"Swimmers measure success by hundredths of seconds, yet achieve success by thousands of hours."
-Mike Gustafson.
This morning Coach Mike of Longmont Masters gathered us up on deck before our workout began. This is never a good sign. Yup, we were headed to the deep end for some challenging vertical kicking. This meant we triathletes couldn't rely on our zoomer fins and clutch our boards as we gutted out kick sets.
Why? Why vertical kicking? Coach Mike said, "Mostly for variety. It breaks things up. It also gives you a different feel for the water, forcing you to point your toes and keep your ankles loose. Plus, you can make it more fun (yes, he said 'fun') by holding your arms out of the water in streamline and trying to lift your shoulders and chest above the water surface."
Coach Mike is not alone in his enthusiasm for this tough but important drill.
From Effortless Swimming:
"Longer distance swimmers don’t rely on their kick as much as they do their body rotation and pull, so many triathletes can get away with not working on their kick in training. . . One of the best drills to strengthen kicking power is vertical kick."
And, there are lengthy discussions on the U.S. Masters discussion forums on vertical kicking, including this list of reasons for doing it in the first place:
1) Variety, swimmers and coaches get bored with just kicking up and down the pool
2) Less stress on lower back than kicking with a board
3) Can be worked much harder than regular kicking, try vertical kicking for 60 seconds while holding a tight streamline
4) Helps to get you in shape for water polo, work on that egg-beater
5) Takes up much less space in the pool
6) Looks almost as silly as water aerobics
Exactly how do you perform vertical kicking? "Get into deep water so you can't touch the bottom and kick. It's like treading water with a flutter kick. To make it harder, hold your hands out of water....the higher you go, the harder it gets."
Other comments from the same site include benefits of efficiency, core strengthening, and social time:
"I use it as a way to see how effective my kick is. If you have a poor kick, you will waste too much energy and swallow water. 'Survival instincts will quickly figure out the most effective way to help you stay at the surface.' (E.Hines)"
"It's a great way to work the abs. Your ab muscles keep you vertical, especially if you're a sinker like me."
"Vertical kicking keeps the workout group honest if done correctly, i.e., with hands out of water, and not near a convenient wall or bottom. It can also be a socially interactive time, if the coach has announcements to make or the swimmers just want to complain to one another (what masters do best/ most)."
And finally, this week's DBTS ("Don't Be That Swimmer") has been replaced with DBTC ("Don't Be That COACH") . . .
Listen to THIS from the U.S. Masters Discussion Forum on vertical kicking:
When I swam high school, I had a coach who absolutely loved vertical kicking drills. He would have the whole team go to the deep end, age groupers included, and we would spend a whole practice down there. We devoted one practice a week to vertical kicking, and most of us hated it. *Some of us* still hate it to this day.
The workout would go as follows: 5 minutes regular treading water flutter kick; 3 minutes with arms out of the water to your elbow; 30 seconds with arms in streamline position; 30 seconds with arms in streamline position dolphin kick. 1 minute rest on wall, repeat set.
At the end of practice, when we all were too exhausted to move, he would have us high schoolers strap ankle weights on, and do streamline with flutter kick until only one person "survived" - i.e. their chins didn't sink below the water. That person would then get to skip the kick set at the next morning's practice.
I will admit, however, that those not-so-blissful times in high school, my kicking was much improved, and so was my core strength - God how I miss those abs!
Ankle weights? Great abs aside, please don't be that coach!
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