Do you think just because the only stroke you race in is freestyle, that that means it’s the only stroke you should practice? Better think again. Well, actually, if you reallyyyy want to only swim freestyle, from now until time has long since ended, you can do so. But if you’re anything like me and get bored at practice after 800 yards of constant freestyle, then this is for you. Just because you swim freestyle for all of your races, and that’s what your main training focus is, doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself during your workouts, nor should you. All four strokes have similar attributes to one another. Freestyle pull and butterfly pull? They’re the same. Shoulder blade movement during freestyle recovery and backstroke recovery? Super alike.
Not only does practicing different strokes help prevent your brain from melting from sheer lack of variety, it allows you to find proper technique that you might be having trouble with otherwise. It took me 3 years to get my lats to fire properly during the power phase of my freestyle, and I actually figured out the feeling I was looking for by working on my butterfly pull. This might seem counterintuitive when you first think about it, but it’s a great way to progress more quickly than you might if you just keep trying to work on the same thing over and over again, eventually leading to frustration and anger.
At SwimBox we have a lot of our lessons take place on land in order to have our clients understand the feeling they’re looking for during certain movements in the water. This same principle is applied to the idea of practicing different strokes. When I was struggling to understand the proper movement I needed to make and the feeling that came with it for my freestyle power phase, it was incredibly frustrating. Like I said, it took me 3 YEARS, some moments weren’t my best (especially when it’s my husband coaching me, we’re the meanest to the ones we love the most…right?). So when I tried getting the movement and the feeling during butterfly that’s when the lightbulb went off.
I’m not saying this is a quick fix, or that it will work for everyone, but there’s a huge benefit to working on all four strokes instead of just one. And not only does it help with your body awareness and technique, it’s great to work on these strokes for better all around muscle development and training, as well as comfortability in the water. You’ll be a better all around athlete and become more attuned to how certain movements feel. Think of it almost like cross training, except it’s within the same sport.
And if you’re sitting there reading this and thinking, “I don’t know how to swim any of the other strokes…” then this is the perfect excuse to learn! You’ll be thanking me - or swearing at me, both are acceptable - in no time.
