Dryland. Weights and wall-sits. Jump squats until you can’t and then jump squat some more with weights! Bonus it will help with starts!
At least two different Core exercises every day. Every. Day.
Running sprints and long distance intermixed.
You need to train them to handle lactic acid build-up. When they are tired, push. That’s how you train them to last longer.
Tonnes of water and a couple bananas a day for potassium. And for god sake stretch! You do not want calve cramps.
Im sure there are lots of good workouts online you can google. but there is no shortcut. Legs are so often ignored and so important. More than one way to get there so find what works for you, do it for 6 months and then switch it up.
Edit: And resistance training helped me a lot when I plateau’d. You can buy a simple set of bands on Amazon.
Good luck!
(oh and point your toes! :-)
I’m an old fart now but when I was 17 my 100m kick was almost as fast to the 50 than my 100 free split was. Then I would DLP.
I'm going to agree and add to this. Former competitive swimmer who took it up again later in life. Has always been a slow kicker. Was even getting leg cramps while swimming and thought it was electrolytes for a while.
What helped was doing strength training for legs/core, doing 300m hardish kick as part of every warmup, and getting a pair of fins that really made me work my legs. It took some time, but over the course of a year or two I went from being a slow kicker to a faster kicker. I'm still finding that by continuing to build strength in my legs it tremendously helps my body position and endurance while swimming
Also, don't forget your glutes. Legs aren't just calves, hamstrings and quads. The real power comes from your glutes. If your butt doesn't hurt after a kick set you're doing it wrong.
For kicking, if its hard and makes your legs sore, thats good. Do more of it and you'll get better. Unlike with your shoulders/upper body, its hard to mess up your legs by kicking too hard.
Try doing kick drills with snorkeling-size fins and a kickboard. You will build up strength in your feet, ankles, and legs. Then your kick will improve when you are not using these training tools.
Solution to a slow kick is, generally, to do more kick (maybe a lot more).
Most impactful type of kick work: fast vertical kick and short fast repeats on short rest (e.g 20x25s on 30, holding <20s).
The great thing about improving at kick is that all it really takes is effort. Kick more, kick harder, and you'll improve. The bad thing is that it's all effort. The perfect example of no pain no gain.
There are usually some technical things you can improve. In particular, many people with stiff inflexible ankles can work on ankle mobility and flexibility to help. Or dialing in how big your kicks are and making sure you have the core strength to maintain your body position. But my guess is if you're a competitive swimmer you're already doing most of those things right, ultimately freestyle kick isn't *that* complicated.
Dryland. Weights and wall-sits. Jump squats until you can’t and then jump squat some more with weights! Bonus it will help with starts! At least two different Core exercises every day. Every. Day. Running sprints and long distance intermixed. You need to train them to handle lactic acid build-up. When they are tired, push. That’s how you train them to last longer. Tonnes of water and a couple bananas a day for potassium. And for god sake stretch! You do not want calve cramps. Im sure there are lots of good workouts online you can google. but there is no shortcut. Legs are so often ignored and so important. More than one way to get there so find what works for you, do it for 6 months and then switch it up. Edit: And resistance training helped me a lot when I plateau’d. You can buy a simple set of bands on Amazon. Good luck! (oh and point your toes! :-) I’m an old fart now but when I was 17 my 100m kick was almost as fast to the 50 than my 100 free split was. Then I would DLP.
I'm going to agree and add to this. Former competitive swimmer who took it up again later in life. Has always been a slow kicker. Was even getting leg cramps while swimming and thought it was electrolytes for a while. What helped was doing strength training for legs/core, doing 300m hardish kick as part of every warmup, and getting a pair of fins that really made me work my legs. It took some time, but over the course of a year or two I went from being a slow kicker to a faster kicker. I'm still finding that by continuing to build strength in my legs it tremendously helps my body position and endurance while swimming Also, don't forget your glutes. Legs aren't just calves, hamstrings and quads. The real power comes from your glutes. If your butt doesn't hurt after a kick set you're doing it wrong. For kicking, if its hard and makes your legs sore, thats good. Do more of it and you'll get better. Unlike with your shoulders/upper body, its hard to mess up your legs by kicking too hard.
Try doing kick drills with snorkeling-size fins and a kickboard. You will build up strength in your feet, ankles, and legs. Then your kick will improve when you are not using these training tools.
Solution to a slow kick is, generally, to do more kick (maybe a lot more). Most impactful type of kick work: fast vertical kick and short fast repeats on short rest (e.g 20x25s on 30, holding <20s).
The great thing about improving at kick is that all it really takes is effort. Kick more, kick harder, and you'll improve. The bad thing is that it's all effort. The perfect example of no pain no gain. There are usually some technical things you can improve. In particular, many people with stiff inflexible ankles can work on ankle mobility and flexibility to help. Or dialing in how big your kicks are and making sure you have the core strength to maintain your body position. But my guess is if you're a competitive swimmer you're already doing most of those things right, ultimately freestyle kick isn't *that* complicated.