How to improve swim skill transfer

Many triathletes diligently work on improving their skills by performing drills yet find that when they return to full stroke swimming, nothing has changed. It can be an extremely frustrating and mystifying experience. The drills are supposed to improve your skills, but they don’t! 

The issue isn’t necessarily that drills don’t work, it’s that they need to be used in the right way to be most effective. Let’s take a look at how to do that.

Drill then swim

To solve this problem, start combining your drilling and swimming into the same sets, rather than performing them separately. You’ll do some drilling, then you’ll do some drilling, then repeat. 

The reason this is so effective is that it gives you the opportunity to take what you learn in the drill and immediately apply it to your swimming. 

That’s the step most triathletes miss. They assume the drill will transfer to the swim, but you have to consistently practice both at the same time to make that happen.

This process is a lot more effective if you regularly alternate between drilling and swimming, as often as possible. Rather than performing all your drilling and then all your swimming, switch back and forth between the two. 

Doing so ensures that you get more practice taking what you’ve learned during the drill and executing great skills while swimming freestyle.

Here are two very simple examples to illustrate the difference between the two approaches. Both sets are focusing on improving head position and breathing.

Set #1

10 x 25m paddle cap freestyle
10 x 25m freestyle

Set #2

20 x 25m alternate 2 paddle cap freestyle and 2 freestyle

In the second set, you’re going to get many more opportunities to practise swimming great freestyle after doing the drill, which is going to provide more opportunities to learn. It’s a subtle shift that can make a big difference.

Change the emphasis

When you first start with a new drill, it makes sense to perform more repetitions of the drill and fewer repetitions of freestyle swimming. 

After all, you have to be able to perform the drill well before you have to worry about performing freestyle with your new skills. To make sure you can get to that point as quickly as possible, focus on the drill.

Once you have the hang of the drill, and you’re able to make some positive changes with your freestyle, start reducing the focus on the drill and increase the emphasis on swimming freestyle. 

This will allow you to get more practice with swimming freestyle and it will allow you to start the process of training your skills. That way, you can ensure that you can execute your skills while swimming faster and with more fatigue, just like in racing.

Top image credit: Getty Images