By Shawn Klosterman
March 02nd, 2018

SwimSwam thanks SwimmersBest for sponsoring “Drill of the Month.” This is a SwimSwam recurring feature that brings drills and idea submissions from various creative and innovative coaches all over the world.

Berzerker Swimming’s Tiny Martucci was facing a few weeks without swimming to help her shoulder recover. This could have been seen as a major set-back, merely taking valuable training time away during the middle of the season. She and her coach instead decided that this might be a great time to focus on making her dolphin kick a much more powerful weapon. Tiny spent almost a month working dolphin kicks in a variety of ways and often at high intensity.

One of her favorite drills to help build a strong fly kick were called “no-touches.” This means that each length starts without a push off from the wall, generating the speed carried through the transition from streamline to swimming only from underwater kicking. This requires a short and still submersion for a brief time to make sure they begin from a dead-stop.

At Berzerker the no-touch can be used in many different ways on kick sets and in swimming sprint sets, and is used several times per week. Occasionally they are done with equipment, including fins and various types of resistance.