Some drills you can use to gain core and better balance awareness are;

STREAMLINE (thinking): learn to control your core position when pushing off the wall and you can learn to use this position when swimming.

Extend your arms over your head and retract your shoulder blades to get your upper arms back and behind your head. Tuck your chin down towards your chest to help the upper body positioning. Bring your forearms as close together as you can and lay one hand on top of the other, using the thumb on the upper hand to help grip the lower hand. From here, contract abs, glutes and hamstrings to stabilize the hips and torso.

You can practice your streamline position on dry land to begin. Lying supine (on your back), bring your arms over your head and relax your lower back to get into your streamline position. If you want, drop your hands back down and under your lower back and try to squeeze them against the ground by relaxing your lower back- not tightening your abs.

STREAMLINE VARIATIONS

• STREAMLINE BOSU: practice streamline on a Bosu ball, include rolling and holding on the left and right Practice this prone and when you can do that easily… try it supine.

STRAP: A strap is a simple band of flexible, non-buoyant material you can slip over your ankles to prevent kicking. A strap can be easily made from an old bike inner tube (I like MTB tubes as they are wider).

Put the strap around your ankles and without a pull buoy, start swimming. When your legs are unable to kick for propulsion and to help them stay on the surface, its is all core strength that holds them up. Abs and glutes need to be activated at all times, and you will need to keep monitoring your lower back to keep it relaxed.

At first your feet and legs may hang down at a 45° angle or even touch the bottom of the pool. As you learn to activate your core and use your torso to stabilize and elevate your legs, you will be able to assume a much more hydrodynamic position while swimming.

Remember to initiate your swim stroke from the core when using the strap. Another tip for stabilizing and lifting your legs is to imagine pushing your torso/chest down into the water slightly while maintaining the core activation.

STRAP VARIATIONS

• STRAP & PULL BUOY: As above, put the strap around your ankles then slip a pull buoy just above the strap also as close to your ankles as possible. This will help you float your legs a little more and help accentuate the feeling of abs/glute activation through pushing the hips forward.
• STRAP & PADDLES: As strap drill alone but using paddles to increase swim speed- CAUTION huge shoulder stress if body position is poor!
• STRAP & PADDLES & PULL BUOY: lots of gear

CORKSCREW: take two, four or six strokes freestyle then complete one stroke by rolling onto your back into one, three or five strokes of backstroke. Ensure the roll is initiated from the hips and not the pulling arm.  Feel for a smooth roll and controlled pull on each side.

CORKSCREW VARIATIONS

• CORKSCREW WITH STRAP : yikes! Huge core strength to initiate and control roll
  

SIDE2SIDE (S2S): Swim normally except for accentuating the roll onto your side. With every stroke roll along your long axis (head to toes) onto your side leading the roll from your hips so that hips and shoulders are both perpendicular to the surface of the water.  Stay on your side kicking with the pulling side (deeper) arm pointing forward and recovery side (top) arm extended back while resting that hand near your hip. Hold this position on your side 3-6 kicks, then pull and on the exit roll off your side and onto the other side for the same number of kicks.

S2S VARIATIONS

• S2S KICK: 25-50 m on one side as kick drill with no kick board
• S2S CATCH: while on your side, drop your pulling side hand down into place for the pull (while keeping a high elbow) ready for pull at end of kick cycle/roll
• S2S ASYMMETRICAL: target one side for more kicks than the other if one side needs more work than the other.
• S2S DESCEND: do 10 (or any number you like) kicks on one side, then same number on the other side, repeat dropping the number of kicks by one each left-right cycle
• S2S ASYMMETRICAL DESCEND: combine S2S ASYMMETRICAL and S2S DESCEND
• SIDE2FRONT2SIDE: Swim normally except for accentuating the roll onto your side. With every stroke roll onto your side so your hips and shoulders are close to vertical. Stay gliding on your side (with pulling side arm pointing forward) for 3-6 kicks, then on the exit roll off your side and onto the other side for the same number of kicks.
• S2S CORKSCREW: experiment with integrating S2S with corkscrew.  Start with longer stroke count corkscrew, work in all other S2S variations as well.

PLANK KICK: while kicking place elbows on your kick board and force it underwater keeping the leading edge of the board raised slightly.  Bend your elbows at 90 degrees and then align head, shoulders and hips into a plank type pose using your abs and glutes.

PLANK KICK VARIATIONS

• PLANK KICK WITH FINS: as above but add fins
• PLANK KICK WITH ONE FIN ONLY: as above but only one fin on
• SIDE PLANK KICK: as above but now supported on only one arm with hips and shoulders @ 90 degrees to the water. Other arm at your side
• SIDE PLANK KICK WITH FINS: as above with fins (one or two)
• SIDE PLANK KICK ARM UP: as above but taking arm off your side and raising it up to ceiling
• SIDE PLANK KICK ARM and LEG UP: as above but kicking with one leg only other leg up at 45+ degrees to kicking leg