Three Strokes & Glide (3S&G)

Once you have worked enough with the focus points in the SGSS drill to feel comfortable and confident with them, it is time to take more strokes. This new drill will get you much closer to swimming. As the name suggests, it means to take three strokes and then glide. Though it sounds simple, to get it right, you should learn it in several steps:

1. Using your training snorkel, start by pushing off on your right side and kicking in the side-glide position, nose down. As soon as you are in a tight line and in balance, recover the trailing (left) arm over the water, and rotate and stroke onto your left side as you did in the SGSS drill. Immediately begin to recover the trailing (right) arm; then, as it passes your head, rotate onto your right side while taking the second stroke. As soon as you are on your right side, recover the trailing (left) arm. As it passes your head, rotate again while taking your third stroke onto the left side. When you are fully on your side, stop all action except kicking. Spend as much time as you need in the side-glide position to assess and correct your posture and balance and to plan for any changes that might improve the next set of three strokes. Note that you are now gliding on the left side of your body, opposite the side you started on. Go through another set of three strokes (which will return you to your original side-glide position on your right side). Again assess, correct, and plan ahead. Repeat for the length of the pool. Each cycle of three strokes is done in a continuous swimming rhythm. Expanding upon the hand-entry-to-kick coordination from the SGSS drill, you now want to rhythmically execute that coordination with successive hand entries in each three-stroke cycle. Practice this step until you can complete each set of three strokes with good posture and balance and without having to adjust anything.

2. The second step in the learning progression is similar to the first step. But instead of using the snorkel and keeping your nose down, you will now rotate your head to breathe on the third stroke of each set of strokes. Start the drill as you did before, but as you begin the third stroke, let your head turn with your body just as it did in the SGSS drill. As you finish that stroke and reach your side-glide position, your nose will be up. Assess and correct your posture and balance. Take a breath (or several, if needed) and turn your head back to the nose-down position, assess and correct your posture and balance again, and plan ahead for the next cycle. Repeat for the length of the pool. Practice this step until you can complete each set of three strokes fully balanced, in the side-glide nose-up position, and without having to adjust anything.

3. The final step in learning 3S&G is to take your breath on the second stroke of each set of strokes and to do the glide portion between each set of three strokes in a nose-down position. As before, assess and correct posture and balance and plan ahead during the glide before you continue with the next set of three strokes. The goal of this step is to take that breath by letting your head rotate with your body to a nose-up position, then to inhale, and then to let your head rotate with your body back to a nose-down position, all without disrupting the rhythm of strokes and without losing your posture or balance. If after a couple of sets of three strokes you find that you need more air, you may turn your head to take an additional breath or two during the glide phase (but only after you have assessed and corrected your posture and balance).

 

Feedback Tools

 

• Each time you rotate and stroke, you should be aware of your navel pointing directly toward the sidewall, just as it does when you are in side-glide position.

• Each time you take a stroke, be sure to swap hands out in front of your body, perhaps using the glove focus point from time to time.

• As you reach the side-glide position at the end of the third stroke of each set, you should feel the dry strip of flesh along your trailing arm. If not, you have either lifted your head up, let pressure off your buoy, lost your tight line, or some combination thereof.

• Make any necessary corrections and stay in the side-glide position long enough to think through any changes you will need to make on the next set of three strokes.

 

Experiment a Bit

 

If you carefully follow the progression I’ve laid out, mastering each step before moving on to the next, you will end up with a drill that is close to full-stroke swimming but that provides opportunities to assess, correct, and plan ahead. As you improve at the 3S&G drill, you can take more strokes in each set of strokes, effectively turning the drill into a 5S&G or 7S&G drill in which you will take two or more breaths during each set of strokes. Only increase the number of strokes once you are able to maintain posture, balance, and rhythm while taking breaths and only once you are able to enter each glide phase with a fully balanced tight line that needs no correction.