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This morning’s Coach’s Intel features a swim practice from Andrew Hodgson, head coach of New Trier Swim Club, of Illinois.
Andrew just recently become head coach at NTSC, having also previously coached at Club Seminole and Florida State, where he was also a 5-time NCAA All-American and two-time ACC champion in the 200 backstroke. You can find Andrew on Twitter as well at @hodgson_swim.
Here is his set:
I’m a big believer in transitioning hard fast kick into fast swimming with that kick. The swimmers have bought into kick making the swim great and we have seen great results at the back end of races. That being said here is one of my favorites:
(After a 30 minute mixed warm-up)
3 Rounds of–
3×125 on 2:30 as: 25 swim, 50 kick, 50 swim (from blocks, all as fast as you can go)
100 recovery @ 2:30
I like to finish with a hypoxic set after the main set:
8×100 @1:40 as;
2x
2,2,2,1 (breaths by 25)
2,2,1,1 (breaths by 25)
2,1,1,1 (breaths by 25)
1,1,1,1 (breaths by 25)
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Robert,
Good point. We do a lot of high end kicking at least 2 main high output kick sets a week. We do kick to swim sets like this to remind our swimmers not to forget their legs once the pull comes back in. This is actually a swim set that overworks the legs rather than a kick set with some upper body added in.
I take a lot of this stuff from listening to the likes of Frank Busch who talk about its importance. Thanks for the feedback I appreciate it.
Where is the board?! If you ‘really’ want to work the legs ONLY, it needs to be with a board! Just my thought…
consider this – kicking with a board forces your hips lower than you’d ever want them in a race and puts unnecessary stress on your shoulders and neck. I contend that kicking sans board w/snorkel reinforces good head position, and is closer to what a swimmer would be doing at full speed.
But you can say a pull bouy does the same thing but for the arms. You just need to make sure that the kids kick w/ a board properly. Press the board slightly under the surface with core and shoulders, and don’t shrug your neck. Same as to what Andrew said, Frank Busch loves kicking and he prefers with a board for that exact reason. Kicking without a board is more of a body position drill which you can do hard if you want. Just my thoughts…
Thanks!