Fitter And Faster Swim Drill Of The Week: Descending Kick Count

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Welcome to the “Swim Drill of the Week” sponsored by The Fitter and Faster Swim Tour presented by Swimoutlet.com. Swimming World will be bringing you a drill, concept, or tip that you can implement with your team on a regular basis. While certain weeks may be more appropriate for specific levels of swimming (club, high school, college, or masters), Drill Of The Week excerpts are meant to be flexible for your needs and inclusive for all levels of swimming.

This week’s drill is a sequence called Descending Kick Count for freestyle. Similar to 6 DPS Drill, the Descending Kick Count drill sequence works on body position, rotation, and utilizing the kick and core during freestyle. Each 25, swimmers will push off the wall and rotate to their side with one arm extended and one by their side. Switching after a predetermined number of kicks, swimmers will transition from side to side with a single freestyle stroke.

Moving through the drill progression, swimmers will decrease their kick count per 25, until they transition fully into freestyle. A typical sequence may look like this:

1 x 25 w/ 10 kicks each side

1 x 25 w/ 8 kicks each side

1 x 25 w/ 6 kicks each side

1 x 25 w/ 4 kicks each side

1 x 25 w/ 2 kicks each side

1 x 25 DPS freestyle

While in theory a simple drill, the decreasing kicks with each 25 challenge your swimmers to maintain proper body position, core control, and a smooth kick as they speed up their arm strokes. While it may be easy to settle into proper body position with 10 kicks between each stroke, it will be common to see swimmers’ technique falter once they hit 6, 4, or 2 kicks between each stroke.

Usually, as the number of kicks between strokes increases, the more you will see uneven rotation, choppy transitions, or even a little bit of wiggle from side to side. Watch to make sure your swimmers are rotating from their hips, core, and kick to help them get this drill correctly. You can vary the sequence as much you want, and could even make the kick count a descend within 50’s in a long course pool to mix it up. Happy swimming!

 

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