Kicking Individual Challenge Killer Sets - KICKS

By Wayne Goldsmith | In Skills Development

Yes, I know. Kicking is about as much fun as watching 30 hours of cake decorating on television, right?

Wrong.

The reason most people find kicking dull and boring is they don’t see kick sets as a challenge. Kicking is often put into a training program to fill in space or to recover between swimming sets. Because of this, swimmers don’t see kick as the critical element of swimming performance that it is.

That is all about to change. Introducing K.I.C.K.S – kicking individual challenge killer sets.
Kicking is about to get really interesting!

  1. K.I.C.K.S. Circuits

This is a great way to develop strength and power in kicking.

    • Kick one lap as fast as you can trying to finish the lap in shallow (waist deep or less). Jump out – (trying not to use your arms to jump out).
    • Do ten squats to parallel.
    • Jump back in and kick one lap as fast as you can. Jump out at the end.
    • Do ten jumps as high as you can.
    • Jump back in and kick two laps as fast as you can.
    • Jump out and stretch your quads, glutes and hamstrings for two minutes.

      Repeat the circuit 5 times!!
      This kicking, strength work and flexibility type training is really effective in turning your legs into powerful propulsive pistons!

      1. K.I.C.K.S. Power Breaststroke Kick Set

      Technically power is a combination of speed and strength so this set aims to develop both. To swim great breaststroke requires great leg power.

      Push off the wall and kick MDK – Maximum distance per kick, breaststroke kick for five kicks. Have a team mate or coach note how far you got. Most swimmers will do this holding a really long glide position which is great for developing technique but not so good for developing race speed.

      Now add a time factor. Push off the wall and MDK for five kicks and see how far you can go and time it. Go back and do it again and aim to go the same distance but in one second faster. Try it again and again.

      The aim is to maintain leg power by aiming for MDK but also to maintain speed.

      1. K.I.C.K.S. Super Challenge

      This is a strength development kicking set. You aim to hold a fast kicking speed as the resistance gets tougher and tougher and tougher over the set.

        • Kick 4 x 25 yards on 45 seconds. Aim for your 100 yard best swim time divided by 4 plus 2 seconds. So if your 100 PR is 1:12, aim to kick each 25 in 18 seconds (ie 1:12 divided by 4) PLUS 2 seconds = 20 seconds.
        • Jump out and put on a pair of old socks. You may have to wrap a band around the top of the sock to keep them from falling off.
        • Kick 4 x 25 yards on 45 seconds.
        • Jump out and put on a pair of old (but clean) gym shoes.
        • Kick 4 x 25 yards on 45 seconds.
        • Grab a kick board and hold it sideways, ie with the longest side facing you. Kick with the board in front of you “tombstone” style, ie holding it up with only the bottom edge in the water.
        • Kick 4 x 25 yards on 45 seconds.
        • Put your fins, drink bottle and paddles on top of your kickboard. Kick with the kick board flat (but long ways) in front of you while balancing all your other swim gear on top of it.
        • Kick 4 x 25 yards on 45 seconds.
          1. K.I.C.K.S. 6 Week Time Challenge

          The aim of this set is to improve your kicking endurance.
          Start with this basic kick set – 6 x 50 on 1:30 then every week aim to make the set more challenging.

            • Time challenge Week 1: Kick the basic set on 1:30 with an aim to kick your 50 yards best swim time plus 10 seconds.
            • Time challenge Week 2: Kick the basic set on 1:20 with an aim to kick your 50 yards best swim time plus 10 seconds.
            • Time challenge Week 3: Kick the basic set on 1:20 with an aim to kick your 50 yards best swim time plus 5 seconds.
            • Time challenge Week 4: Kick the basic set on 1:10 with an aim to kick your 50 yards best swim time plus 5 seconds.
            • Time challenge Week 5: Kick the basic set on 1:00 with an aim to kick your 50 yards best swim time plus 5 seconds.
            • Time challenge Week 6: Kick the basic set on 1:00 with an aim to kick your 50 yards best swim time plus 5 seconds.

              Then reset the Time challenge by adding another 2 x 50 yards to the set, ie 8 x 50 yards on 1:30 and go through the process again.

              1. K.I.C.K.S. Team Challenge

              This is a lot of fun.
              Get a list of your team (or club, state or national) records.
              For example, your team record for 100 yards freestyle might be 1:03 for 12 year olds.

              Choose a team of four 12 year olds and KICK a 4 x 25 yards relay (push starts). The aim is to “break” as many swimming records as you can with this kicking team.

              To make it more challenging:

              • Choose a team of 3 so that one swimmer has to kick 25 yards twice.
              • Choose a team of 2 so that both have to swim 2 x 50 yards.
              • Aim to break the freestyle record but do it kicking fly or back.

              So get your kicks by kicking with K.I.C.K.S.

              Wayne Goldsmith

              December 30, 2007

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