SwimSwam is proud to present the Drill of the Month for January 2023. Drill of the Month is a SwimSwam recurring feature that brings drills and idea submissions from various creative and innovative coaches at every level all over the world.
January’s Drill of the Month comes to us from Club Wolverine coach Shannon Cowley. Cowley is a lead age group coach at Club Wolverine in Ann Arbor, MI, where she also swam through high school. She attended the University of Vermont, where she was an America East Conference champion and All-Conference swimmer specializing in breaststroke.
January’s drill is “I-Y breaststroke.” The focus of this drill is on correcting the timing of the breaststroke kick. To do the drill, the swimmer starts with their hands straight out in front of them, as they normally would on breaststroke. This is the “I” position. Then, the swimmer presses their arms out wider than shoulder width, into the “Y” position. They then pause in the “Y” position before continuing on with the pull as usual. The purpose of the drill is for the swimmer to wait until they start moving their arms out of the “Y” position to begin pulling their heels up for the kick.
Here is a video of “I-Y breaststroke.”
Watching the video, this drill also looks like it promotes proper breath timing with younger swimmers. Nicely done.