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Freestyle - 6-Kick Switch

Posted by Glenn Mills on Jan 06, 2009 08:58AM (14,358 views)

Consistent, quick kicking, combined with a stable body roll, helps you move everything forward when you're swimming freestyle.  This drill gives you enough time to work on both.


Why Do It:
This is a simple variation to throw into a kick set, which allows swimmers to work their legs, lungs, body position, and body roll, as well as making sure their pull is moving them forward, and not up.

How to Do It:
1.  There are three positions in this drill... kicking with your right arm extended, kicking with both arms extended, and kicking with your left arm extended.
2.  Start with either right or left arm extended for about 6 kicks, then recover the trailing arm to the front for 6 kicks, then pull back with the other arm for 6 kicks.
3.  After you've completed all three positions, grab a quick breath and start the count over again... 6 on the side, 6 with both hands in front, and 6 on the other side... then breathe.

How to Do It Well (the Fine Points):
Think about what your lead hand is doing when there's only one of them out there.  Try not to brace or scull, but just have it lengthen your body.  When you rotate from one position to the other, make sure your head continues in a very stable position.  Finally, when you're pulling back with the lead arm, make sure you're not popping up, but, rather, moving your body forward.  Keep everything moving in a direct line.




Responses

Responded Jan 06, 2009 02:48PM

I love this drill!!! I like doing a similar one as part of my warm up add-ons. I just breath more often *shame*. This drill, the catch-up drill and the straight-arm-slow-motion-recovery-drill work for me perfectly on a bad day. They help me make the feeling that "the water is strange" go away.

Responded Jan 06, 2009 03:57PM

I like this drill, too. Seems the demonstrator is swimming uphill a lot. Another way to know if you're pushing down with your pulling arm is that your body reacts and bobs down into the water, making you wait to bob back up to breathe.

Responded Jan 09, 2009 06:54PM

This is really good...specially how you have time to think what to do with the other arm....( Juliette's dad)

Responded Jan 11, 2009 03:21PM

How come I can't see the video? This message (Sorry, the creator of this video has not given you permission to embed it on this domain. This is a Vimeo Plus feature) came up on what would have normally been the video screen.

Responded Jan 12, 2009 05:28AM

You do not see very many swimmers rotating their whole body nowdays. The kick pretty much stays up and down which means the hip rotation is very little(although it is prevalent still).

Although I do think it is a great challenge to move your body through a little hole in the water and keep everything hidden right behind the head and shoulders. This drill has many little components more than others imo to make it perfect. IMO to master this type of drill, one should try to discover how hidden they can make their body at EVERY point of this drill.

Responded Jan 12, 2009 12:18PM

Thanks daniel. I think I was trying something new with this video. While you can see it here, I was putting an HD version on Vimeo... but, I guess in doing so, it's not allowing ANY embedding. Still trying to figure out the best way to allow for 1) the viewing of the drills in the highest quality possible, 2) allowing embedding in other sites (so maybe find the drill on YouTube), and 3) not bankrupting the company by paying for too many HD streams on our site. This stuff gets very expensive.

Here it is on YouTube for now:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqN3D7YCbZg

Responded Jan 12, 2009 12:21PM

Daniel... I made a settings adjustment on this video... see if you can embed from the Vimeo link. Thanks.

Responded Feb 02, 2009 06:51AM

完全听不懂啊

Responded Feb 02, 2009 07:00AM

原来下面有字幕啊,太好了。
这真是一个很好的网站。

Responded Feb 02, 2009 09:52PM

Hey there wooyifan, can you have your keyboard charset in english I can not follow what you just wrote :)

Responded Feb 02, 2009 10:09PM

That kick is same thing as Stephanie Rice won 400 and 200IM to beat Kirsty Coventry - I admit I develops a soft spot of Stephanie lol

Responded Feb 03, 2009 06:02PM

we use this drill all the time with one differnence. Iask them only to breathe as they change sides so that they are breathing at the same point in the stroke as they would on full stroke. They also tend, therefore to get the breath early in the stroke, not looking at the ceiling as Age groupers are prone to do!

Responded Feb 03, 2009 06:49PM

Nice... timing of the breathe is always a good key to work on. Thanks.


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