Kick Happens

I've always been a kicker.

Kick and turns, those were by far my biggest strengths in the water in the past.  Turns are still up at the top of my list now, but my kick, while passable, hasn't felt comparatively as strong as it used to.  Saturday and yesterday I put it to the test.

Saturday I did a 2012 yard kick set to ring in the new year, and yesterday I did a 2300 kick set before the evening practice, much of it with fins.  I capped off last night's kick set with three 100s free kick with a board and no fins, to see where my sprint kick was at.

Uh, not very good at all.  Back on Tritons (my team throughout the time I lived in Louisville, before going off to college), my favorite test set was a 1000 kick for time.  My best time in it, and a team record, I believe, was a 14:36.  That averages out to roughly a 1:28 per hundred.  If I recall correctly, my best 100 kick free without fins time was a 1:18 or 1:19.  I think my best free kick time with fins was around a :57 or :58.

Given, my 3x100 sprint kick were after a 2000 kick set, but the kick set had been relatively low intensity, focusing on high yardage over high effort.  I did the 100s on 2:30.  Their times, in order, were a 1:32, 1:31, and 1:31.  I had been hoping for something in the mid 1:20s, so I was quite disappointed.

I’ll try to get to the pool tomorrow night after work, since there is no practice Wednesday evenings, and get in a kick set of a 1500 or so.  After I do a short warmup, I’ll jump straight in with 4x100 sprint kick free and back, to see how my times are before I do the main set.  Hopefully I can break the 1:30 barrier on all four.

I know I create substantially more drag in the water than I used to, given that I’m about 60 pounds heavier than I was in highschool, but having seen video of myself swimming a few weeks back, I didn’t notice that I was markedly lower in the water than I used to be.  If the drag isn’t the issue, then I’m just not comparatively good a kicker as I used to be.

So, in addition to the extra fly that I’ll be swimming in practice for the rest of the season, I’ll try to get in three or four evenings during the week and get some good kick sets in, since we generally don’t do much kick at practice.  Hopefully that will increase both my kick speed and endurance, which can do nothing but help my swim times!