Tag: Kick

Quick Vertical Kick

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Vertical kicking works great in our 9-ft deep end. :30 is done with three arms across the chest. :20 done with hands out of the water. :10 done in a streamline position. Blast-offs involve sinking to the bottom and then rocketing through the surface as high as possible. Hit the 25 underwater dolphin kick with as much effort as possible.

Kick Set for a Large Group

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

In any training group, having a wide range of speed/ability can present challenges when trying to create or run a workout. This set is an example of how we make it work for a kick set:

16x (:40 kick + :20 rest)

Descend the effort (get faster) on the :40 kick 1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-16.

We start the set with all of the swimmers in each lane spread out over the length of the pool. We all start at the same time and the coach calls out “STOP” at the conclusion of each 40 seconds. Swimmers get their rest by either standing on the bottom or treading water in whichever spot they are in when they stop, this eliminates the need for separate intervals for different kicking speeds. We did this set with six swimmers per lane and had everyone do flutter kick with a board.

Of course, there are endless variations and creative changes you could do with this framework.

You could vary the number of rounds or manipulate the length of time for kicking. I like keeping it short like this so that we can get a high level of effort on the 4th one each time and not have an extreme amount of passing going on.

Day 1 of a New Season

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

SCM

400 smooth free with open turns, great streamlines and 3 dolphin kicks

10 x 25 flutter kick @:35

    With snorkel, on side at 45 degrees

400 smooth free with open turns, great streamlines and 4 dolphin kicks

8 x 50 dolphin kick @ 1:00, On side at 90 degrees, snorkel optional, change sides by 25

400 smooth free with open turns, great streamlines and 5 dolphin kicks

6 x 75 br kick with board @ 1:45 (those with knee issues do flutter or dolphin)

400 smooth free with open turns, great streamlines and 6 dolphin kicks

4 x 100 choice kick descend 1-4 to all out @ 2:15

400 smooth free with open turns, great streamlines and 7 dolphin kicks

30 x 50 freestyle

2 x through this sequence of 15

    3 with tennis balls @ 1:00

    2 swim B3 @ :50

    3 fists drill @1:00

    2 swim B3 @:45

    3 catch-up drill @1:00

    2 swim B3 @:40

Fly-Focused Long Course

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

This is a full workout for a first long course course practice of the season focused on butterfly. This is after a 15-20min warmup:

Pre-Set

9 x 100 @:20 rest

#1 Dolphin kick on side

#2 8 Dolphin kicks on side, 1 cycle fly

#3 6 diolphin kicks on side, 2 cycles fly

Main Set

2x:

4 x 150 @ :15 rest, 10 cycles strong fly then steady free each 50

6 x 100 @ :10 rest 14 cycles strong fly then steady free each 50

8 x 50 @ :50

Round 1: All fly Descend 1-4 and 5-8

Round 2: #1,3,5,7,8 are FPA fly, #2,4,6 are free B5

Kick Set with Freestyle

6 x (75 fast kick try to best best 100 LCM time + 25 EZ kick ) @2:20

1 x 200 freestyle descend cycle count by 50

4 x (75 faster + 25) same as above

1 x 200 freestyle descend cycle count by 50

2 x (75 faster + 25) same as above

1 x 200 freestyle descend cycle count by 50

Warm down

Vertical Kick Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

We love using vertical kicking to work the legs and practice alignment of the body. The :30 vertical kick is done with the hands out of the water. The :20 is with head on hands (a little more difficult), and the :10 is done in a streamline position (most difficult). There are endless variations and permutations one could make to this structure.

Underwater Golf

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

We have had many posts on this blog using the “Golf” concept (adding seconds swum and cycles taken over a distance and aiming for a lower score). Here is a twist to that concept focusing on underwater dolphin kicking

6x (1x 100 back, fly, or free + 1 x 50 EZ) @ 3:00

On the 100s, get your time and then SUBTRACT the total number of dolphin kicks that you took in the 100. Calculate your score during the EZ 50. Give a high level of effort on the 100 and aim for a lower score each time.

Example:

Swimmer goes 1:08 in the 100 back and took 7 dolphin kicks off each wall (28 total), the golf score would be 40.

68 seconds – 28 dolphin kicks = 40

Speed with Unique Challenges

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

SCM

Each round of this set, we swapped in a mystery set that the swimmers did not know ahead of time as the “unique challenge” in brackets.

The last challenge was “Save your partner”. Each swimmer had to swim a 100 off the blocks under a certain coach-determined time. Fail to make the time and your partner has to do it too. It was a somewhat clumsy attempt to get some peer-pressure motivation going.

The rest of the set worked well, with some of the unique challenges being a bit off-the-wall.

FPA = Fastest Possible Average