For this morning's swim workout, I hadn't planned anything out in advance. The goal was to go easy but do something meaningful and I ended up with only 35 minutes available. I stumbled into an idea for a drill set that ended up working out really well for me so I thought I'd share.
The entire set was focused on my catch. Over the past year, I've been working to hardwire a big catch with a solid early vertical forearm position. It has taken a lot of reps and it's not perfect, but I think I've got it about as close as I can get to where I want to be. So this morning's set was a progression of sorts--from isolating the catch one arm at a time to ripping out a fast swim with great form.
I don't know that there's any real support for this workout accomplishing what I wanted it to, but it sure seemed like it did. The workout, with commentary:
300 warmup
200 surfboard drill (isolate catch one arm at a time)
200 single-arm/head lead (isolate catch and work on proper rotation)
200 catchup (isolate catch one arm at a time and put a focus on balance)
200 fist (forces good forearm position or else you don't move forward)
200 mdps (control big water at catch, coordinate arms, stay long)
200 easy (lock in catch while fully connecting upper/lower body)
200 moderate (simulate smooth swimming at long endurance pace)
200 hard (not max effort, but push speed and keep stroke from breaking down under pressure)
200 cooldown
I felt really technically strong by that hard 200 and I swam it pretty fast.
Definitely felt like I got a nice workout and accomplished my goal for the morning.
Likely, not everyone has the patience for a drill progression like this, but I'd suggest you consider making time for this or something similar every now and then. Focus less on logging lots of yards. Focus more on swimming with technical excellence. Even if you don't swim a drill set like this, think about every workout, every set, every lap, and every stroke as an opportunity to improve your technique.
