By Olivier Poirier-Leroy on SwimSwam
Dolphin kick feeling a little stuck? Here are three variables to play with at practice to unlock your underwaters.
Swimmers do a lot of dolphin kicking at the pool, day in, day out.
(Or at least, they should be!)
But how much of it is leading to improvement?
If your kick is feeling like it’s plateaued, start by playing around with kick counts, kick tempo, and kick distance.
Kick counts
Kick counts are non-negotiable for swimmers keen on a faster underwater dolphin kick.
Not only should you have a baseline kick count (i.e. 4 kicks per wall), you should also push and test yourself with different kick counts in practice.
- Doing 50s or 100s swim with your kick count plus one (i.e. 5 kicks)
- Sets with revolving kick counts, holding the same pace. (i.e. 15×100 freestyle holding 1:10s, alternating kick count plus one, kick count plus two, kick count plus three by 100)
Kick counts help to mitigate the mental back-and-forth that comes with consistent underwaters and is about as close as you can get to putting them on auto-pilot, turning them into something you just do.
Kick tempo
Kick tempo (or kick frequency) is a measurement of how often you are moving the legs up and down through the water.
While it doesn’t directly measure speed, it can be a good indicator of kick fitness and how much propulsion you can generate.
Ways to use tempo include:
- Vertical kicking to see how long you can hold your target kick tempo
- Overclocking tempo to attempt to maintain distance per kick
- Slower tempos (but with fast velocity) to maximize kick length and engage more of the body with each kick
- Add resistance and hold tempo, making it more challenging (and ultimately easier)
Kick tempo is a powerful constraint that lets swimmers explore that balance between how much distance you cover with each kick and how many times you can kick.
Kick distance
Kick distance is another metric that you can use to challenge your kick. And it’s about as simple as it gets—just pick a distance to kick out to! From there, you can dial the distance up and down.
For example:
- 16×50 freestyle best average – ODDS: 10m breakouts, EVENS: 12m breakouts
Setting a clear distance in the pool gives your kick the space to self-organize in a way that works best.
Unleash the UDK!
Swimmers frequently talk a big game about the importance of underwater dolphin kicking.
These three variables give you a lot of flexibility and versatility for chasing UDK improvement and golden underwaters on race day. There’s an endless number of ways that you can configure these three strategies, meaning that you can perpetually chase UDK improvement all season long.
Set your kick counts. Experiment with tempo. Test your underwaters at distance.
And your dolphin kick will shine when it matters most.
Happy kicking!
ABOUT OLIVIER POIRIER-LEROY
Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national-level swimmer, 2x Olympic Trials qualifier, and author of several books for swimmers, including The Dolphin Kick Manual: The Swimmer’s Ultimate Guide to a Fast Underwater Dolphin Kick.
The book is a beastly 240+ pages of actionable insights and research into elite dolphin kicking technique and performance. It details everything from mastering undulation to vortex recapturing to structuring a dryland program for dolphin kicking success.
The Dolphin Kick Manual combines evidence-based insights with a collection of 20 ready-to-go sets and a 6-week Action Plan to help swimmers set a course for dolphin kicking success.
Train smarter and kick faster.
Learn more about The Dolphin Kick Manual
Read the full story on SwimSwam: 3 Training Strategies for Faster Underwaters
