Medley Session #195

This Medley Session is a great one to start the new year with as we'll be doing a stocktake to see how many strokes you take for each lap, go through drills for each stroke to improve your efficiency, and count your strokes again to see the improvement. The lower the number of strokes you take to get to the other end of the pool, the more efficient your stroke is, which is ultimately what we're aiming for.

Take your time with the drills and really focus on doing them correctly. The slower you can do them correctly the better you will be at doing them when going fast.

Today's Medley set is not about swimming a new PB, but more about improving your technique. Enjoy!

Drills:

Butterfly - Swim 3 strokes with your left arm only, 3 strokes with your right arm only and 3 strokes with both arms. Swimming with the one arm will help you to get into the '2 kick per 1 arm stroke' rhythm without getting too tired of having to lift both arms over the water.

Backstroke - Swim 3 strokes with your left arm only, 3 strokes with your right arm only and 3 strokes with both arms. When swimming with 1 arm only make sure the shoulder of the arm that is not swimming comes up and out of the water when finishing your stroke on the other arm. When swimming with both arms this should help to get your arm up and over the water each stroke you do, which decreases the drag when swimming.

Breaststroke - Swim a normal breaststroke stroke, followed by an extra kick while keeping your arms streamlined in front of you. This drill will help you to create a longer glide in your stroke.

Freestyle - Swim 3 strokes with your left arm only, 3 strokes with your right arm only and 3 strokes with both arms.When entering the water with your swimming arms make sure you rotate your body in so your swimming hand passes the resting hand in front of you. This will help you to improve your rotation and balance in your stroke.

Advanced

Warm up: 200 Swim / 200 Kick / 200 IM / 200 Pull / 200 Swim

200 IM Count your strokes for each 50 stroke and remember the numbers!

4 x 50 Butterfly drill - 20sec rest

4 x 50 Backstroke drill - 20sec rest

4 x 50 Breaststroke drill - 20sec rest

4 x 50 Freestyle drill - 20sec rest

4 x 50 Butterfly (Count strokes / -1 per 50) - 20sec rest

4 x 50 Backstroke (Count strokes / -2 per 50) - 20sec rest

4 x 50 Breaststroke (Count strokes / -1 per 50) - 20sec rest

4 x 50 Freestyle (Count strokes / -2 per 50) - 20sec rest

200 IM Count your strokes for each 50 stroke and compare to your first 200 IM of this set.

Cool down: 200 Choice

Intermediate

Warm up: 100 Swim / 100 Kick / 100 IM / 100 Pull / 100 Swim

100 IM Count your strokes for each 25 stroke and remember the numbers!

4 x 50 (25 Butterfly drill / 25 Easy Freestyle) - 20sec rest

4 x 50 (25 Backstroke drill / 25 Easy Freestyle) - 20sec rest

4 x 50 (25 Breaststroke drill / 25 Easy Freestyle) - 20sec rest

4 x 50 (25 Freestyle drill / 25 Easy Freestyle) - 20sec rest

4 x 25 Butterfly (Count strokes / -1 per 25) - 20sec rest

4 x 25 Backstroke (Count strokes / -1 per 25) - 20sec rest

4 x 25 Breaststroke (Count strokes / -1 per 25) - 20sec rest

4 x 25 Freestyle (Count strokes / -1 per 25) - 20sec rest

100 IM Count your strokes for each 50 stroke and compare to your first 100 IM of this set.

Cool down: 100 Choice

Beginner

Warm up: 50 Swim / 50 Kick / 50 IM / 50 Pull / 50 Swim

100 IM Count your strokes for each 25 stroke and remember the numbers!

4 x 25 Butterfly drill - 20sec rest

4 x 25 Backstroke drill - 20sec rest

4 x 25 Breaststroke drill - 20sec rest

4 x 25 Freestyle drill - 20sec rest

4 x 25 Butterfly (Count strokes / -1 per 25) - 20sec rest

4 x 25 Backstroke (Count strokes / -1 per 25) - 20sec rest

4 x 25 Breaststroke (Count strokes / -1 per 25) - 20sec rest

4 x 25 Freestyle (Count strokes / -1 per 25) - 20sec rest

100 IM Count your strokes for each 50 stroke and compare to your first 100 IM of this set.

Cool down: 100 Choice