Breakwater Freestyle 1

Objective: Learn the fundamentals of efficient freestyle and backstroke technique. The emphasis is on freestyle.

Audience: This program is for newer swimmers, triathletes, open-water swimmers, or competitve swimmers who have focused on sprint events, but now need to develop distance swimming technique.

This program is not for fearful swimmers, and it is not for sprinters who want to shave a fraction of a second from a sprint time. Contact Coach Bill for additional coaching options in these cases.

Training Method: Efficient swimming technique can best be learned by mastering a progression of drills that teach the fundamentals of good form, one step at a time.

Program Outline: Each lesson begins with a review of skills and drills from the previous lesson, and video is used during all lessons. Each lesson focuses on the points summarized below:

1. Relaxation and the fundamentals of movement in the water
2. Streamlined posture and side balance; propulsive kicking
3. Rotational kicking; stroking with the hands and forearms
4. Compact stroking and recovering the arms
5. Dynamic balance; streamlining from the wall
6. Conceptual focus points; developing a plan for practice and mastery

A handout for each lesson will be available to students online. The handout describes all drills and exercises performed, and contains practice tips for mastering the drills.

See the Program Schedule.