Kicking/Lower Body Balance and Side Swimming Drill Progression

Application: poor horizontal position, "dragging the legs," caused by poor balance (has not found buoyancy "sweet spot.") and/or inefficient kick. Inefficient transfer from side to side, with too much "flat shoulder" swimming. If inefficient or ineffective kick, use Fin Progression below.

Purpose: it is helpful if you understand the purpose of this progression. First, we get you comfortable with kicking on each side: good body position. Then we get you comfortable with switching from side to side, by taking an arm pull. Then we get you comfortable executing this switch with three arm pulls (TSwitch). From there is it only one small step (just swimming normaly) to swimming with:

1. Good horizontal body position.
2. Good body roll (swimming on your side as much as possible).

Distance: These drills are not about fitness. Do not keep track of how far you go when performing these drills. Instead, move to the next drill in the progression when you are comfortable and have achieved the other criteria below.

Stomach Kick Drill

1. Try to relax, slowly exhaling while your head is under water helps.

2. Use buoyancy (downhill swimming and head position) to bring feet to the surface, NOT a more powerful kick.

3. Point your toes and relax your ankles.

4. Breathing is what gets people with this drill. I recommend slowly turning your head and one shoulder to the side and breathing. Lifting your head to breath causes your legs to sink and is counter productive to the drill.

5. Take as much rest as you want. This is not about fitness. Relax.

6. Graduation Criteria: when your body is horizontal, feet boiling the water, and you are comfortable, move to next drill.

Right Side Kick Drill

1. Relax, exhale slowly under water.

2. "Point your belly to the side." "Look at the pretty girls in lane 8." Kick on your side, shoulders perpendicular to pool bottom.

3. This is where we begin to develop side swimming skills, as well as balance. Lead hand extended, try resting ear on your shoulder. Try resting trail hand either on your thigh, or even put it behind your thigh. This will pull your top shoulder back a bit and help maintain perpendicular shoulder.

4. Limit width of kick to the tube created by your body.

5. Take as much rest as you want. This is not about fitness, relax.

6. Graduation Criteria: when you can maintain a proper perpendicular body position and are comfortable breathing, move to next drill.

Left Side Kick Drill, until comfortable (see guidance for Right Side above)

Single Switch (SSwitch)

1. Refer to Side Kick guidance.

2. When rolling from one side to the other, pull naturally with the lead arm.

3. Try to think of recovering the trail arm along the same plane form by your shoulders. In other words, don't swing it out to the side, but instead recover it over the water along the line formed by your body.

4. "Point your belly to the side."

5. Again, take as much rest as you want.

6. Breathe AFTER you have completed the switch and are back into position. If you try to breath while you are making the switch, you will lift your head and your hips will sink.

7. Graduation Criteria: when you are comfortable breathing and transitioning from side to side, move to next drill.

Triple Switch (TSwitch)

1. Refer to SSwitch guidance.

2. This drill is the same as SSwitch, except you simply take 3 arms strokes to go from right side to left side.

3. Breathing guidance is the same as SSwitch. In fact, the hardest part about this drill is probably just learning when to breath

Sample Workout

This is an example of how to use this progression in a workout. Only go as far as you are able to in the progression, according to your ability to satisfy the Graduation Criteria of each drill. Don't take short cuts and skip steps. Exercise Patience and Discipline.

Warm-up

· 5' easy swimming
· 4 x 25 swim w/:30 rest
· 2 x 50 Add-Up

Main Set 1:

· 15 x 50yd/m w/:30 rest
· #1-3: Stomach kick
· #4-6: Right Side Kick
· #7-9: Left Side Kick
· #10-12: Six Kick Change
· #13-15: Six/Three Swim Transition

*if you need to, do more or fewer 50's of a particular drill. Again, mastery of a drill determines progression, not yardage.

· 1 x 50 easy, relax

Main Set 2:

· 4 x 25 swim w/:30 rest. Apply balance and side swimming skills.
· 2 x 50 Add-Up. How did you do compared to first set of Add-Ups?

Cool Down:

· 5-10' easy swimming.
· Stretch afterwards and immediately take some notes on your session. What worked, what didn't, observations, questions, concerns, frustrations and victories.

Fin Progression

First, if you have difficulty maintaining a horizontal body position, try fixing it using the Balance Progression above, not by applying more power to your kick, in an effort to kick your legs to the surface. This is wasted energy. Body position and buoyancy are free.

· Think of your kick as doing two things for you:

1. Acts as a counter to your arms, as your arms do in running.

2. Provides some lift to your legs and helps you maintain a horizontal body position.

· DO NOT think of your legs as another tool to push you through the water. Those large leg muscles use up a lot of aerobic capacity and return relatively little propulsion, compared to your arms. Save your investment for the bike and run.

· Keep in mind that many problems are helped by a wetsuit. The constriction at the knee actually makes it difficult to kick effectively, but the suit adds a great deal of lower body buoyancy.

This progression uses fins to teach your legs how to kick efficiently and effectively. A larger fin actually forces your legs to kick more effectively. We use a larger fin to create this muscle memory, and then decrease the fin size. When we get to "feet," you should have an effective kick.

This is a lot of kicking. You may need to split this up over 2 sessions.

Warm-up

· 5' easy swimming
· 4 x 25 swim w/:30 rest
· 2 x 50 Add-Up

Main Set 1:

· 10 x 50yd/m w/:30 rest. Use a larger fin, like the cheap black ones you see at pools. The muscle memory is created by the larger fin + wide kick.
· #1-3: Right Side Kick, #1 is very wide kick, #2 is less wide, #3 is normal
· #4-6: Left Side Kick, #4 is very wide kick, #5 is less wide, #6 is normal
· #7-10: Six Kick Change Side Kick, #7 is very wide kick, #8 is less wide, #9-10 are normal.

Main Set 2:

· Repeat Main Set 1, but with a smaller fin, like Zoomers.

Main Set 3:

· 4 x 50 kick w/:30 rest, NO FINS. Right, Left, Six-Kick, Six-Three-Transition
· 50 easy swim

Main Set 4:

· 4 x 25 swim w/:30 rest (these are optional)
· 2 x 50 Add-Up. How does this compare to first set of Add-Ups?

Cool Down:

· 5-10' easy swimming.
· Stretch afterwards and immediately take some notes on your session. Your ankles may feel fatigued. What worked, what didn't, observations, questions, concerns, frustrations and victories.