This drill is excellent for swimming lessons, swim teams, adult lessons, or child swim lessons. It focuses on achieving a long over-the-water hand entry, developing an early catch, maintaining proper body posture, and ensuring overall body balance.
Updated: 3/24/17
Freestyle Drill: Position 11
This drill is designed to build foundational strength and perfect the body line required for efficient freestyle swimming. It emphasizes maintaining a horizontal, streamlined position while executing the kick.
Step-by-Step Execution
- Start from Streamline: Begin the drill in a tight, streamlined position to establish proper body alignment.
- Arm Separation: Separate your hands from the streamline and bring them directly above the shoulders. (The arms should form an '11' shape because they are straight and directly above the body.)
- Kick Action: Kick freestyle while keeping the arms extended straight.
- Surface Maintenance: Ensure your hands remain on the surface of the water throughout the kick.
- Hip Position: Keep your hips elevated and close to the surface to minimize drag.
- Head Alignment: The head should be pointed directly toward the bottom of the pool (looking down).
- Breathing Technique: When breathing, look up briefly, and immediately quickly look back down to regain balance on the surface.
- Kick Through Breath: Crucially, maintain your kick motion even while taking a breath.
Coach's Pro Tips & Troubleshooting
⚠️ Watch out for swimmers looking forward! This common mistake will cause them to sink, forcing the drill to happen slightly underwater and creating an unnatural bend in their bodies, which ruins the balance of the drill.
🎯 Reinforce these two key parts:
- Look down with your whole face (maintaining a neutral head position).
- Kick continuously throughout the entire duration of the drill.
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