Kick on Side

     Kicking on your side seems like a simple idea but don’t let that fool you, this is a very powerful drill. This exercise and its progressions, 6-1-6 and 6-3-6, are at the core of the Swim Smooth drill pack.
     Traditionally swim coaches used side-kicking exercises to help swimmer’s become accustomed with swimming on their side to develop their body rotation. This is a worthy goal but Swim Smooth use these drills to develop two other critical parts of the freestyle stroke:

• The swimmer’s posture and alignment in the water.
• An excellent catch set up position.

     Use these drills to improve these two aspects of your swimming and you can dramatically increase your speed and efficiency in the water.

Side Kicking

     Use fins and push off from the end of the pool, bringing yourself perfectly onto your side at 90°. Kick at a steady pace and take your lower arm out in front of you and rest your top arm lightly by your side. Face downward and exhale into the water whilst you are kicking. When you need to take a breath simply turn your head to breathe before returning it to the water:
     Without any further thought, try this exercise and see how you perform. Do you track straight or weave about in the lane? Perform a single arm stroke to swap sides after 25 m, are you better or worse on the other side?
     Now try the exercise again and become aware of the position of your lead hand. Is it pointing arrow straight down the pool or across the centre line? If it’s crossing over it’s very likely that you do the same thing when extending forwards in your full freestyle stroke.
     Refer to Chapter 10 on posture and remove the crossover by improving your swimming posture, drawing your shoulder blades together and back. You will track a lot straighter and you should also find it easier to stay perfectly on your side as you perform the drill having much better support from the lead hand.
     Your objective is to transfer this improved posture into your full stroke. The 6-1-6 and 6-3-6 drills will help you do that.

Hand Position

     As you perform the drill, also check your elbow, wrist and fingertip positioning. Is your elbow higher than your wrist and your wrist higher than your fingertips? Is the palm of your hand facing downward? All of these elements should be in place when performing side kicking. If your hand is angled to the side (like a karate chop) or your elbow and wrist are dropped then it’s very likely that these stroke flaws are present in your full stroke too.
     Bring the palm of the lead hand to face the bottom of the pool and tip the wrist very slightly so the fingers are lower than the wrist. Don’t do this too much or you will feel your hand being pulled down towards the bottom of the pool. If you have a tendency to bring your fingertips towards the surface of the water think about going a little deeper with the whole arm. This will leave you in a much better catch set up position. With your hand angled correctly now check the position of your elbow, is it dropped down low in the water? Bringing it higher than the wrist will give you a lot more support. The shape you make between your elbow, wrist and fingers is slightly curved, like the shape of an aeroplane wing.