I've been playing around with my kick (again) after recently getting a chance to train with Misty Hyman as well as talking with one of our coaches from Japan who trains Kohei Kawamoto (who works out with us on occasion as well)...Coach Tako has been pushing me to work on the "up-kick" (on fly, downward on back SDK) and in turn I've been having some swimmers I coach do the same.
As obvious as it may sound it seems many people (myself included) focus so much on how fast they are trying to SDK that it may in fact be working against them as it requires such a massive amount of effort. My latest "tinkering" is try and actually gauge my distance per kick underwater (using the lane lines and/or cross lines on the pool bottom as a referance).
What I'm finding is that there is a definite and measurable difference by how fast I move thru the water when I "tempo-play" with my kicks and incorporate more of the power in the opposite direction. For me I actually start with several slower/bigger SDK's and then move into fast/smaller kicks...focusing from not just kicking from my core but also using more snap from the knee's.
It's had fro me to articulate...and its something that I've only been playing with a couple of weeks but just the awarenes of how far I'm going/how fast vs. simply kicking as hard as possible with the same tempo seems to have made a big difference.
Ahelee, so vertical dolphin kicking in place is a drill to help the up kick? Do you keep hands at your sides? Do you just do intervals--something like 10x30 seconds kick, 15 seconds rest?
My take on beginning vertical kicking is to do it with your arms folded (Jeannie style) in front (easiest) OR arms lifted above the head in a streamline (harder).
Yesterday at the Nova kidz practice, I watched them doing a combo pool/dryland circuit practice. In one lane the rotation was a swimmer holding a bright orange traffic cone over head while vertical kicking which added weight.
A simple way to check if kicks are evenly powerful, is to lineup swimmers under the backstroke flags facing the lane end.
Set off a timed vertical kick where they keep their eyes straight ahead -15 or 30 seconds.
At the finish, check the location of the swimmer relative to the flags.
Moving forward or backward from the flags shows the uneven direction of kicking power.
The obvious goal is to kick powerfully staying in one spot under the flags without looking at the flags to adjust.
We have done swim sets starting out from the wall, vertical kicking and then transitioning straight into swimming.
Two turn 50s or 25s.
These vertical kick sets can be done in a 1,000 different ways. They are hard - but can really be fun for a group of swimmers as well.
Ahelee, so vertical dolphin kicking in place is a drill to help the up kick? Do you keep hands at your sides? Do you just do intervals--something like 10x30 seconds kick, 15 seconds rest?
My take on beginning vertical kicking is to do it with your arms folded (Jeannie style) in front (easiest) OR arms lifted above the head in a streamline (harder).
Yesterday at the Nova kidz practice, I watched them doing a combo pool/dryland circuit practice. In one lane the rotation was a swimmer holding a bright orange traffic cone over head while vertical kicking which added weight.
A simple way to check if kicks are evenly powerful, is to lineup swimmers under the backstroke flags facing the lane end.
Set off a timed vertical kick where they keep their eyes straight ahead -15 or 30 seconds.
At the finish, check the location of the swimmer relative to the flags.
Moving forward or backward from the flags shows the uneven direction of kicking power.
The obvious goal is to kick powerfully staying in one spot under the flags without looking at the flags to adjust.
We have done swim sets starting out from the wall, vertical kicking and then transitioning straight into swimming.
Two turn 50s or 25s.
These vertical kick sets can be done in a 1,000 different ways. They are hard - but can really be fun for a group of swimmers as well.
