Exercises That Improve Breathing, Balance And Body Rotation Help You Swim Freestyle Further Without Getting Exhausted

Yes, you nailed it. Now hold the wall. You're crossing the pool. You made it. Beautiful. I'm so proud. Well done. Congratulations. That's fantastic. You made it. She did it. She had a game plan. Two strokes, few breaths. Two strokes, few breaths. And that got her here in less than 40 seconds. The first drill I'm gonna have her do is called head lead kicking. Your arms are by your side and your head leads the way. When you need a breath, you're going to roll to your back and breathe and then roll back to your belly and keep kicking. The whole purpose of this drill, not being able to use your arms, to rely better on your kick. Most beginners don't rely on their kick and core to rotate. By removing your arms, you must learn to roll. Rolling to your back to Without your arms is difficult. But if you master it, it will be much easier. To roll once we add your arms, okay? Good. Roll. Nice. Chin up. Look, I used my hand to help me. Yes, that's right. But that was only your first try. Lower your expectations a bit. It's improving. You're improving. And that's how she used her arms. A bit to roll. She stopped thinking she failed, but practice makes it better. So don't stop. Just keep going through it. Do another roll. Do another one. You'll use your hands at first, then stop soon enough. Good. Roll. Chin up. That was a better roll. Now roll again. Good. Kick, kick, kick, roll again. Now you go. Keep that face dry. Whoa, okay, good. On that second roll, the face went under a little bit, so just pull the face up. Let the legs go under, and you'll start kicking on this upward angle that keeps your head dry. Good, good. Kick, kick, kick, roll again. Good. Breath. Now dismount. Good. So now I'm going to have her swim freestyle. The reason we don't go drill, drill, drill, drill, and then freestyle is because that's too much drilling without practicing the actual stroke. In order to better equip your stroke technique with the effects from the drill, you need to do the stroke right after doing each drill. So we always, instead of going drill, drill, drill, drill, swim, we go drill, swim, drill, swim, drill, swim, drill, swim. So now you're going to swim freestyle, and I'm going to teach you. With the benefits of the drill you just did work, you're going to be able to roll a lot easier now when you have your arms to help you. Why? Because now your kick is going to help you roll. In fact, you probably were never really using your kick to help you roll in the first place till now. Now you're going to be using your kick to help you roll. So it'll look like this. You're going to roll so much easier. You know how you always say I make it look so smooth? Well, you're about to look much smoother now than before the drill. Beautiful. Good, good. Okay, next is handleave kicking. Handleave kicking is done with your hand leading. Right, keep one hand leading the way. The other arm stays at your side. It shouldn't be too far back. Don't let it drift behind you. Don't place your hand on your hip. Just let it hang by your side. To breathe, roll onto your back. Or just roll your face up, okay? But keep your head in the water. Don't lift your head off your arm. Or lift it to breathe. Because you can see what my hands are doing right now. They're not in handleave kicking anymore. Now they're sculling water. In order to support my head position. As it stays above the water. We don't want this, okay? Watch what happens to my hands though. When I lay my head back down in the water. And have proper posture, ready? My hands do nothing now. They don't need to do anything, okay? Because I'm balanced. So you have one hand leading the way, kicking. Face down when you need a breath. Roll your head up to breathe. But keep everything underwater except for the face. Okay, don't bring the hand up. Don't bring the kick up. Keep everything underwater. It's your first attempt. I'm gonna help you. Good. Now when you breathe. Excellent. Just keep that head tucked back here. You don't need to pull your chin to your chest. Now roll back in. Good. Roll again. Beautiful. Breathe. Whoop. Don't push. Good. On that third breath. I saw you almost push that head down. Yeah. Don't push it down. Keep the chin up. The benefits of this drill, by the way. Are so much for breathing. So, so key for breathing. Because to be able to breathe on your side like this. Or even more on your back, doesn't matter. Feeling able to breathe like this, paused with your arms. You can kick and breathe all day if you want. Good. Your body line is awesome. Your body line is awesome. Great job. Great. Ooh, she remembered. I was wondering if you remembered. Good. She remembered that she's got a dismount from her back when wearing fins. So now when you're swimming freestyle, watch this. You're going to be able to turn to your side. It's just hand lead kicking, breathing, and swimming. Simple. Then return to your belly and keep your arms steady. Makes sense? Right? So two strokes, two breaths, two strokes, two breaths. Hand lead kicking to breathe. Gorgeous. Good. If you out there want private lessons with me, watch my videos first. It really helps. Look at her. She studied my videos and practiced the techniques, so now she picks it all up easily. When you swim, you lack time for two breaths. Normally, watching me or Jay swim, he only takes one breath. When he turns his head to the side, that's how you will train to do it. You'll do stuff like on the kickboard. You'll have your forehead down in the water. Kick, kick, kick. When you lift your head, you get one breath. Then you lift your head again, you get one breath. So now you're training your brain to prepare for just one inhale. Okay, then resume head or hand lead drills. With just one breath at a time. Now you're ready to swim, taking one breath at a time. Then you'll swim smoothly like me, or like Olympians. Making it look like they never stop, just swimming continuously. That's only because they get their air in one inhale. Take another breath. Good. Exhale, then inhale. Exhale, breathe in. Breathe out, breathe in. Good. Now that we've focused on breath. Look at your kick. Your kick suddenly got a bit smaller. And more refined. Keep it up. Drive your knees deep. Keep that kick strong. Yeah, stay balanced. Don't let your kick suffer just because you're focusing on breathing. It's tough to multitask. That's why I didn't push her to do both right away. I'll just have her focus on her breathing. If you're an instructor watching her progress, she might focus on breathing for the first time and lose her kick. Don't interrupt her. Don't correct her yet. Just let her focus on the breath. You already gave her the instruction. Her focus is fully on it. Just let it happen. When she gets back, then fix the kick. Like I just did, okay? Good. Yes. Good. Very nice. So now you even saw, not only did her kick get better, but you saw that breath became a little bit more professional, I'd say. We're gonna do pineapples now. But when she rolls to her back, she takes just one breath. Then back to her belly. Once she's there, I don't care if she rolls right back to her side, but she only gets one breath. Watch me. Like this. Arms front, pull, roll, one inhale, then back. See? I only took one breath. I let it last a while so it was nice and clean, but just one. Good. Hard to tell if it was one, but it was controlled. Look at that. Beautiful. I noticed. Next is the one-arm pineapple drill. So when you take your breath now, Edraline, keep one arm out in front of you, take one breath, and then keep swimming. Don't roll to your back and bring both arms by your side anymore. Keep one arm behind you. Okay? So I'll show you what it will look like. I don't get her. I don't get how she gets things like that so easily. How'd you get that so easily? Beautiful. Good. One inhale. Looks great. You're getting smoother. You want to look like me? You're starting to look like me because you're able to get in one breath or less. Have a good. The drill I'm gonna teach her is the okay drill. This will make her pulls a little bit better. So when you do this drill, make an okay sign with your fingers. But keep your middle finger, ring finger, and pinky finger held together. Now, pull only with this half of your palm. Right, pull only with this half of your palm. As a beginner, the reason we do this so you can open your palms. Imagine wearing mittens. Yes, you'll feel like you're wearing gloves. Like your hands are massive. I feel it makes your pulls way better. It's giving you a feel of the water. For competitive swimmers, if you're doing this drill, then what we're trying to do is get you to have a better high elbow catch. Because when you pull towards your body with a high elbow catch, you're actually putting more of the pressure on the outside of your palm by your pinkies. So that's why we would do that drill with you. But for beginners, it's just about feeling the water. And gaining a better sense of it. So, swim with your hands like this. Two strokes, then I'd try for two breaths. Or one breath, two strokes, one or two breaths, two strokes, one or two breaths. We stop at the flags. On the way back, open your hands. And we'll repeat. Ready? Like this. Good. Good. Nice. Did it feel like you weren't pulling much water? Yeah. Good. Now that you open your hands up, you'll feel like you have massive hands. You'll feel like you're wearing paddles. Pistol drill next. Now, close the pinky and the ring finger for the pistol drill. Now you don't have to put your thumbs up like that. Just like this is fine, but you're using your middle finger, your pointer finger and your thumbs for this drill and you're only going to be able to feel half of the water on your only going to be. But now it's the other half. And then when you open up your hands, you'll feel like you're wearing mittens. And you'll feel really strong. For competitive swimmers, this is the portion of the drill that we teach you. How to press back with a flexed wrist, okay? For those of you swimming competitively, this drill helps you push back with wrists flexed. Too many swimmers and coaches. We teach kids to pull correctly. Straight up like this at the end of your stroke. Don't pull up like that, which only pushes you down. Pull back like this, then just let your hand, your elbow come straight up. Finish your poles like this. Don't finish them that way anymore. That's old school. That doesn't help. It only splashes water up. It's not doing anything. Flex your wrist at the end. Then bring your elbow straight up, okay? For beginners, though, you're just blocking half your palm. So when you open it back up, it feels wide. Good. Awesome. Now open your hands again, okay? Good. She's ready for the deep end. Using her arm pulls for the first time ever. Good. You're already halfway there. Breathe a lot. Good. You need a full pineapple. You can do a full pineapple. Good. Face in the water. Do a full pineapple. Full one. Do a full pineapple. Arm down by your side. Full pineapple. Go. Yeah, you did it. Now grab the wall. You're swimming across the pool. You did it. I'm so proud of you. Good job. Congratulations. That's so awesome. Oh my gosh. You did it. She did it. She had a game plan. Two strokes, few breaths. Two strokes, few breaths. And that got her here in less than 40 seconds. Probably less than 30. I didn't put that in.