Sheila Runs

Somehow in all the reading I had done about the swim portion of triathlon, and how triathletes should train for and approach the swim, I got the message that the kicking was very de-emphasized. That kicking was almost not necessary. Let your legs drag, if you wanted to. Use your upper body on the swim and save the legs for the bike and run. Makes sense, no?

And then I started my Masters Swim workouts. And the coach was having me do a fair amount of kicking. Although I thought I didn’t really need to be doing kicking drills, I tried to just suck it up and say nothing. After all, I was seeking the expertise of the coach. He knows more about this than I do, right? That’s why I was doing the Masters Swim. Eventually I did ask him about it and he said I needed to keep that end of my body up, or something like that. So…ok. Still doubtful but…just doing the drills like he said.

Well, about a week or two ago I saw this article on TriSwimCoach.com that discusses this very thing. His point is that in triathlon while we don’t need the kick for propulsion, we do need it for balance. It will help a lot with the swim with just some bit of kicking. Really good article: A Little Kick Goes a Loooong Way in Triathlon Swimming

Then today someone on Daily Mile shared a link to this YouTube video of Dave Scott giving tips on kicking drills. Dave Scott being, of course, one of triathlon’s all time greats and 6-time winner of the Ironman World Championships at Kona. These kicking drills look really good. I think I would enjoy trying these.

Well, the kicking drills from Masters Swim are seeming to finally pay off for me. I’ve actually been feeling more balanced in the pool, like my back end is floating up higher. And the coach even told me a few days back that my kicking was looking good. Or did he say “better”? Maybe it’s not good, yet, but just better. Hahah.

But nothing brought home to me how important it is to keep the back end up when swimming like a drill he had me do this past Tuesday. He had me do a “pull” drill, with the paddles. But I was not kicking or using a pull buoy. Instead I had to cross my legs at the ankles and just let them trail behind me. This was VERY tough. My legs just sank. I could not really swim. I was almost vertical in the water at some points. He told me I had to pick my tempo up and have a faster turnover (faster stroke). I tried and that did help some. But wow, how much harder it was to stroke and pull with all that dragging.