Each day when we skip out onto the pool deck, swimmers (and their coaches) are trying to improve a wide variety of skills and capacities in training.
Things like:
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Breath discipline
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Underwaters
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Body position
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Aerobic capacity
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End-of-range stability
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Top-end speed
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“Bring it home” speed
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Etc.
There are a lot of levers being pulled and focused on for improvement. Swimming fast is a complex endeavor and there’s lots that goes into it.
In their zeal to improve, swimmers will often aim to improve the weak spots in their stroke.
But sometimes it’s done in a way that doesn’t compliment your stroke and can lead to wasted effort/time that could have gone to further bolstering your strengths.
After all, we only have so much time in the water to get better.
Here’s an example.
Let’s say your freestyle kick endurance is lacking, bordering on sucky. Your pull is the star of the show, but your kick is a liability.
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It’s costing you stronger finishes in competition
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You are sluggish coming out of the breakouts.
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You struggle to bring it home with a finishing kick in competition.
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And each time coach writes up a kick set you quietly move to the back of the lane.
So what’s an enterprising swimmer to do?
One solution to developing this weakness would be the simplest and most straightforward one:
Log a ton of time on a kickboard.
Grab that foam kickboard and kick, kick, and more kick.
Eventually, this
will help you develop a stronger kick.
But it may take a really long time, pull you away from working on your strengths, and likely interfere with your stroke.
Because kicking on a board is a fairly specific skill:
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Swimmers don’t have to time breaths
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Or coordinate timing with the hips and shoulders
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There’s no body roll (besides ~20-degrees of hip roll)
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Kick on a board even uses a significantly wider amplitude compared to kicking when swimming.
Another solution would be to develop your kick prowess in a way that supports your strength (pulling).
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Set your arm tempo (the arms set the global tempo for the stroke—protect it at all costs). Use a Tempo Trainer to get your natural tempos.
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Start with 50s and 100s freestyle, adding a 6-beat kick while
maintaining stroke tempo. Build up to 150s, 200s, etc.
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This ensures that the kick slots
into the pull and doesn’t override the timing of the stroke.
This is one (very simplified) example that demonstrates that weaknesses can be developed in a way that:
If you find that working on your weaknesses in the water is not leading to faster swimming, try being a little more creative about bolstering them
within the context of your strengths.
Something to think about at the pool this week and heading into 2026.
See you in the water,
Olivier
