SwimSwam is proud to present the Drill of the Month for August 2024. 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.
This month’s drill, “Switchblades,” comes from Club Wolverine. “Switchblades” are a drill for working on flip turns, specifically executing the turn itself fast. The drill is named after the way the blade of a switchblade quickly flips open when released, much in the same way you want to get your legs over fast on a flip turn.
To do the drill, the swimmers will start on the close 15-meter marker, a few yards past the flags. Then, they’ll swim in to the wall, flip, swim back out to the close 15m marker, flip in the middle of the pool, go back to the wall, flip, and come back out. So, it’s 4 short “laps” in this case, where the goal is simply to get the feet over as fast as possible on the turns. Try making it a race to make it fun for the swimmers to see how fast they can do turns!
Below, you’ll find a video of Club Wolverine’s Blue 3 group, a middle school group, doing the drill.