Greetings,
I'm looking for any input on workouts that involve only kicking. I'm recovering from some shoulder issues but want to stay in the water.
I'm a 39 y/o Masters Swimmer in pretty good shape. I routinely do 3,500 - 4,500 yard workouts when healthy.
I'd be using Zoomers for these workouts.
Any ideas/workouts would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks so much!
In the "Swimming-Related" forum there is a long thread, "Help! My Flutter Kick Is Horrible!"
forums.usms.org/showthread.php
and another, "Help! My SDK Is Horrible!"
Maybe those two will give you some ideas to craft your own sets. Also, you can post this question on the "Ask Ande" thread.
I like the dolphin drills on M. Phelps's butterfly DVD (I believe some benighted person posted the whole thing on-line). Some involve a lot of vertical dolphin with a weight belt. Then do it again, this time allowing yourself to sink to floor of pool, then push up, dolphining, as high as you can go. Try to get entire thorax out of water - straight up.
I made up a kick drill for myself BK kick, both arms perpendicular (point to ceiling) and try not to drown. (Then I discovered everbody knew it.)
This is a grand opportunity to really get to know and refine your kick!
Count number of kicks and time to certain points, such as 15 yd and 25 yd.
Good luck!
VB
(Why do you want to use Zoomers?)
kicking with a kickboard, and/or with arms extended can exacerbate shoulder problems.
Consider kicking with arms at your sides. I've seen plenty of swimmers do this (Bennett, Phelps in particular). Safe way to work the legs. And it's quite difficult.
Lots of kicking with arms extended means lots of potential for impingement.
You can probably get away with certain strokes that are less painful to you or do sculling drills in which your arms aren't extended.
Here's a set and an explanation on a practice we did a few weeks ago. Hope it helps:
www.dynoswim.com/.../kicking_and_conditioning.php
I completed this workout this morning but instead of the 400's I did 500's, and will admit that for the 3 x 200 kick set I used buoy w/paddles instead. I was just tired of kicking. Took exactly 1:30.
Definitely my distance workout for the week, and it was perfect.
Thanks.
