Using Stroke Drills for the Triathlon Swim

"And then the first of the two stroke drills that we work on, is "finger dragger". The thing about the finger dragger is it helps teach the ability to keep the elbows high. You're going to drag your fingertips across the water. So this last drill, is the fist drill. You're swimming with the closed fist instead of the open hand and what this drill does is it teaches you to pull with your whole forearm and get your lat into the process. Somewhere in the process of swimming a length of closed fist freestyle, you should open your hand and just get the, so you can give your body the feel of the catch to again re-emphasize what it is you're trying to do. A lot of triathletes don't spend time doing drills because they think they're a waste of time that they could be spending doing things to work on pace and training but that's really a mistake because the drills give you a big bang for the buck and they emphasize efficiency. Breaking the stroke down into little bits and pieces to make you a more efficient swimmer and that's the key to swimming in triathlon."