Swim Drill: Tombstone Drill And Why You Should Be Kicking!
Kicking! It strikes fear into the heart of many a swimmer and triathlete, yet it must be done. But why?!?!?! In my experience as a coach, I believe many athletes hate to kick because it is tiring and most people are garbage at it. Who wants to do something over and over that they are bad at? I get it, it isn’t fun. Instead of thinking about how much you stink, think of it as a good thing. You have a ton of room to improve! Kicking is a skill just like any other. In order to get good at it, you need to practice and develop it. Enough talk about why we are all so scared of kicking, let’s dive into why kicking is so important and a drill that can really help us to develop the kick!
Why Do I Need To Kick?
I’m probably not going to tell you anything you haven’t already read so I will try to keep it brief. Kicking is a fundamental element of the stroke. This is why many coaches teach people how to swim starting at the feet and work their way up. Without a strong kick, it is hard to put all the other elements together efficiently.
A solid kick helps improve your body position and reduces your drag. A slower kick or scissor kick generally causes your hips to drop. This will create the feeling of swimming “uphill”. This means your head and chest are at the surface and your hips and feet fall towards the ground. Your hips and legs will be plowing through the water creating drag and slowing you down. A good kick will help to lift the hips and reduce this drag so all the energy you put into your stroke will move you forward. Your entire body is will be at the surface slicing through the water. This is a essential to a faster and efficient freestyle.
A good kick will also provide propulsion. Kicking will actually make you move forward faster…shocking, right? The effect of the kick is not felt as strongly when doing a 2 beat kick but when doing a 6 beat kick there is a clear propulsive force being generated that is helping to drive you through the water faster.
One more crucial reason to have a strong kick is that it helps to create balance and rotation in your stroke. It does this by helping to drive your body rotation while you swim. The kick starts in the core and hips. As you are taking your strokes the kick helps your hips rotate from one side to the next. This is a key element to helping improve your freestyle speed and efficiency.
I know what many of your triathletes are thinking. “I wear a wetsuit, so I don’t need to waste my time working my kick!” Even if you wear a wetsuit while swimming, that only helps you to reduce drag. You will still benefit significantly from the propulsive force generated from kicking and the balance it helps to create in the your stroke. If you feel like you have hit a plateau in your swimming, then maybe improving your kick will get you back on the path to a faster swim!
Tombstone Drill: A Great Exercise To Help Develop Your Kick!
This is a very simple drill that will help to develop your kick. It is called the tombstone drill because you need to hold the kick board vertically so that it looks like a tombstone. This adds resistance and will force you to work harder to propel yourself through the water. Hold the kick board with your arms extended in front of your body. When doing this drill make sure to keep your head and neck nice and relaxed. This will ensure that your hips and legs stay at the surface. When you need to breathe, pick your head up and inhale and then just drop the head back in the water. For added resistance you can turn the board horizontally and really see what you are made out of.
If you are looking to take your swimming to the next level, this is a great drill for you. This is a great exercise for triathletes and swimmers who have weak kicks and poor body position. You will get a great workout and improve your technique at the same time. Have fun and watch the improvements just pour in after adding this to your workouts.
I hope you found this post compelling enough to start kicking during your workouts ever more! If you do, you I know that you will not regret it. For all you triathletes, the off season is the perfect time to really focus on your kick. No matter your sport, just do yourself a favor and start kicking…a lot!