Freestyle Stroke Drills: Finger Trail & Arrow Alternative

Freestyle Stroke Drills: Finger Trail v Arrow

The Finger trail drill (below), is one of the freestyle stroke drills that is often used to get swimming students to raise their elbow high in the air whilst keeping their fingers close to the water surface so that the hand re-entry is smooth and efficient.

It's a good drill and does the job well but like any drill it does have it's draw backs.

But as I have said a number of times before every drill has its drawbacks. Because every drill is an exaggeration of what you really want to learn when you are swimming and it is only after the drill that you learn to smooth out faults.

In this article, on the finger trail drill, some of those difficulties are discussed and an alternative suggested called the Broken Arrow drill.


I often think that the cons of drills are over emphasized because of the reasons I outlined above but I did organize to have the new drill tested with some beginner adult swimmers. And although the results were mixed, those that found the drill helpful found it really helpful, so it is worth a try.

Enjoy
   Richard

Finger Trail Drill

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