By Shawn Klosterman
November 28th, 2018

SwimSwam thanks SwimmersBest for sponsoring “Drill of the Month.” This is a SwimSwam recurring feature that brings drills and idea submissions from various creative and innovative coaches all over the world.

Head Coach Gilberto Junior at O2 Performance Aquatics in Irving, Texas breaks out the notebook in a different way when he addresses the topic of sculling with his team. Well, actually, he rips pages out of it and hands them to the kids…

“For the children who have a certain difficulty in understanding how to alternate the movements and waving of the hand or arm in a specific way in the water, O2 coaches use all forms to convey the idea of sculling. One exercise we use with children out of water is what we call a ‘flying paper’ where children learn to press a piece of paper against the air, moving their hands in different direction without losing the paper. This is an adaptation from one hand paddle drill we use in our team– check the video Single Arm Drill where kids must control paddles against the head when they swim and do a flip turns as well using one paddle on their head against the water without straps.”

“The exercise is simple and fun: first, we start moving hands in the air fast trying to make “8’s,” and after they manage to manipulate the hands in a more organized way, from where we decrease the speed of the hand until reaching the “ideal speed” slow and controlled. This a cool and joyful way of interacting with physics and swimming and at the same time challenging individual learning and physical motor skills.”