Looking for some ideas on kick sets. i have a stress fracture, and have been swimming, water jogging, biking, and figured now was a good time to toss in some kick workouts. I couldn’t really find anywhere that listed just kick specific workouts. As a reference, i can max at about 45s for a 50, and most likely hold that for a 100, but haven’t tried yet. so
I am strangely disappointed that this is not about some new martial arts inspired work-out.
How about 10x50 kick or 5 x 100?
Vertical kicking is kind of neat, too. I like vertical fly kick!
Hope you heal quickly; stress fractures are no fun.
Did a nice one the other day:
2x(4x75 kick on 1:15, w/ 150 easy on 3:30 between sets) Goal is to make the off time (adjust as needed)
16x25 (15m underwater kick, 10m swim ) on :35
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Are those meter times? If so, you seem to already be a pretty fast kicker, at least compared to me! If your overall form needs any work, you might want to take the pool time to work on that instead.
For my kick sets I like to alternate flutter and dolphin kick on the your back. The dolphin kick set really works the core. Try for a fast 200m dolphin on the back and prepare to get your butt kicked! - supposed to be really tough with fins, never use fins myself so can’t say.
Cheers
what exactly do you mean by vertical kicking?
na, sadly the pool is in yds. Personally i’ve never used fins for any kicking. what are the benefits of them? is it just to go faster, correct form issues, etc?
You’ll probably get better 1st hand answer from one of the harder core swimmers/coaches who use them, but the swimmers/coaches I’ve talked to say they work the leg muscles better since it requires more force to move the larger kicking surface area through the a given kick cycle. I’ve also heard that it helps teach better hydrodynamic form since you move appreciably faster through the water and thus become more aware of the impact of good-vs-poor body position.
Just like it sounds. You’re vertical in the water, legs pointed down, and kick. Hold your arms up, that makes it harder… sort of like water running, sort of like treading.
The only benefit to using fins in a kick set is to improve ankle flexibility, and even then, I don’t think they are all that beneficial. They have a small place for doing assisted sprints, so you can swim at race pace as well.
I have never used fins, except for snorkelling and SCUBA diving, and I have never worked with a coach who recommended them.
TC, here’s a Nice V-kick set for you. I did this one at masters a few weeks ago
10mins V-Kick straight, is the following progression:
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30 secs arms crossed over your chest (like you are hugging yourself)
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15 secs arms out of the water (incl elbows)
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15 secs treading water with V kick.
vertical kicking is the best. Its impossible to cheat with bad form (no kickboard). and it builds strength.
Try doing 10 1:00 intervals of vertical kicking 40 seconds on, 20 seconds off. It’ll be fun.
I like doing 100 IM kick sets on 10 to 20 seconds rest. I do hand lead dolphin kick but it might be easier to do head lead, backstroke kick in streamline, breast kick on stomach and free with single hand lead with the other arm relaxed on the hip.
vertical kick IM’s too, 1 minute each stroke with arms crossed and hands on shoulders
How do you do backstroke vertical kick?? Face the opposite side of the pool?
How do you do backstroke vertical kick?? Face the opposite side of the pool?
LOL…
“It’ll be fun.”
That last line kills me… Verticle kicking is a cruel form of torture, in my estimation. I guess this is why my kick has been so pathetic. Hrrrrmpphhh… I guess I’ll keep working at it.
re: backstroke vertical kick
No! You do it upside down!
No! You do it upside down!
Isn’t that synchro?? (yuck)
tried tossing in some of the vertical kicking into the middle of my workout. They’re definitely a good workout. Not quite up to the arms straight overhead yet, since i spent most of the time completey underwater. having my hands/elbows just out of the water was the best i could do for now. thanks