SNZ Events
Epic Swim
High Performance
SNZ Events
Epic Swim
High Performance
A great activity to do dry land. Assume a superman position on the ground and then keeping your legs off the ground, kick from your hips. A good activity to see very quickly who is kicking from the hips. Easy to correct as you can hold the swimmers knees and guide them through a correct kick and talk about how it feels.
A common kicking fault is to kick with flat feet and you go nowhere. When kicking ensure you point your toes, this reduces the angle between your feet and legs, reducing drag.
Sit your swimmers on the side of the pool, get their legs nice and long, and explain when you say green light the swimmers must kick their legs really fast, when you say orange light they do slow little kicks and on red light they have to stop kicking. It can also be done in the water or laying on a large mat to add variety.
Lift heels to buttocks, turn feet out like a V, student can press against teachers hands to feel resistance of the water and then back to a glide.
These drills are meant to help more advanced swimmers feel their kick. Flutter kick on your side - use a kick board or similar in the lead hand and look at pool side with shoulder and hip on top of the water. Kick with fins. Kick across pool with head up. If your swimmer can do this and keep their mouth above water for breathing, they know they have a very strong kick.
Truck and trailer is a great game to play with your more advanced swimmers. Get swimmers to concentrate on their arms and legs while experiencing drag and resistance.
Game: Kick of War. Swimmers hold either side of a kick board, then they put their face in the water and kick as hard as they can against their partner. The winner is the person who moved forward the most distance. This is a great game to improve kick speed and efficiency.
