Enhance Your Technique with This Drill Sequence

This is the fifth session as we build your fitness to a new 1,500m PB. Start with the first session and then work through doing each session three to four days apart.

• Session One: How fast can you swim 1,500m?
• Session Two: Drills to help you swim qwiker
• Session Three: 200’s to enhance your threshold speed
• Session Four: Swim 300m reps to develop your stamina

This session will continue the work you did in Session Two and continue to enhance and develop your technique.

Session Five: Technique

• 400m Warm Up;
• 4x 100m KOS 10sec RI;
• 100m Easy;
• 4x 100m (first two 6/1/6, next two 6/3/6) 10sec RI;
• 100m Easy;
• 4x 100m Alt Popov & Broken Arrow, 10sec RI;
• 200m Cool Down;

Start the workout with a Warm Up covering 400m. During the warm up feel free to stop and stretch as needed.  It doesn’t need to be a continuous swim.

The next set is four reps of 100m doing the Kick on Side (KOS) drill with 10 seconds Rest Interval (RI) between repetitions. KOS is a great drill for enhancing your body rotation and is also great for enhancing both your posture and your alignment in the water. Here is a video of how to do this drill. This drill along with the other drills are most effectively done whilst wearing fins, so feel free to wear them during this part of the workout. Alternate doing them on one side then on the other, changing round each rep (i.e. odd numbered reps do them on your left and even numbered reps on your right side).

After the set of KOS, swim 100m nice and easy, without your fins. Focus on your body rotation and being nice and long through the water.

The next set is a set of four reps of 100m doing two reps of the 6/1/6 drill and then two reps of 6/3/6 drill (click on the name of the drill to see how to do them) with 10 seconds rest between repetitions. As with the previous drills, feel free to utilise your fins for this set. 6/1/6 and 6/3/6 are great drills that follow on nicely from KOS and incorporate the stroke and recovery into the drill.

After the set of 6/1/6 & 6/3/6, swim 100m nice and easy, without your fins. Focus on your body rotation, being nice and long through the water and getting a good catch with each stroke. Make sure you take your fins off when doing these easy sets.

The final set involves four reps of 100m alternating between Popov drill and the Broken Arrow drill (click on the name of the drill to see how to do them) with 10 seconds RI. As with the previous drills, utilising your fins will aid with a bit of momentum allowing you to focus on doing the drill correctly. Alternate doing them on one side then on the other, changing round each rep (i.e. odd numbered reps do Popov drill and even numbered reps do Broken Arrow).

Complete your workout with a 200m Cool Down. Feel free to pause and stretch when needed and/or include stretching as part of each break until the distance is covered.

If you would like further advice feel free to contact Coach Ray.

Coach Ray is the Head Coach & Director of Qwik Kiwi – Endurance Sports Consultant.

Coach Ray specialises in assisting first timers and recreational athletes to achieve their sporting goals. He can be contacted at www.qwik.kiwi,  ray@qwikkiwi.com and 021 348 729. Make sure you sign up to his monthly informative newsletter.