Dropping lead arm when breathing in front crawl

Dearl all,

I (44 M) have a question regarding a drill one of my swim coaches showed me back in December while I did a swim coursre to learn freestyle (front crawl). Since then I continued to go to the pool 4 times a week and swim and do drills for about 1 hour.

In front crawl, when I turn to breathe my lead arm always drops a bit and I reflexively go through the pull phase of the arm stroke while I turn my head back into the water. To prevent this he showed me a drill that works against this:

With the lead arm on a kickboard, I catch and pull on the other arm, breathing everytime during the recovery phase. Next, I do the same drill without the board. When I swim full front crawl right after the drill my lead arm (if I am lucky) doesn't drop for maybe two or three (25m) lanes and then I go back to the dropping arm.

1) Does it just need more time doing the drill to make this permanent? I wonder, since I am doing this drill at least two times each time I am at the pool and it still isn't permanent.

2) While I use the kickboard (also on other one-arm drills) the arm on the board usually pushes down on the board when I either turn back into the water or go through the pull phase during the stroke cycle. I am doing one arm drills all the time to get rid of this pushing down for about 2 months 4 times a week now and I just cannot get rid of the push down. I think there is something wrong with my balance and technique, but cannot figure out what. Since the swim course I took ended in December I do not have a swim coach now I can rely on for questions.

Any insides you have rearding my questions is very much appreciated!

Best regards,

André