Advanced one arm butterfly (butterfly drill) [video]

Another butterfly drill that will help you improve your stroke rhythm, the pull and push of the arm stroke, and focus on getting the chest down in a more sustainable manner than the full stroke. From a head leading position, do butterfly with one arm only, while the other arm remains at your side. Breathing should be made during the pull and push phase and not during recovery. 

This drill is quite advanced and should be teached to beginners.

Body wave (butterfly drill) [video]

This drill is part of a butterfly drills series that will help you learn how your body should move during butterfly swimming. The other drills of this series, that I will try to describe in another post, are bowing, dipping, dolphin dives, weight shifting, deep to shallow dolphin, and back dolphin.

From a head leading float position, dip the head, then chest and flow this action down to your hips and feet to create fluid wave, and forward motion emphasizing the action high in the body. An advanced version of this drill is with your hands leading.

6 kick switch (freestyle drill)

This drill can be used effectively for feeling the length of the stroke and proper alignment. Moreover, it's a very good drill if you want to teach core centered swimming. You kick on your side for six kicks, your low arm is leading, the other arm is at your side. You then switch sides and arms positions and repeat. A more advanced version of this drill is with your face in the water while doing the kicking. You can also have your fingers touching the side of your body while switching sides and arms positions like you have a zip on your side and you are trying to zip (or unzip) it. This tip will also help you maintain a relaxed high elbow recovery.

Race strategy (defensive tactics)

Swimmers can use several defensive tactics to counter the offensive tactics described a few days ago.

Race strategy (offensive tactics)

In races between swimmers with similar times, the swimmer who makes an unexpected move that upsets a competitor's race plan often wins. A surprising move can frighten or demoralize a competitor and cause him to respond with a poor performance. For that reason, swimmers should know the common offensive and defensive strategies for racing. They should know when to make unexpected moves that will upset their opponents, and they should learn how to counter when an opponent swims his race in an unforseen manner. Today I'll write about offensive tactics.

Overtraining

Overtraining is the term used to identify a condition that appears when athletes perform poorly because of training. The condition is also called failing adaptation because the adaptation process reverse itself and causesloss of previously gained training effects. In other words, athletes become worse rather that better because of their training. Some believe failing adaptation is caused by an athlete's exceeding his tolerance to a particular form of training or by the cumulative effects of normal training that are not balanced by adequate nutrition or sufficient time for rest and recovery. Anxiety and emotional upset are other factors that have been implicated. Severe anxiety caused by a crisis in an athlete's emotional life can also be a potent stressor, which, when added to the stress of normal training, can cause failing adaptation.