03/09/04 Kick It! Breaststroke Kick Practice

One of the ways we measure the severity of a snowstorm here in VT is by how long it takes to shovel the driveway -- or, sometimes, how many TIMES you have to shovel the driveway during the same storm. Yesterday was a doozie. Last night I shoveled for 90 minutes -- a good upper-body workout, except that this morning my arms and back were tired and achey. So at the pool I decided to do a practice that was almost all kicking. I did this in a 20-yard pool, but you can easily change it for 25.WARMUP: 800With fins.Alternate 40 Short-Axis drill or kick with 40 Long-Axis drill or kick for 800 yards. KICK SET #1: 40010 X 40 breast kick, with 7 Rocket Launchers before each 40. Take as few kicks as possible on the first 20 and as many kicks as possible on the second 20 of each interval. Do each 40 a little differently:#1: with kickboard#2: hand-lead on back#3: hand-lead on stomach#4: hand-lead under water#5: hand-lead with head out of water#6: head-lead on back#7: head-lead on stomach#8: hand-lead on back with pull buoy#9: head-lead on back with pull buoy#10: head-lead on back with arms held out of the waterKICK SET #2: 400 (equivalent)With swim tether, push off, do a breast pulldown, take 30 head-lead breast kicks followed by 30 hand-lead breast kicks, then turn and swim fast breast back to starting point. Repeat. On these, I focused on not using my hands at all on the head-lead kicks and pointing my toes after each kick. On the hand-lead kicks, I focused on FAST cadence for the kicks.KICK SET #3: 400With fins.Alternate 100 dolpin kick with 100 flutter kick for 400 yards. You can do this in head or hand lead, on your back or on your stomach. Mix it up.KICK SET #4: 400 (equivalent)Repeat the tether set.KICK SET #5: 400With pull buoy. Kick continuously through 5 X 80 IMs (4 X 100 IMs in a 25-yard pool).KICK SET #6: 400 (equivalent)Repeat the tether set. WARMDOWN: 100 EZTotal Yardage: 3300