Swim Drills for Learn to Swim, Intermediate Swim Clubs, and Triathletes

Master Your Swim: Fins-Enhanced Training for Triathletes & Competitive Swimmers

Enhancing Triathlon Swim Performance with Fins

This triathlon swim workout is structured to improve breath control, stroke efficiency, and overall endurance in the water. The warmup sets the foundation with a 200-yard Individual Medley (IM) that alternates between swimming and kicking to activate different muscle groups. The pre-set introduces sprint intervals in the IM order, helping swimmers transition smoothly between strokes while maintaining speed and efficiency.

Mastering Stroke and Breath Control for Race Day

The drill sets focus on breath control and stroke efficiency, key factors for triathlon success. A progressive breathing drill challenges swimmers to increase their stroke count per breath, reinforcing lung capacity and controlled exhalation. The stroke control set encourages swimmers to minimize stroke count per lap, enhancing efficiency and power. By alternating between fins and no fins, athletes refine their technique while maintaining endurance, preparing for open-water conditions where efficiency and control are critical.

The Ultimate Triathlon Swim Workout: Speed, Power & Efficiency with Flippers

Enhance Your Triathlon Swim Training with Fins

This triathlon swim workout integrates fins to improve propulsion, endurance, and technique. By incorporating fins into your warmup, drills, and main set, you will enhance your ability to maintain a powerful kick, optimize your stroke efficiency, and build the muscle endurance needed for race conditions. The workout starts with a structured warm-up focusing on technique and mobility, followed by a high-intensity pre-set to engage key muscle groups and develop explosive speed.

Maximize Power and Efficiency in Open Water

The drill set emphasizes stroke refinement, with a combination of freestyle, backstroke, and dolphin kicking to reinforce balance, rotation, and propulsion. With a race-paced main set, athletes will build speed through structured intervals, helping simulate the demands of triathlon swimming. Using fins strategically in training reduces fatigue while reinforcing proper technique, enabling triathletes to swim faster and more efficiently in both pool and open-water environments.

Building Swim Strength & Endurance: Training for All Levels

Developing Strength & Technique in Swim Training

This structured swim workout refines essential techniques for both beginner and intermediate swimmers. The Learn to Swim session focuses on breath control, propulsion, and stroke breakdown drills to ensure strong fundamentals. Meanwhile, the Intermediate Swim workout enhances backstroke technique, speed, and endurance with IM-based kicking, streamline-focused exercises, and powerful sprinting drills.

Mastering Backstroke & Streamline Efficiency

With a blend of in-water and dryland drills, these workouts reinforce proper head positioning, strong dolphin kicks, and coordinated stroke mechanics. Swimmers will improve their balance, breath timing, and overall water control through progressive skill-building sets.

Building Strength and Speed in the Water

This triathlon swim workout is designed to push athletes to their limits, combining technique, endurance, and power. The session starts with a structured warm-up featuring IM drills, sidekick work, and fingertip drills to reinforce proper stroke mechanics. Next, a short diving drill prepares athletes for competitive race starts, helping to develop confidence in entering the water efficiently.

Optimizing Stroke Mechanics and Race Simulation

Throughout the drill sets, swimmers practice balance and control through Heel Tag, Seahorse, and Lacrosse Ball drills, which refine body positioning and streamline movement. The pre-set introduces a high-intensity lane relay with treading water and brick holds, simulating open-water resistance. The main set ramps up intensity with sprint-focused freestyle reps, training the body for race-paced endurance. The session concludes with a 100-yard dolphin dive cooldown, reinforcing efficient starts and streamlined gliding.

Refining Swim Technique: From Fundamentals to Performance

This dual swim workout caters to both beginners and intermediate swimmers, ensuring strong fundamental development and high-performance training. The Learn to Swim session introduces new swimmers to essential techniques, such as breath control, dolphin kicks, and underwater movement, helping them feel more comfortable in the water. Meanwhile, the Intermediate Swim session challenges experienced swimmers with advanced drills, including fast lane relays, treading water with bricks, and butterfly sprint sets to enhance endurance and race speed.

Building Strength, Confidence, and Speed in the Pool

For beginners, the workout reinforces buoyancy, kicking, and breath control while gradually introducing dolphin diving and streamlined movement. For intermediate swimmers, the focus shifts to powerful sprinting, stroke mechanics, and race-prep intensity. This structured progression ensures all swimmers build confidence, increase efficiency, and optimize their speed, endurance, and technique.

Progression-Based Learning for Effective Dives

In this session, swimmers focused on a structured diving progression to enhance water entry skills and streamline efficiency. Beginning with kneeling dives, the class practiced controlled tipping to develop proper head positioning and goggle security. Moving into standing dives, participants built confidence in generating forward momentum while maintaining a tight streamline position. The progression advanced with jump diving, where swimmers focused on explosive takeoffs while entering the water cleanly. The final stage introduced race starts off the blocks, refining technique for maximum speed and power during competitive dives.

Refining Technique for Competitive Performance

Through repetition and technical adjustments, swimmers gained a better understanding of balance, body alignment, and fluidity in water entry. They were encouraged to focus on maintaining a tight streamline position upon entry, minimizing resistance for faster transitions. Special attention was given to preventing goggle displacement by emphasizing proper head positioning. By the end of the session, swimmers demonstrated marked improvement in their ability to enter the water smoothly and efficiently, laying the foundation for faster and more effective starts in future races.

Developing Efficiency in the Water

This session focuses on refining swimming mechanics and improving efficiency in the water. The Learn to Swim portion helps beginners develop breath control, streamline positioning, and confidence in floating. With structured warmups, controlled sculling drills, and progressive kick intervals, swimmers learn how to feel and move through the water effectively.

Advanced Stroke Training & Sprint Development

The Intermediate Swim session builds on core techniques with focused drills in freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke. Swimmers engage in sprint intervals, technique-focused kick drills, and a challenging 50-yard breaststroke sprint to simulate competitive race conditions. By integrating elements like hula hoop streamlining and dolphin dives, this session enhances underwater propulsion and stroke efficiency.

Intermediate Swim Session: Enhancing Kick Strength, Streamlining, and Sprint Speed

Building Strength and Efficiency in the Water

This Intermediate Swim session focuses on refining kick strength, streamlining efficiency, and sprint speed through structured warmups, fast-paced pre-sets, and technique-driven drills. Swimmers work on freestyle and backstroke mechanics while incorporating dolphin kicks and underwater propulsion. The main set challenges swimmers with a 100-yard all-out freestyle sprint, simulating race conditions and reinforcing controlled breathing for optimal endurance and power.

Mastering Technique and Race Preparation

By integrating side kick drills, fingertip drag technique, and rotation-based training, swimmers develop a better feel for the water, improving stroke length and efficiency. Hula hoop streamlining drills help athletes refine their underwater skills, making starts and turns more fluid and effective. These focused training methods ensure swimmers build stronger mechanics, better propulsion, and race-ready confidence in the pool.

The Learn to Swim workout focuses on foundational swimming techniques designed to build water confidence, breath control, and efficient movement in the pool. The session begins with a structured warm-up featuring drills like Stand & Kick, Burpee Bubbles, and Back Floating with a noodle, ensuring students develop body positioning awareness. The pre-set introduces intensity with interval-based Sit & Kick and Wall Kick exercises, training participants to manage effort and recovery systematically. This structured approach ensures swimmers build endurance while reinforcing proper kicking technique and breath control.

Moving into the drill set, swimmers practice essential skills like the Standing Streamline, Mushroom Top Flip, and Floating Streamline to enhance hydrodynamics and relaxation in the water. Sculling and floating drills train the hands and body to interact effectively with water resistance, promoting balance and efficiency. By the end of the workout, students gain a deeper understanding of buoyancy, propulsion, and controlled breathing—fundamental skills needed to advance to more complex swimming techniques confidently.

The 100 IM (Individual Medley) Drill is a fundamental swimming workout that challenges swimmers to execute all four strokes—butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle—in one continuous race. This drill enhances stroke versatility, builds endurance, and refines transitions between strokes. By mastering the proper order and learning effective turn techniques, swimmers develop a smooth and efficient racing strategy, crucial for competitive swimming.

Beyond just speed, this drill focuses on technical efficiency and stroke balance. It teaches swimmers how to maintain momentum during transitions and optimize turns, including the unique backstroke-to-breaststroke turn. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced swimmer, practicing the 100 IM drill improves overall stroke mechanics and prepares athletes for medley races at any level.

The Fingertip Drag Drill is a fundamental swimming exercise that refines freestyle stroke technique by emphasizing high elbow recovery, body rotation, and a relaxed hand position. By dragging the fingertips lightly across the water’s surface during the recovery phase, swimmers learn to maintain proper arm mechanics while keeping a streamlined and efficient stroke. This simple yet effective drill encourages balance, coordination, and fluid motion, making it a staple in freestyle training.

Regular practice of the Fingertip Drag Drill helps swimmers develop smoother arm recovery and better stroke efficiency. By focusing on fingertip contact with the water, athletes reinforce controlled movement and eliminate unnecessary muscle tension, leading to a more effortless and powerful freestyle stroke. Whether for beginners or advanced swimmers, this drill is essential for refining stroke technique and achieving optimal swim performance.