Big underwater kicking improvements come from progressing the best...
Andrew Sheaff@AndrewKSheaff
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Apr 13, 2026
~1 min read
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Big underwater kicking improvements come from progressing the best strategies, not rotating twenty drills.
The core principle: take the most effective strategies, the best tools for creating change, and advance them week after week, instead of constantly swapping activities.
The core principle: take the most effective strategies, the best tools for creating change, and advance them week after week, instead of constantly swapping activities.
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That keeps the focus on what works while still creating novel challenges.
Vertical kicking can be a great way to help swimmers improve their underwaters.
Instead of changing the activity, change the execution.
Add resistance in the form of DragSox or a weight belt.
Vertical kicking can be a great way to help swimmers improve their underwaters.
Instead of changing the activity, change the execution.
Add resistance in the form of DragSox or a weight belt.
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Having swimmers move forward and backward while vertical kicking.
Have swimmers go in streamline and keep their upper body completely stable.
Use a tempo trainer to challenge them with fast and slow rates.
Build vertical kicking into all sorts of different sets.
Have swimmers go in streamline and keep their upper body completely stable.
Use a tempo trainer to challenge them with fast and slow rates.
Build vertical kicking into all sorts of different sets.
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Combine these different options.
The activity doesn’t change, how it’s performed does change.
The best activities get implemented and they still create positive change throughout the whole season.
The activity doesn’t change, how it’s performed does change.
The best activities get implemented and they still create positive change throughout the whole season.
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The key activities, evolving constraints, and a season-long structure that keeps underwater skills moving forward.
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Training aids each have a very specific effect on how swimmers move through the water.
They change their skills.
The better we understand these effects, the more easily we can leverage those effects to improve swimmers skills.
They change their skills.
The better we understand these effects, the more easily we can leverage those effects to improve swimmers skills.
