10 Freestyle Technique Drills Every Adult Swimmer Must Practice: Each with Purpose and Reps

The Value of Drills: Breaking Complex Movements into Trainable Pieces

Freestyle is a highly coordinated full-body movement; trying to improve by simply “swimming the whole stroke” is difficult. The value of technique drills is breaking the stroke down into single, controllable elements, allowing the nervous system to focus on just one thing at a time. But using drills incorrectly is worse than not doing them at all—casually swimming a couple of lengths just to check the box is meaningless. Every drill should be done with a clear understanding of what it is correcting.

10 Core Drills Checklist

In-Depth Explanation of Key Drills

Front Scull: Extend both hands forward, elbows slightly higher than the wrists, and make small “∞” figure-eight sculling motions, focusing on feeling the forearm press against the water. This is the most direct exercise for building the feel of EVF. If you can’t do this well, all other catch drills will be less effective.

Catch-up: One arm completes the entire stroke and returns to the front to “touch” the other hand before the other arm begins. This forces you to complete the full stroke and glide, curing the problem of “rushing the stroke and losing the glide.”

Fist Swim: Swim with clenched fists to remove the “cheat” of the palm, forcing you to catch the water with your forearms. When you open your hands afterward, your feel for the water will noticeably improve—this is one of the most “aha moment” drills.

Distance per Stroke (DPS): Over a fixed pool distance, count your strokes, aiming to reduce 1–2 strokes per set without slowing down. This isn’t a drill movement per se, but rather a way to turn all your technique work into a quantifiable measure of progress.

How to Fit Drills into Your Workout

• After each warm-up, schedule a 600–800 meter drill segment, picking 2–3 drills that target your weaknesses.
• Drill → Swim pairing: Immediately after finishing a drill, swim 50 meters of full freestyle to “transfer” the feeling into your normal stroke—this step is the most commonly skipped, yet the most critical.
• Don’t do all 10 drills in one day. Focus on 2–3 and do them well, rather than doing all of them superficially.

Coach’s note: The purpose of a drill isn’t to “finish it,” but to “take away a feeling.” After each drill, ask yourself: What did I just feel? If you can’t answer, that set was wasted.

Treat drills as a precise carving knife, not as filler for your warm-up, and your technical improvement will accelerate several times over.

Related Reading

• Swim Technique Class: Designing a Weekly Workout with One Dedicated Technique Session
• Swim Technique Workout: How to Add 10 Minutes of Technique Practice to Every Session
• Drill Sets: Optimal Proportion and Design Methods in a Workout Plan
• Single-Arm Swimming (Catch-up Drill): Technical Enhancement Effects