With my D3 college team, we'd do 10x100 yards kick on a 1:45 send off time. It was supposed to be comfortable aerobic pace- not a ton of rest, but don't kill yourself either.

100s on a 2:00 send off is a pretty decent clip.

If you're working on your kick, efficiency is key. A good distance freestyle kick is a very low amplitude thing- way less splash that a sprint kick, just a lot of small and subtle movement of hips combined with a nice snap from flexible ankles. If you've got to splash a lot in order to get up to speed, you're doing it wrong.

Yeah, 2:00 per 100 is a solid no-fish time. Top guys could probably do them under 1:30 for an interval

I can barely f/s that fast.

Anyway, kick technique is clearly underestimated. Since I have unhappy shoulders, I like kick to give them a break. That "snap" Jill mentioned is key. I think of my leg as kind of a whip -- start with the hip (up) and whip that ankle down. Works so much better than a non-fish's intuitive bicycle kick!

But here's a question... why ever use a kickboard? I submerge the damn thing anyway. When you don't use one, you get to practice balance and maybe even a sculling drill all at the same time!

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Too f@ckin depressed from various injuries to care about having a signature line.

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I used to be able to do 100s on the 1:40 very comfortably coming in between 1:25-1:28. Best 100y kick with board 1:11

Why coaches like kickboards:

1. Because it's supposed to be a kick set, and the boards help keep the swimmers from sneaking in too much arm action

2. A kick set with boards gives the swimmers a break from boredom and a chance for a mid-practice gossip session

3. Because you're spending less energy on trying to keep from sinking, and can direct more energy into moving forward and making quicker send off times. And the quicker the swimmers can make the intervals on the kick set, the more yards overall coach can cram into a practice.

Save for one summer, my coaches have always been pro-kickboard, with most of them preferring half boards because they didn't push you too far out of the water, and because you can do flip turns while holding them.

The summer kickboards were banned was a bit of an experiment on the coach's part and was also known as the Summer of Flat Abs because his substituion was near-daily 800 fly kick drill sets instead. (200 front, 200 left side, 200 right side, 200 back)

Thanks for the info FLA Jill!. 100's on 2:00 is fast. Oh well, better keep practicing.

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Searching for the bliss of ultimate exertion.

""The summer kickboards were banned was a bit of an experiment on the coach's part and was also known as the Summer of Flat Abs because his substituion was near-daily 800 fly kick drill sets instead. (200 front, 200 left side, 200 right side, 200 back)""'



LMFAO I guess only swimmers really appreciate how painful that k set is.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Callidus,

Since you are new to kicking do not worry about doing kick sets on a specific send off. Use a rest interval. No matter what time you hit for a repeat take 15 - 20 sec. rest then go again. Note how fast you went. As you gain some consistency in the time of your repeats you can set up a specific interval for your repeats such as 10 X 100 on 2:00 (as an example).

Your legs will fatigue rapidly in your initial sets. You have not used your legs before and they do not know what to do. Getting the action done correctly is more important than the speed. For swimmers, kicking is the mindless part of the workout. We can have a conversation and still kick fast. For a beginner it is fatiguing and frustrating.

You are on the right path. Kicking will eventually help your swimming only if your stroke also works.

DougStern

ok theoretically, your 75 meter kick time should be equivalent to your fastest 100 meter front crawl time.
I have done this more or less by like 2 seconds off.
This is what my coach told me.
The only way to get better at kick is to just do long kick sets.
Start out with something like
800 meters kick on 15:00
2x400 meters kick on 7:10
4x200 meters kick on 3:35
8x100 meters kick on 1:40
4x50 kick on 50

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"The aspect of sport that you learn is that you have your good times and your bad times, but you share it with great people." - George Gregan