins-whats-the-difference-between-long-and-short-fins\/"\">fins<\/strong><\/a>. Instead of de-emphasising the legs, you\u2019ll emphasise them.<\/p>\nDon\u2019t be surprised if you feel very different when performing the same drill. It will provide you with the opportunity to feel what it\u2019s like to have a steady kick behind you, and that will likely allow for different ways of executing the drill.<\/p>\n<ul><li><a class=\""standard-card-new__article-title"\" href=\""https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/training\/swim-training\/swim-fin-workouts-dave-scott-explains-how-they-help-your-training-and-key-sessions\/"\">Swim fin workouts: Dave Scott explains how they help your training, and key sessions<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a class=\""standard-card-new__article-title"\" href=\""https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/training\/swim-training\/how-to-reduce-excessive-kicking-when-swimming\/"\">How to reduce excessive kicking when swimming<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a class=\""standard-card-new__article-title"\" href=\""https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/training\/swim-training\/how-to-use-a-kickboard-to-improve-your-swim-technique\/"\">How to use a kickboard to improve your swim technique<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul><h3>Change your breathing<\/strong><\/h3>\nIf you always wear a snorkel when doing drills, take it off. If you never wear one, start using it.<\/p>\n<ul><li><a class=\""standard-card-new__article-title"\" href=\""https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/training\/swim-training\/how-to-use-a-swim-snorkel-correctly\/"\">How to use a swim snorkel correctly<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>Breathing tends to alter how you swim, so performing the same drill with a different breathing pattern will likely have a significant impact on how you move through the water and how you execute the drill.<\/p>\n<ul><li><a class=\""standard-card-new__article-title"\" href=\""https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/gear\/swim\/training-kit\/best-swimming-snorkels\/"\">Best swimming snorkels for focusing on your form<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>Top image:<\/strong> Getty Images<\/p>\n<ul><li><a class=\""standard-card-new__article-title"\" href=\""https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/training\/swim-training\/how-to-combine-drills-and-full-stroke-swimming\/"\">How to combine drills and full-stroke swimming<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a class=\""standard-card-new__article-title"\" href=\""https:\/\/www.220triathlon.com\/training\/swim-training\/10-essential-pool-swim-drills-for-triathletes\/"\">10 essential pool swim drills for triathletes<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Andrew Sheaff Published: Thursday, 14 July 2022 at 12:00 am Improving your skills can be tough. To optimise learning, you need a lot of repetition, and you need novelty. Unfortunately, these two requirements are somewhat contradictory! You can perform the same activities over and over again to get your reps in, but there won\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":15976,"template":"","categories":[1,23],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/how-to-make-your-swim-drills-more-challenging-scaled.jpg",2560,1728,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/how-to-make-your-swim-drills-more-challenging-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/how-to-make-your-swim-drills-more-challenging-300x202.jpg",300,202,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/how-to-make-your-swim-drills-more-challenging-768x518.jpg",768,518,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/how-to-make-your-swim-drills-more-challenging-1024x691.jpg",800,540,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/how-to-make-your-swim-drills-more-challenging-1536x1037.jpg",1536,1037,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/how-to-make-your-swim-drills-more-challenging-2048x1382.jpg",2048,1382,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Andrew Sheaff Published: Thursday, 14 July 2022 at 12:00 am Improving your skills can be tough. To optimise learning, you need a lot of repetition, and you need novelty. Unfortunately, these two requirements are somewhat contradictory! You can perform the same activities over and over again to get your reps in, but there won\u2019t…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/15975"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}