Part vs Whole Practice
Drills break a stroke into pieces so you can work one part at a time. Sometimes that helps. Sometimes it quietly makes the whole thing worse. There’s a rule for which, and it’s been around since 1963.
The rule comes down to two things about the skill: how complex it is, and how organized it is. Complexity is how many parts and how much attention it demands. Organization is how dependent the parts are on each other, how much the timing of one piece relies on the piece next to it.
So picture teaching a swimmer and pick your move:
a.) Break every stroke into isolated drills, always b.) Never drill, only swim full stroke c.) Drill the pieces that stand alone, keep the timing-dependent pieces whole d.) Drill everything the same amount no matter what
Which is best?
The rule: the more organized a skill is (the more its parts depend on each other’s timing), the more whole practice wins, because pulling the parts apart destroys the very coupling that makes the skill work. The more complex but loosely organized a skill is, the more part practice helps, because you can isolate a piece without wrecking anything.
A swim stroke is highly organized. It’s continuous, and the timing of the catch, the kick, the rotation, and the breath all lean on each other. That’s an argument for more whole-stroke work than most of us do, and for being choosy about drills.
So (c) is the best answer. Isolate what stands alone, a breakout, maybe a wall. Keep the interdependent, rhythm-based parts whole. (b) is my second choice over (a), because always-drilling a highly organized skill breaks the thing you’re trying to build.
This isn’t anti-drill. A piece that genuinely doesn’t depend on the rest is fair game to isolate. The question to ask before any drill is simple. Does this piece stand on its own, or does the timing around it matter?
What drills have you cut, or kept, using that test? Let me know.
