The freestyle kick can be a source of contention among many triathletes, at least for those who don’t come from a swimming background. I’ve had many athletes ask me if they need to kick, or if kick sets are worthwhile (I wouldn’t prescribe them if I didn’t think they were useful!) Give an adult onset swimmer a kick set over 200 yards and that’s all they’ll remember from a 4000-yard swim workout.
Why is the kick important?
The kick is important not only for forward propulsion, but also for balance and good body position in the water, and good hip rotation. The kick can also help avoid shoulder injuries by taking some of the pressure off the shoulders since it’s easy to drive body rotation from the shoulders without an effective kick and swim flatter which requires more energy.
In addition to my triathlon coaching, I am an age group swim coach, and 50% (or more) of our developmental swim practices consist of kicking and kicking remains ~20-30% of the older swimmers’ practices. I have 9-year-olds who can kick 100 yards in well under 2 minutes, but I have adult triathletes who can’t swim freestyle in under 2 minutes, so if we could just make their kick stronger and more efficient, imagine how much faster they could be! But why do adult onset swimmers hate the kick so much? Triathletes have strong legs and should be strong kickers, right?
How to improve the kick:
For triathletes who come from a run or bike background, their ankles can lack the flexibility required for an efficient kick, which can make it hard to make forward progress. However, flexibility can be improved in most cases. Kicking with fins is a great way to work on ankle mobility, and a dryland exercise to work on ankle flexibility is ankle flex with resistance. To do this, sit on the floor with your legs extended, a resistance band around your foot, and a towel rolled up under your ankle. With the band loose, point your toes away from you, then with a taut band, pull back and slowly move your foot back toward you. Repeat for 3 sets of 10 reps. You can also draw the alphabet with your feet, and incorporate stretches like child’s pose, downward dog, and calf stretches on a step.
Beginner swimmers often bend their knees too much in the kick, like they’re riding a bike. Your knees shouldn’t bend more than they do walking. A good drill for this is kicking on your back and not allowing the knees to break the surface but making the water boil with your feet. And be sure not to wear long fins too often which can encourage more knee bend while kicking. Shorter fins, like zoomers, are better for increased cadence and kicking more from the hips. Imagine kicking inside a large bucket, and the further you go outside the bucket, the more drag you create.
But triathletes wear wetsuits, so why do we need to kick? For starters, more and more races are becoming wetsuit illegal as water temps continue to get warmer (and be warmer earlier and later in the season). But you should also still be kicking with a wetsuit on, even if your legs are staying buoyant without kicking.
But triathletes need to save their legs for the bike and run, right? Yes, but you still need an effective, efficient kick. You don’t have to use a 6-beat kick, some swimmers can go very fast with a 2 or 4-beat kick, but your kick needs to have good upwards and downwards motion and promote good hip rotation. A good drill for working both the upwards and downwards motion of the kick is kicking on your side or side balance drill. To do this, lie on one side with your bottom arm extended and your top arm laying at your side. Press your head toward your extended arm, and face upwards (allowing you to breathe). Keep the left side of your chest pressing into the water. Start kicking. When you complete one length, switch to the other side.
For other kick sets, you can kick with a board, or on your back with arms by your sides or in streamline, or side (side balance), or belly (superman or front balance). You want to work both the upwards and downwards motion of your kick. Be sure the knees aren’t bending more than they do while walking, and make sure the feet and ankles are relaxed but toes should be pointed slightly inward. Vertical kicking is also a great drill – go to the deep end of your pool, and kick while upright. Once you get good at this drill, you can raise your arms overhead in streamline to increase the difficulty.
So, next time your coach loads you up with the dreaded kick sets, embrace them and be patient with yourself. Kick sets are worth your time and energy, and will absolutely make you a better, faster, more efficient swimmer. Try including kick sets for 4-5 weeks and see if it makes a difference. If it doesn’t, you can drop them. But I’m betting you’ll be swimming faster with less energy with some focused kick work!