You ever hear triathletes say that you can neglect your kick during the swim because you need to conserve your legs for the bike and run?  Yeah, me, too.  In fact, I believed it so much that I didn’t own a kickboard for a long time.  I would see the kick sets in my swim workout and would say to myself “well, there are X yards I don’t have to do.”  But, the truth is that your legs need to be strong for all three disciplines of a triathlon.  Building overall leg strength, whether it is from swimming, biking or running will make you a better triathlete.  While the kick only provides about 15-20% of your propulsion during your swim, what you’re really gaining is reducing your drag and thus reducing your overall effort.  So, while incorporating kick training will build leg strength, the real focus is to improve efficiency and coordination of kick, hip rotation, and arm pull.

 

Since incorporating kick sets into my training, I dropped about 5 seconds off my 100-yard pace while using 1-2 fewer strokes/minute.  For someone like me, who will never be FOTW, swim efficiency has always been my goal, so I’m really thrilled by my improvement!

 

The kick training that my coach includes in my workouts is usually towards the end of the main set, before cool down.  I do them for time, trying to beat the time of the previous intervals.  I also like to alternate kick laps with freestyle laps, so I can take advantage of the muscle memory from the isolated motion and put it together with the upper body.  Try this set to your upcoming swim workout:

If you’re new to kick sets, I’m not gonna lie, you’re gonna hate this.  I sure did.  But as the saying goes, nothing worth having comes easily!