At Swimming Ideas, we're all about ability, skill, and learning over endurance. I'd rather see someone swim well than swim sloppy for 200 yards. Perhaps I should say that we're in the business of "fun and effective" swimming. In fact, I wrote a whole book about creating "fun and effective swim games."
While resources like the GoSwim daily videos are generally okay—and occasionally contain great nuggets of wisdom—they often provide general tips. One video, for instance, described doing a double breath flip turn: breathing to the right, immediately breathing to the left, then executing the flip. The idea is that you gain more air and can streamline off the wall longer and better without struggling for air. It sounds neat, and while it might not be something we actively train for, it serves as an effective tool to improve flip turns or to create a habit of streamlining longer after the flip.
I recently came across a line that felt profoundly appropriate to what we do at Swimming Ideas, so I had to listen to it multiple times. Thankfully, they provided the transcript:
"Introducing variations on standard techniques MAY allow an athlete to gain an advantage in another area of their swimming."
This concept is fundamental: Basic swim games are essential "variations on standard techniques." Drills are variations on standard techniques. It's not just about perfecting the stroke; it's about challenging the body in novel ways to build transferable skills.
Practical Examples of Technique Variations
Here are a few examples of how altering a core stroke can improve other aspects of swimming:
- One-Arm Freestyle: You swim with one hand held at your hips, and free with the other. Crucially, you must over-rotate your torso a full 180°, ensuring the hips move with the arm (arm extended, hip down, arm pulled back to hips, hips up). This variation forces an overemphasis on rotation, which helps swimmers retain that rotational power during standard freestyle.
- Fly Kick with Breaststroke Arms: Perform one fly kick on each arm cycle. This works on moving the hips in a breaststroke pattern, promoting fast "shoots" back to the 11 position, and encouraging a small undulation with each stroke. (Note: While butterfly kicking in a breaststroke is illegal, using this as a drill builds off the concept that variations improve overall swimming mechanics.)
- 3 Strokes Free, 18 Kicks Side: This adaptation focuses on long reaches, rotating hips, staying in line, and maintaining a strong core. Instead of pausing for 18 flutter kicks on your side, this modified set improves other aspects of your swimming by altering the base stroke mechanics.
I believe it is clear that variations to technique are intended to improve other aspects of swimming; they do more than just "may" help. They actively help.
The Philosophy Behind Variation
This approach—using variations—is literally how we come up with new drills, fun games, and activities that may not be exact swimming, but whose benefits outweigh any negative habits they might form. When designing your own lesson plans or games, the core question should always be: Do the benefits outweigh the negatives?
If you've taken a look at our <a href="https://gum.co/digitalswimplans">swim lesson plans</a>, or our developmental swim practices, you know we incorporate many games and activities that are not conventional swimming, but which lead up to excellent technique.
Even drills and teaching progressions that I personally dislike are variations on a core skill. For example, I really dislike the whole side glide and rolling on your back to teach freestyle breathing. While we don't use it in our program, I acknowledge its existence: <a href="https://www.swimminglessonsideas.com/2015/10/12/sip-033-what-do-you-think-of-side-glide/">here is</a>. My point remains that it is a modification of a target skill intended to improve the target skill.
The value in constantly reminding ourselves of this concept—that variations to standard strokes improve technique in other areas—cannot be overstated. You can make changes to swimming strokes and see if they improve your target skill. You can create new games and drills on the fly by simply making a skill different! It is liberating, exciting, and the foundation of improvement. It is a challenge both for you as a coach and the swimmer.
A Coach's Anecdote: Putting Theory into Practice
Yesterday during my beginning group swim practice, I noticed something concerning during freestyle: many of the kids were not reaching to full extension. Their arms were bending before hitting the water, they hit the water at odd angles, and they sometimes didn't even reach fully above their head to initiate a stroke. Ugh. Awful!
We split up into groups, and I attempted something new. I had them put little floating foam discs under their palms and push off the wall in position 11, keeping the discs underwater. The challenge was to angle the hands so the discs moved with you and didn't float away. Swimmers couldn't "hold" them; they just placed them palm down and used pushing pressure. It wasn't the greatest activity, and it was kinda boring.
After each group got a chance to do it, we did 2 x 25's of freestyle where you had to swim as if there were discs under your hands. You had to "hit the target" with each stroke. It was okay. So, we followed this with 2 x 25's of freestyle using two kickboards, placing your hands on them like they were floating islands. Every stroke, you had to let go, push the board, do a stroke, and slap the board. It was difficult, and I probably wouldn't repeat the activity, but it worked! When we did our next 2 x 25s of free, the kids remembered the kickboards, and all of them performed a long-reaching stroke that "hit the position 11 target" above their heads.
I took a swim technique, altered it, and hoped that it would improve something; and it did. You can do it too!
Let me know what variations you've implemented, what you've adapted recently that is not a typical drill or game. Share in the comments below or on social media.
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