Breakwater Freestyle 2

Objective: Learn to swim freestyle faster, while still maintaining good form. Both freestyle and backstroke technique will be reviewed, but the emphasis is on freestyle. Backstroke will be used mainly for recovery and a change of pace between freestyle sets.

Audience: This program is for graduates of the Freestyle 1 program or similar programs, such as Total Immersion; or for more experienced swimmers who are able to swim efficiently, but are unable to crank it up.

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: You will learn a set of freestyle drills and focus points used by expert freestylers like Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen, Erik Vendt, and Kara Lynn Joyce. To get your kick working for you (instead of against you), you will learn the two-beat and six-beat kicks that are used by virtually all successful freestylers. Connecting your kick to your core and your upper-body stroke is one of the last milestones on the road to freestyle mastery.

Program Outline: In this program, swimming tools and more challenging drills will be used to focus on various aspects of the stroke. Each lesson of the program will have a specific focus -- for example, holding the aquatic line, full-body stroking, or the early vertical forearm catch.

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.