Torpedo Kick With Fins - The Most Overlooked Drill In Swimming?

Clinics, Camps and 1to1s: North America Connecticut 1 day Swim Clinic Jan. 12 South Carolina Video Analysis Calgary Squads Calgary Video Analysis San Diego Camp Feb 24-25 New Oceanside CA Squad starting July 26th Solana Beach / Oceanside / Carlsbad Video Analysis Chicago Video Analysis Chicago Squads Montreal Squads Montreal Video Analysis The Woodlands TX, Swim Squad SS Clinics Chicago Providence / Boston Video Analysis Asia / Middle East / Australia / Africa NEW COACH SINGAPORE! Hong Kong Squads & Video Analysis Perth Squads Perth Video Analysis Kuala Lumpur Swim Squad NEW Johannesburg Video Analysis NEW Johannesburg Squads Kuala Lumpur Video Analysis Europe Nijmegen Squads Prague Junior Swim Club Prague Junior Swim Club Prague Video Analysis Nijmegen Video Analysis.  & Stroke Correction City Of Elche Video Analysis / Squads SS Camp Lanzarote Mar/Apr 2018 (English - Dutch) United Kingdom NEW Salisbury Squad NEW Bournemouth Squad Manchester Squad West Lothian Video Analysis Richmond London SS Squad SW London Swim Workshops Twickenham Video Analysis Lancaster SS Squad Swindon/Cotswolds Video Analysis Lancaster Video Analysis Northampton Swim Squad Millfield Stroke Correction Clinic Swindon SS Squad (joining offers!) Felixstowe Video Analysis Stratford upon Avon & Birmingham/Coventry Squads Felixstowe Squads Heston West London Video Analysis Cardiff Video Analysis Clinic Northampton Video Analysis Clinic Guernsey SS Squads Guernsey Video Analysis Yorkshire Squads (Pool & OW) Yorkshire Video Analysis Swim Smooth Kent Squad Swim Smooth Kent Video analysis Luton SS Squad Wed/Sat St Albans SS Squad Saturdays

A few months ago here on the Swim Smooth blog we talked about why the swimming world needs to stop performing the Catch-Up Drill. 

In fact you could say that Catch-Up is the most over-performed drill in swimming. But what would be the most under-performed? What drill is easily missed and overlooked but is hugely beneficial to any level of swimmer?

We would say that drill is Torpedo Kick With Fins:

You can watch this drill in full in the Swim Smooth Guru here (subscription required):

www.swimsmooth.guru/streamvideo/cZF/cxC/torpedo-kick-with-fins/

Perform the drill in a streamlined position with one hand on top of the other, pressing your shoulders together behind your ears. Kick with a nice straight leg driven from the hip:

Unless you have an *exceptional* kick always wear a long pair of fins and aim to swim the drill for 25 to 100m at a time. 

Really stretch in this position, from the tip of your fingertips through your shoulders, core, legs and toes. Stretching these key muscle groups is one of the key benefits of the drill and by performing the drill regularly the flexibility you will gain will help your full stroke swimming.

When you need to breathe, simply perform a small scull of the hands out front (not a full breast-stroke) and take a quick breath before immediately returning to the streamline position:

You can also perform the drill on your back. This is a little harder and will further challenge your flexibility:

On your back become aware of what your knees are doing. Are they actively breaking the surface? If so you are kicking from the knee and need to work on keeping your legs straighter with a little softness at the knee. Transfer that over into your freestyle and you'll instantly pick up some speed.

It can be fun to do a little underwater at the beginning of a length before gently surfacing to breathe:

Always exhale a constant stream of bubbles underwater

Obviously you can't see where you are going on your back so take care not to bump into the lane rope or other swimmers! 

Why Is Torpedo Kick Beneficial To Me? 

Like many great swimming drills, Torpedo Kick With Fins works on several things at once:

- It develops your flexibility through all the key muscle groups in your shoulders, back, chest, hips, shins and ankles. It's a great drill to perform as a loosener in your warm-up for that reason.

- It helps you develop a good kicking technique with a straight leg kicking from the hips with pointed toes.

- It helps you engage with that feeling of stretching through your core which is something you should have in your full stroke swimming.

- Perhaps most obviously you get to practise your streamline tuck which you should use at the beginning of every lap of pool swimming off the wall.

A simple effective drill that is easily missed!

See The Entire Swim Smooth Drill-Set In The Guru

The Torpedo Kick With Fins drill is one of around 40 drills that make up the Swim Smooth Drill Set.

You can see the entire Swim Smooth drill set in the Swim Smooth Guru (subscription required):

https://www.swimsmooth.guru/subsection/dg/drills/

Each drill is filmed in glorious hi-definition from every angle and includes our drill instructions and key coaching points to get the most from it.

Like Torpedo Kick, many of the drills are multi-purpose, developing several aspects of your stroke simultaneously. These should be performed regularly on an on-going basis and form the bedrock of your technique work.

Other drills focus on correcting a very specific flaw in your stroke and form part of our step-by-step stroke correction processes for specific flaws:

https://www.swimsmooth.guru/subsection/dY/fault-fixers/

Swim Smooth!