The hapless Rockies made franchise infamy again on Tuesday in Detroit.

Facing a rookie pitcher in the opener of a three-game series at Comerica Park, Colorado got skunked 11-0 in a blowout that goes down as one of the most embarrassing losses in a season full of them.

Right-hander Keider Montero threw a three-hit, complete game shutout with no walks and five strikeouts. The Rockies sent the minimum 27 batters to the plate due to a trio of double plays, marking the first time in franchise history that’s happened.

“Montero had a really solid four-pitch mix,” Rockies manager Bud Black told reporters. “He had a lively fastball, two good breaking balls (with a slider and knuckle curve) and a good change-up. He threw a ton of strikes, and we couldn’t solve the pitches in the strike zone.

“… He got on a roll pretty much the whole game of coming after us with strikes, and we didn’t square any up. It’s rare these days, to have a complete game with a low pitch count (at 96). You don’t see that type of game in this era.”

Ryan McMahon’s single in the second, Ezequiel Tovar’s single in the seventh and Aaron Schunk’s single in the eighth were Colorado’s only baserunners in the loss. All three hitters were eventually out on double plays.

The Rockies have been no-hit three times: Al Leiter in Miami and Hideo Nomo at Coors Field, both in 1996, and Clayton Kershaw at Dodger Stadium in 2014. But Colorado tallied multiple walks in the ’96 no-nos, and managed a baserunner via an error in Kershaw’s game, thus had never sent just 27 to the dish before.

Until Tuesday, when Montero wasn’t overpowering (his fastball topped out at 95.6 mph and averaged 93.2), he had Colorado hitters guessing and consistently mistiming their swings. That enabled him to tally a “Maddux” — the term for a start in which a pitcher throws a complete-game shutout with less than 100 pitches.

Meanwhile, the Rockies’ pitching was horrendous.

Parker Meadows led off Detroit’s half of the first inning with a homer on a piped fastball by Bradley Blalock, who was erratic in his four innings of work.

“The fastballs up are kind of eating me alive right now,” Blalock told reporters.

Blalock allowed five runs, including four in the second inning, while walking five as the rookie right-hander again lacked control. His ERA now stands at 5.87.

“The walks came back to bite him,” Black said. “It was the opposite of Montero.”

With the Tigers up 5-0 at the midway point, they poured it on with a six-run sixth against the combination of Anthony Molina and Justin Lawrence. The frame started with a walk to Jace Jung, then featured RBI knocks by Meadows and Matt Vierling as well as a sacrifice fly by Kerry Carpenter.

Lawrence then spelled Molina and immediately gave up a two-run single to Andy Ibáñez to push the score to 11-0. Colorado fell to 54-91 with the loss.

With 17 games remaining in the season, the Rockies need to finish 9-8 to avoid their second straight 100-loss season, and 5-12 to avoid surpassing last year’s club-record 103 defeats.

Wednesday’s pitching matchup

Rockies RHP Tanner Gordon (0-5, 7.55 ERA) at Tigers RHP Casey Mize (2-6, 4.30)

4:40 p.m. Wednesday, Comerica Park

TV: Rockies.TV (streaming); Comcast/Xfinity (channel 1262); DirecTV (683); Spectrum (130, 445, 305, 435 or 445, depending on region).

Radio: 850 AM/94.1 FM

The Rockies haven’t officially announced their starter for Wednesday, but it figures to be Gordon. He was called up from Triple-A on Tuesday to take the place of southpaw Austin Gomber, who was supposed to start on Wednesday but went on the paternity list. Gordon’s been mostly roughed up in seven big-league outings so far, though the rookie did have a quality start on Aug. 3 in San Diego when he threw six innings of one-run ball. In his most recent outings, he was shelled, giving up 11 runs across those two starts and six homers.

Mize hasn’t been glamorous but he’s been effective when healthy, as he hasn’t given up more than three runs in an MLB start since May. The No. 1 overall pick in 2018, Mize missed significant time this season with a hamstring injury. He had a quality start in his return on Aug. 30 against Boston, and last week threw 5 1/3 innings with three runs against the Padres.

Pitching probables

Thursday: Rockies RHP Ryan Feltner (2-10, 4.96) at Tigers LHP Tarik Skubal (16-4, 2.53), 11:10 a.m.

Friday: Rockies TBA vs. Cubs RHP Javier Assad (6-5, 3.14), 6:40 p.m.

Want more Rockies news? Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis.

PHILADELPHIA — Bryce Harper thought he had his first home run since Aug. 9.

He’d already finished his trot around the bases after crushing a first-pitch cutter from Rays pitcher Taj Bradley in the fifth inning on Tuesday. But replay review revealed a fan had reached over the right-field wall to snag the ball.

Perhaps the 106-mph laser would have made it out anyway. But due to the fan interference, it was ruled a double, and Harper’s home run drought continued.

By the end of Tuesday’s 9-4 win over Tampa Bay, it had been 118 plate appearances since the Phillies’ first baseman had homered, but he made up for it with three doubles on a 4-for-5 night.

Harper’s third double of the game came in a drama-filled eighth inning, where the Phillies racked up five hits, scored five runs and the benches cleared after Tampa Bay pitcher Edwin Uceta hit Nick Castellanos with a pitch. Uceta was ejected by umpire James Hoye.

Pinch-hitting Cal Stevenson got things started in the inning with a clutch two-run double that broke a 4-4 tie. Buddy Kennedy stepped up to the plate as chants of “Bud-dy, Bud-dy!” rained down for the second night in a row, and this time the utility man responded with an RBI single. Trea Turner kept the line moving with his second two-run homer of the game.

The Phillies’ bats were able to pick up starting pitcher Ranger Suárez, who had a shaky outing. His pitch velocity was higher than his last outing against Miami, but still lower than his season average. Suárez’s sinker, which he threw 45% of the time, hovered around 89.9 mph, down from its yearlong average of 90.9 mph.

In his previous start against the Marlins, Suárez overcame the dip in velocity and what manager Rob Thomson called “a bit of a dead arm” with sharp command. He wasn’t able to replicate that on Monday, and allowed a career-high 12 hits to the Rays.

Suárez was removed after 5 1/3 innings and 88 pitches, his highest pitch count since his injury. He only recorded two strikeouts, his fewest in a game since June 30.

Kyle Schwarber gave the Phillies an early lead with his 14th leadoff homer of the season, which set a MLB record. The achievement was overshadowed, however, when Schwarber was removed from the game in the fourth inning with elbow discomfort.

The Phillies tacked on another run in the second and two more in the third off Turner’s first home run. But the Rays continued to chip away, and after Harper’s near home run, Tampa tied things up an inning later. The Phillies had opportunities throughout the game to pull back ahead, but stranded a runner at third base four separate times before breaking things open in the eighth.

Tanner Banks pitched the ninth. He loaded the bases with two walks and a single, but a sliding catch from Stevenson in center field stranded all three runners.

BOULDER — Air Ralphie right, Air Ralphie left. The CU Buffs aren’t poor. They’re just too darn predictable.

“He has freedom because he’s earned it,” CU football coach Deion Sanders said Tuesday of his son, Shedeur Sanders, the Buffs’ QB1 and the last word on CU’s play-calls.

“I mean, he’s a senior and he’s played a lot of football, seen a lot of football, and he has a tremendous relationship with (offensive coordinator) Pat (Shurmur). They trust one another.

“But you’ve got to understand, the mic cuts off at 15 seconds. So a lot of (defenses) they may not show their hand until that time, so you may change it. They may change the look … but he has freedom.”

He has a book on him, too. After Ralphie VI is back in her trailer, the running stops. In baseball parlance, CU’s offense is fastball after fastball after fastball. Worse yet, opponents are looking for it on the first pitch.

According to SportsSource Analytics, the Buffs have thrown it 32 times on 53 first down, or 60.3% of the time. Context: The other 15 teams in the pass-happy Big 12 have chucked it at a clip of 40.5%.

Small sample size, granted. But among league schools, only Texas Tech and the Buffs are passing on first down at a rate higher than 48%. On third-and-3 or fewer, CU’s thrown it on 4 of 9 tries through two games, or 44.4% of the time. The rest of the Big 12’s ratio: 28.4%.

It ain’t rocket science. Doesn’t matter if you’re North Dakota State two weeks ago or CSU on Saturday. Pin your ears back and go.

“How many times did (Cornhuskers Dylan) Raiola get touched? How many times did Raiola get touched?” the younger Sanders said during his postgame news conference at Nebraska last weekend. “Of course, whenever you’re able to run the ball consistently … you’ve got to understand what your team’s good at.”

No. 2’s as fun and fearless as they come. But there are only two scenarios, this early in a season, where you can start sliding your offensive linemen under a bus like that. One, if you don’t care if those dudes ever put their guts on the line for you again. Or, two, if your father is the coach, and those dudes have to put up said guts in order to keep their jobs.

“Of course. I feel like we’ve got the right guys,” Coach Prime said of his offensive line, a position group he largely recruited from the transfer portal. “You may see us shake something up a little bit. Phil Loadholt is a wonderful offensive line coach. Pat does a tremendous job in calling plays, as he did the first game. So, you just can’t take a snapshot of one game and not understand the first game — we (had) over 500 yards of offense (against NDSU) …

“But game-to-game, it’s going to be something else. Like, we go out there and run for a couple hundred yards, you’re going to say, ‘Well, why didn’t you throw on third-and-2? You had a heavy box. You’ve got to let Shedeur take those one-on-ones.’ So, it’s going to always be questioned. But we deserve it. When you lose, you’re going to be ridiculed. You’re going to be prosecuted and persecuted. And I’m good. I’ve been on the cross for a long time. And I’m still hanging.”

Shedeur Sanders is arguably the best QB1 the Buffs have ever had, a club that includes Kordell Stewart, Sefo Liufau, Koy Detmer, Joel Klatt and Steven Montez. You could argue that no QB1 at CU has done more with less.

But imagine how much better No. 2’s numbers might be coming off, say, play-action. If the linebackers and safeties had to think for just half a second before committing to a direction. If defensive ends had to pause for an instant as they storm upfield, just in case some tailback slips free, finds a gap underneath them and rumbles for a big gain.

Everybody knows what’s coming. It’s just a matter of which side gets there first. Fake it. Mix up the packages. Mix up the personnel. Former Cherokee Trail star Sam Hart, a 6-foot-5, 255-pound tight end, portaled in from Ohio State. Use him. Better yet, find another one of him, roll up your sleeves and get after it.

Anything’s preferable to throwing it out of shotgun from your own 2-yard line, on the road, a one-back set on first-and-10 at Memorial Stadium that became a disaster from the jump.

Rather than let Charlie Offerdahl or Dallan Hayden barrel up the middle to open up some space, Shedeur dropped back to the “E” in “HUSKERS,” looked right while sensing pressure to his left. He fired off a pick-6.

“Shedeur,” his father stressed, “has to be smarter from our end zone.”

Linemen as a general rule, would prefer to play with forward lean, to be the aggressors, to run block. When a reporter pointed that out as a prelude to a question Tuesday, Coach Prime shot back.

“I don’t know about that. I don’t know if that’s a true statement,” Sanders said.

“Well, I’ve had a lot tell me that,” the reporter countered, “but either way …”

“Have you talked to ours?”

“I don’t …”

“So you can’t say that now,” Sanders said.

He can. Because they do. Heck, Raiola’s Huskers ran it 35 times on CU in Lincoln and appeared to relish every second.

“That’s part of football, you have to learn to love the hits — you’re going to get them whether you have a great O-line or you don’t,” Raiola told reporters Tuesday. “I believe we’ve got a great O-line. So I’m willing to stand in there and take a hit for our team.”

Maybe there’s a reason he wasn’t touched.

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Here’s a look at how the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills match up in six key areas ahead of Thursday night’s Week 2 game (8:15 p.m., CBS4, Amazon Prime Video):

When the Dolphins run: Miami had a modest ground game in its opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and now the Dolphins’ top two running backs are banged up. Raheem Mostert and De’Von Achane are dealing with chest and ankle injuries, respectively. The rushing attack went for 81 yards on 25 attempts Sunday, a 3.2 average, in the first game of the Robert Jones-Aaron Brewer-Liam Eichenberg interior offensive line combination in 2024.

A bright spot was found late in veteran Jeff Wilson Jr., who had an efficient 26 yards on five carries. Rookie Jaylen Wright, who was a healthy inactive Sunday, could make his NFL regular-season debut if one or both of Mostert or Achane can’t play Thursday night against Buffalo.

The Bills surrendered 5 yards per carry in their opener against the Arizona Cardinals, but that number was inflated by 57 yards allowed to scrambling quarterback Kyler Murray. Buffalo returns the defensive tackle combination of Ed Oliver and DaQuan Jones with solid young middle linebacker Terrel Bernard, but remember this unit was vulnerable against the run in 2023. The Miami ground game, though, appears hampered. Edge: Bills

When the Bills run: When Buffalo reeled off a six-game winning streak from the end of the regular season through the wild-card round of the playoffs last season, it leaned on its running game. The Bills stuck to that formula in Sunday’s win over the Cardinals, keeping quarterback Josh Allen to 23 pass attempts while running the ball 33 times as a team.

Running back James Cook, the former Miami Central High product, saw the bulk of that workload, getting 19 carries and going for 71 yards. Allen, always a threat with his legs, rushed for two touchdowns. The Bills no longer have Mitch Morse to anchor the offensive line in the middle, but now have Connor McGovern at center.

The Dolphins didn’t have a great debut against the run, allowing 4.9 yards per carry to the Jaguars, letting Tank Bigsby and Travis Etienne both reel off big chunk plays. They did make the game-changing play in run defense, though, albeit while nearly allowing Etienne to run for his second touchdown, when safety Jevon Holland forced the key fumble that shifted momentum. Miami has the personnel to be better at stopping the run, between Sieler, Calais Campbell and linebackers David Long Jr. and Jordyn Brooks. Edge: Even

When the Dolphins pass: Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa came away from Week 1 like he did the 2023 season, leading the NFL in passing yards. His 338 yards were enough to lead the league in the opening week. He hit some big plays down the field to Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, including the 80-yard touchdown to Hill after the fumble recovery. He still was shaky at times in the opener and could find more consistency, when targeting others not named Hill, Waddle or Achane out of the backfield, who had seven catches for 76 yards.

The Bills secondary seems vulnerable this year after overhauling on the back end. Damar Hamlin and Taylor Rapp are the starting safeties after Buffalo cut ties with its longtime combination of Jordan Poyer (now with the Dolphins) and Micah Hyde. The Bills also released cornerback Tre’Davious White, and nickel cornerback Taron Johnson is out for Thursday’s game, creating a huge hole for Buffalo. The Dolphins’ speedy playmakers should get their opportunities against this secondary.

That said, they did hold Arizona in check through the air in the opener. The pass rush was a big reason. Former University of Miami standout Greg Rousseau sacked Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray three times. Veteran, former star pass-rusher Von Miller had a sack, and they also have A.J. Epenesa on the edge. Tackles Terron Armstead and Austin Jackson will have their hands full, but Tagovailoa gets the ball out quick, regardless. Edge: Dolphins

When the Bills pass: Allen, who has historically torched Miami, was an efficient 18 of 23 for 232 yards and two passing touchdowns to go with his two rushing scores in the opener against Arizona. He is turnover-prone, and did lose a fumble, while not throwing an interception Sunday. The Dolphins know what it’s like to face him, but he also lost a lot in his receiving corps this offseason.

Buffalo no longer has star wide receiver Stefon Diggs or No. 2 option Gabe Davis. Rookie Keon Coleman led the Bills with 51 receiving yards in Week 1. Khalil Shakir had one touchdown, and Mack Hollins had the other. He has strong second-year tight end Dalton Kincaid and can throw to Cook out of the backfield. Playing four days after his 2024 debut on a bad hamstring, the hope is Dolphins cornerback Jalen Ramsey is running more comfortably in his second game after giving up a pair of big plays Sunday.

But he and outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips surpassed their projected snap counts, as Phillips played his first game coming off the torn Achilles of last November. He had a sack, as did Campbell and Emmanuel Ogbah. Miami will need to apply that pressure against Allen against tackles Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown, while containing the dual-threat quarterback in the pocket so he can’t devastate you with this legs. Edge: Even

Special teams: Buffalo is always solid in the third phase of the game. Dolphins special teams coordinator Danny Crossman knows this, having been there previously and falling victim to a crucial punt return touchdown in last year’s regular-season finale.

But Deonte Harty, who scored that backbreaker the last time the teams squared off, is no longer with the Bills. Former Buffalo gunner and special teams ace Siran Neal is now actually with Miami — and exceptional at downing punts. Miami punter Jake Bailey had a strong season debut, flipping the field consistently on Jacksonville while the Dolphins trailed. And, of course, kicker Jason Sanders kicked a game-winner from 52 yards Sunday, bouncing back from an earlier miss. Edge: Even

Intangibles: The Bills have devastated the Dolphins in recent years, winning 11 of the past 12 pairings. That’s got to create a mental edge. But there has been a lot of turnover on that roster. Many of those players aren’t even there, Allen notwithstanding, of course. The Bills coming back from three games down with five weeks remaining last season feels like the tipping point that starts shifting this rivalry Miami’s way. The Dolphins don’t get the early afternoon sun advantage this trip to Miami Gardens for the Bills, but it’s still going to be plenty hot and humid and the western New Yorkers will be sweating profusely. Plus, visiting teams have an even harder time on the road when playing on a short week. Edge: Dolphins

PREDICTION: Dolphins 27, Bills 23

Dolphins Deep Dive: Prediction time — will Miami win Thursday night vs. Josh Allen, Bills? | VIDEO

David Carle won something besides a gold medal at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championships — a future recruiting battle that could help shape the National Collegiate Hockey Conference this season.

Erik Pohlkamp had a strong freshman season at Bemidji State with 11 goals and 23 points in 32 games. He’s an NHL draft pick. He tied for the NCAA lead in goals by a freshman defenseman and was seventh in points.

Pohlkamp is now likely to be a key member of the defense corps at the University of Denver this season as the Pioneers seek to defend their national championship. When he entered the transfer portal, his experience playing for Carle with the United States at the WJC was top of mind.

“To be honest, if I didn’t have “D.C.” as a coach at world juniors, I don’t think I would have ever ended up here. Absolutely not,” Pohlkamp said Tuesday, one day after the defending champs opened training camp for the 2024-25 season. “I think it would have been North Dakota, or definitely closer to home.”

The Pioneers bring back several key players from a title-winning team, including Hobey Baker candidate Zeev Buium on defense, Frozen Four MVP Matt Davis in goal and leading scorer Jack Devine up front. But several key figures will be in camp with professional teams this weekend and need to be replaced.

Carle’s crew had a large freshman class last season and no new additions from the transfer portal. This year, the Pios have added Pohlkamp and Finnish big forward Samu Salminen from Connecticut to help fill in some gaps.

“I would say we’re probably on the lower end of teams around the country that have taken transfers in, and so we’re probably a bit more selective and more apt to bring in freshmen,” Carle said. “Whether it’s freshmen or transfers, you try and make sure you’re bringing in the right people. And so these two guys that are joining us this year, there’s a little bit of a history with them. They’re not unknown to us.”

Carle’s connection to Pohlkamp came at the 2024 WJC, while Salimen’s ties to the program go back a few years. He was committed to play for DU after being a third-round pick by the New Jersey Devils in 2021 but then didn’t get into the school.

Salminen ended up at UConn for two seasons. He had seven goals and 17 points in 35 games last year, before entering the portal shortly after the season ended. Those per-game totals were down a bit after his promising freshman year with the Huskies.

“It was just the most natural decision to make,” Salminen said of choosing the Pios again. “Awesome program, great coaches, I heard only good things about this place. And of course I have the opportunity to develop as a player and win a national championship.”

Carle noted that he wasn’t the only player on that roster whose numbers dipped. Salminen has also had other logistical issues to work through the past few years. It was a struggle in some European countries to find places to play during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that affected both his draft year and plus-one season.

Beyond not gaining admission to DU at a late stage in the process, visa issues delayed the start of his first year with UConn.

“He’s been through a lot,” Carle said. “We’re hoping with our prior relationship, that trust that was built back then, we can try and help get the most out of him, and work to to get him to the player that we all know he can be.”

Both players are taking a step up in expectations this season. Every NCAA program begins every year with a title as the goal, but only one has a display case with 10 championship trophies in it.

The Pios didn’t take anyone in the portal a year ago, but one guy who joined the program through it two seasons ago, forward Tristan Broz, scored a pair of overtime goals during DU’s NCAA run before signing with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“I came in the summer for a couple weeks for workouts,” Pohlkamp said. “(Strength and conditioning coach Matt Shaw) put me through a couple and I felt so unathletic. They were workouts that I’d never done before.

“In the summer, too, it proved why these guys just won a championship. To see how hard they were working in June. They were just getting out of school and finishing up their celebrations. It was super cool to see. I was like, ‘Holy (crap), these guys are legit.'”

NOTES: Buium and Devine were both named Tuesday to the preseason All-NCHC team. Colorado College also had two players make it — forward Noah Laba and goalie Kaidan Mbereko. Buium and Laba were the only unanimous selections. The other two spots on the team went to North Dakota players, forward Cameron Berg and defenseman Jake Livanavage.

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

The top athletes in the pool are not only fast swimmers, they are fast kickers. Here is your guide to a faster freestyle kick.

The fastest freestylers on the planet always have an unbelievable kick.

Alexander Popov, two-time Olympic champion in both the 50m and 100m freestyles, could kick a 50m long course in 27 seconds. Cesar Cielo, world record holder in the 50 and 100m freestyle, kicked the same length in 30 seconds.

Other top sprinters, including Americans Nathan Adrian and Jimmy Feigen, have made it clear that to swim fast, you need to put in work on your legs.

Even if you are not a sprint swimmer, athletes like Katie Ledecky are showing that you need to have some serious wheels in the lower body to compete at an elite level.

Despite this, it seems many swimmers (and even coaches) don’t emphasize lower body work in the pool. Sure, a bunch of kick sets might get scrawled up at the beginning of the season for aerobic work, but this typically tapers off as the season unwinds.

Your legs, being those big trunks of muscle that they are, need to be in hilarious shape in order to develop the type of propulsion and stability necessary for high-speed swimming.

Here’s your guide to developing a legendary freestyle kick.

Why You Should Be Working on Your Freestyle Kick

Doing kick goes beyond just giving your shoulders a break (although that is a solid reason in itself).

And it’s easy to understand why we ignore our legs– they are working down below on their own while we are paying attention to what is happening right in front of us with our arms and hands.

But having a solid flutter kick will help you become a better swimmer overall.

Including:

• Faster swimming. The immediate goal of developing a faster flutter kick is as fundamental as wanting to go faster. The kick makes up approximately 30% of the force in all-out, tethered swimming (Morouco et al., 2015). The faster you can kick, the faster you can swim.
• A strong kick gives you a killer body position in the water. Beyond propulsion, kicking—particularly for sprinters—helps the speed-seeking swimmer maintain a high body position in the water. While we are still far away from sprint swimmers completely hydro-planing across the water, that is the goal.
• A strong kick launches you into your arm pull. Strong legs and a strong kick add power to your hip rotation. This, in turn, helps you drive your arms forward for a faster and more dynamic arm pull. Your freestyle stroke benefits from having more power from the core and your kick.
• A strong kick keeps your stroke together. Strong legs come in handy towards the end of races, where your muscles are failing left and right, with your stroke disintegrating with each passing meter. Having endurance in your lower body is essential to keeping your body position in the most efficient and powerful position possible.

How to Improve Your Freestyle Kick

Tips for improving your freestyle kick include:

• Improve ankle strength
• Balance out the kick
• Kick backward, not down
• Improve ankle flexibility
• Vertical kicking
• Resisted kicking
• Kick mindfully
• Kick more

Next, we will examine each tip in more detail, review research on the impact of different kick-improvement strategies, offer some kick sets to help you get going, and recommend our favorite essential swim gear for a stronger and faster kick.

1. Improve ankle strength.

Swimmers can be forgiven for having ankles that aren’t the most stable. We spend a majority of our time training in water, with horizontal push-offs the only real shock to our little feet.

Swimmers can build ankle strength by incorporating skipping into their warm-up/mobility/dryland plan.

Skipping rope is not only a low-impact way to develop strength quickly in your ankles and calves, but it will also develop overall athleticism and help you be lighter on your feet, which comes in handy for developing quicker turns and starts.

2. Balance out your kick.

For most swimmers, there is a near-total focus on the downbeat portion of the kick, with the upbeat motion acting as a recovery movement.

The downbeat is where most of the propulsion happens (Andersen & Sanders, 2018), but the upbeat allows swimmers to develop a more rounded and powerful freestyle kick.

By developing the upbeat, swimmers gain a more stable foundation to exert power through the upper body, develop more power, and increase overall kicking speed.

“Fast swimmers are fast kickers.” – David Marsh, 7-time NCAA champion, 4-time Olympic coach for Team USA

Ways to improve the upbeat of the flutter kick include using swim fins to increase sensory awareness of this phase (kick slowly through the upbeat, catching more water and “feeling” the movement), using resistance like DragSox, and one of my favorites, vertical kicking.

Ultimately, improving the upbeat phase to build a more rounded freestyle kick starts with kicking through both phases with equal focus and power.

3. Kick backward, not down.

One of the important characteristics of a fast kick is rethinking the way the lower body generates propulsion. Swimmers tend to kick down. Instead, focus on pushing water backward with the top of your feet.

Just like how with our pull we strive to have an early vertical forearm so that we are pulling our bodies forward through the water by pulling backward, with our feet, we want to be kicking the water backward, and not just downwards.

Kicking up and down creates a lot of wasted effort and also tends to create a larger drag profile with the legs as the ankles and knees extend fully down instead of a motion designed to move water behind the swimmer.

4. Improve ankle flexibility.

Having flexible ankles means that you can catch more water with your foot, and achieve an EVA (early vertical ankle) that will allow you to push more water backward.

A study published in the Journal of Strength Conditioning Research confirms the importance of flexible ankles for faster kicking (McCullough et al., 2009).

A group of ten NCAA Division 1 swimmers performed 50m swim and 22.86m kick time trials and had height, leg length, foot length, and ankle flexibility measured.

The big takeaway?

Ankle flexibility, more specifically, ankle plantar flexion, was significantly correlated to kicking and swimming speed. Interestingly, anthropometric characteristics or even vertical jump power were not linked to faster kick or swim velocities.

For swimmers with limited mobility in their ankles, this will require some mobilization work.

Here are two quick fixes for low-mobility ankles:

• Ankle rockers. A simple stretch you can add to your pre-and post-workout dryland work. Sit on the back of your ankles. Lean back, lifting your knees off the ground. You’ll feel the stretch pretty quickly in the top of your feet. Hold for 1-2 minutes. Repeat a couple times.
• Ankle rotations. As a swimmer, you’ve mastered a wide variety of arm swings. You can do the same with your ankles, doing 15-20 foot rotations in each direction. The best part is that you can do it while sitting on the couch.

5. Vertical kicking

Vertical kicking is a drill where swimmers get into an upright (vertical) position and kick. The vertical body position forces swimmers to kick more intensely to stay afloat.

Vertical kicking is an excellent way to develop a more powerful kick, work both phases of the flutter kick motion, engage the core, and reduce shoulder stress from kicking endlessly on a kickboard.

A small study with a group of competitive swimmers found that the benefits of a vertical kicking protocol focused on steady progression can yield faster and more efficient kicking (Mandzak et al., 2020).

The intervention group performed bonus vertical kicking sets several times per week for a five-month period. By the end of the intervention, swimmers were doing rounds of 30 seconds work, 30 seconds rest holding a medicine ball out of the water.

50m kick time trial performance improved for the intervention group by 3.23% compared to the control group, who also improved, but not as substantially (2.64%).

The vertical kicking swimmers also used fewer kicks to cover the same distance, developing kick speed and efficiency.

Start with 5-8 rounds of 30s work, 30s rest with your arms at your side.

As your legs get stronger, progress to raising hands out of the water, adding resistance (DragSox are awesome for vertical kicking), and power up your freestyle kick.

6. Resisted kicking

Resisted kicking helps strengthen the leg muscles crucial for generating a powerful, high-propulsion kick, including the quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves.

Adding resistance, either with DragSox, a swim parachute, resistance tubing, or a power tower, swimmers are forced to work harder to maintain technique and overcome the resistance.

A study with elite Japanese swimmers (Sengoku et al., 2020) found that a four-month intervention with resisted kicking yielded significant improvements in underwater dolphin kick velocity.

No different for building a more powerful freestyle kick.

The trick with resisted kicking is to keep the efforts short, use lots of resistance, and take plenty of rest to keep power output at a high level.

One of my favorite ways to use resisted kicking is in contrast sets, where you alternate short-burst resisted kicking with “regular” all-out kicking.

This ends up looking something like this:

Five rounds–

• 4×10 seconds freestyle kick all-out using a swim tether or resistance tubing – 50 seconds rest after each repetition
• 50m freestyle kick with a kickboard, all-out on a 2:00 interval

Another of my favorite kick sets is using resisted, regular, and overspeed kicking, giving swimmers all sorts of enhanced awareness to draw feedback and improvement.

Example:

24×25 freestyle kick on a 60-second interval. All of them fast.

• 8 – with light DragSox and kickboard (resisted)
• 8 – with kickboard (regular)
• 8 – with fins and kickboard (overspeed)

Resisted kicking activates more muscle fibers than regular kicking, giving you an added jolt of speed and power when you remove the resistance.

7. Kick Mindfully.

When doing kick sets you should be mindful of the movements of your legs, of driving from your hips, of cracking your ankles like a whip.

Mindless kicking is fun for aerobic endurance, I suppose, but you want to be efficient as well, and this comes by being mindful of your kicking technique.

All too often at the pool, I watch swimmers pay careful attention to the placement of their hands in the catch and pull, but when it comes to kicking, they thrash their legs back and forth with little thought to what they are doing.

Kick with intent. Kick mindfully, whether you are on a kickboard or swimming.

8. Kick more. A lot more.

There is no substitute for doing more kick in practice. There is no secret dryland exercise or magical technical adjustment that will replace simply doing more kick during your workouts.

For a moment, consider how much kick you are actually doing in your workouts. (And no, dragging your legs around doing a 1-beat kick doesn’t count.)

Add in an extra 15-20 minutes of varied work on the kickboard. If short on pool space crank out some vertical kicking. Do high-intensity kicking and long, low-intensity kicking.

Once your freestyle kick starts to improve you will want to do it more. (Ain’t that always the case—soon as you start to master something you want to do more of it?)

Keep it fresh, keep it fun, keep it challenging, and flutter kick your way to faster swimming.

What equipment should I use for a stronger freestyle kick?

There are lots of different types of swimming equipment you can use to improve kicking technique, strength, and speed. The best ones include a kickboard, swim training fins, and DragSox, a specialized resistance tool for swimmers.

Kickboard.

The kickboard is a classic form of swim gear that helps swimmers improve kicking by isolating the lower body and giving the upper body buoyancy.

Kickboards come in a variety of shapes and materials. Look for a kickboard made with high-density EVA foam that is comfortable for extended use when doing kicking sets in the pool.

The Speedo Team Kickboard is the best all-around kickboard for swimmers.

It has an ergonomic bottom that “locks” against the sternum, is available in a ton of colors, and is made of wildly durable high-density EVA foam that won’t crack and fall apart after all of your long kick sets and workouts at the pool.

Speedo Unisex-Adult Swim Training Kickboard Adult

$24.75

Shop Now @ Amazon

09/10/2024 05:35 pm GMT

Swim training fins

Fins made for swimmers tend to have a shorter blade and are made of soft silicone or rubber for comfort.

Swim fins provide added buoyancy and help swimmers really “feel” each part of the kicking motion. Swim training fins are also an excellent option for developing kick strength.

There are several different swim fins that I recommend for developing and experienced swimmers. A medium or long-blade fin suits beginner swimmers, while short-blade swimmers are best for mimicking the natural kick tempo of regular swimming and kicking.

The Arena Powerfins Pro are the best training fins for developing a powerful freestyle kick in training.

They are made of soft silicone, which doesn’t chafe or blister, uses rails along the side of the fins to control water direction when kicking, and the open heel design promotes a natural range of movement when freestyle kicking.

ArenaPowerfin PRO Swim Training Fins

$55.00

Our rating:

4.8

Shop Now @ Amazon Shop Now @ Swim Outlet

09/10/2024 04:45 pm GMT

DragSox

DragSox are a unique and awesome tool for improving kick (and swimming) speed.

They are mesh nets designed to be worn on the feet, increasing resistance and strengthening the kick.

DragSox are superior to other resistance equipment for swimmers like parachutes and towers as there are no straps or cables that tangle swimmer’s feet.

DragSox can also be used for my favorite kicking drill, vertical kicking.

Wrapping Things Up

Ultimately, when it comes to mastering the freestyle kick, swimmers should focus on ankle flexibility and strength, building power through resisted kicking, and kicking with proper technique.

Not only will you start to motor along the pool faster when using a kickboard, but you will also find that your swimming speed increases, you finish races stronger, and you can use your freestyle kick as a weapon to storm past the competition (and your PB’s).

Give the freestyle kick tips above a try this week at the pool, get your kick on, and happy (and fast) swimming!

More Kick Guides and Articles:

How to Improve Your Kick with Mesa Aquatic Club. Paul Smith, owner and head coach with MAC, shares a couple of sets, as well as a video demonstration of the “Pushback” kick drill.

40 Epic Workouts for Competitive Swimmers. Looking to inject some new ideas into your training? Here are 36 workouts from some of the top swimmers and programs in the world.

The post How to Develop an Unstoppable Freestyle Kick appeared first on YourSwimLog.com.

Former Tottenham and Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino was hired Tuesday to succeed Gregg Berhalter as U.S. men’s national team coach, 21 months before the Americans host the 2026 World Cup.

A 52-year-old Argentine, Pochettino became the 10th U.S. coach in 14 years and its first foreign-born leader since Jurgen Klinsmann from 2011-16. Pochettino has coached Espanyol in Spain (2009-12), Southampton (2013-14), Tottenham (2014-19) and Chelsea (2023-24) in England and Paris Saint-Germain in France (2021-22), leaving after winning a Ligue 1 title.

“It’s about the journey that this team and this country are on,” Pochettino said in a statement released by the USSF. “The energy, the passion, and the hunger to achieve something truly historic here — those are the things that inspired me.”

Pochettino had been in negotiations since mid-August. Matt Crocker, the USSF’s sporting director in charge of the search, was Southampton’s academy director when Pochettino started at that club. While the contract length wasn’t specified, the USSF said Pochettino will lead the team at the World Cup.

“Mauricio is a serial winner with a deep passion for player development and a proven ability to build cohesive and competitive teams,” Crocker said in a statement. “His track record speaks for itself, and I am confident that he is the right choice to harness the immense potential within our talented squad.”

Pochettino was to be introduced at a news conference in New York on Friday and take over for friendlies against Panama on Oct. 12 at Austin, Texas, and at Mexico three days later. The next competitive matches are a two-leg CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal in November.

“Mauricio is a world-class coach with a proven track record of developing players and achieving success at the highest levels,” USSF President Cindy Parlow Cone said in a statement. “His passion for the game, his innovative approach to coaching, and his ability to inspire and connect with players make him the perfect fit for this role.”

He arrives with high expectations from a USSF management and fan base that both believe the player pool is capable of far more than its No. 16 world ranking.

Berhalter was fired on July 10, a week after the Americans were eliminated in the first round of the Copa America. He was hired in December 2018, was allowed to leave when his contract expired following a 3-1 loss to the Netherlands in the second round of the 2022 World Cup, then was rehired in June 2023 to return in September.

Pochettino’s salary was not announced. The USSF said his hiring was supported by a leadership gift from Kenneth C. Griffin, the CEO of the hedge fund Citadel, and his philanthropic entity Griffin Catalyst; with additional support from Scott Goodwin, managing partner of the asset management firm Diameter Capital Partners, and USSF commercial partners.

Mikey Varas, a Berhalter assistant, coached the team for Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Canada in an exhibition and headed the Americans for Tuesday night’s game against New Zealand.

At the World Cup, the U.S. will be a seeded team as a co-host, which means it likely won’t have any nations ranked among the top nine in its first-round group in a tournament expanded to 48 teams. If the Americans win the group, they probably would not face a top-level opponent in the new round of 32. The U.S. has not reached the quarterfinals since 2002.

Pochettino is likely to have his full player pool available for just eight one-week training periods before the team gathers in the weeks ahead of the Americans’ World Cup opener on June 12, 2026.

He inherits a group led by Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie and Tyler Adams, who have thrived with European clubs. But goalkeepers Matt Turner and Ethan Horvath and midfielder Gio Reyna have failed to gain playing time with first-tier teams, and Chris Richards — at England’s Crystal Palace — was the only central defender in his 20s playing regularly with a top-league European club before Mark McKenzie joined Toulouse last month.

Berhalter minimized Major League Soccer players, not using any during the Copa America.

On-field discipline has been a problem, with defender Sergiño Dest getting two red cards in the past 13 months, and McKennie and winger Tim Weah receiving one each.

“I see a group of players full of talent and potential, and together, we’re going to build something special that the whole nation can be proud of,” Pochettino said.

Pochettino was a central defender who played for Newell’s Old Boys in Argentina and Espanyol, PSG and Bordeaux in Europe from the late 1980s until 2006. He made 20 appearances for Argentina, playing at the 1999 Copa América and the 2002 World Cup, where his foul of Michael Owen led to David Beckham’s penalty kick in Argentina’s 1-0 group-stage loss.

After retiring as a player, he became a coach in Espanyol’s system, took over as first-team coach in January 2009 and helped the team avoid relegation. Pochettino was fired in November 2012 with the team in last place and was hired two months later by English club Southampton.

Pochettino moved in May 2014 to Tottenham, which reached the final of the 2015 League Cup, losing to Chelsea, and the 2019 Champions League, losing to Liverpool. He was fired in November 2019 with Spurs in 14th place and replaced by Jose Mourinho.

PSG hired Pochettino in January 2021. The team finished second in the league and lost to Manchester City in the Champions League semifinals but won the French Cup, beating Monaco 2-0 in the final. Led by Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, PSG clinched the 2022 Ligue 1 title with four games to spare but lost to Real Madrid in the Champions League round of 16.

Pochettino left PSG at the end of the 2022-23 season, then was hired by Chelsea in June 2023 after the club finished 12th. Chelsea lost the League Cup final to Liverpool and finished sixth in the Premier League, missing out on the Champions League. Pochettino left two days after the final match.

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Bo Nix’s first interception wasn’t pretty.

The rookie tried to make a play in the end zone, but wide receiver Courtland Sutton was surrounded by multiple defenders. Seattle safety Julian Love took advantage, securing the pick at the 1-yard line with 11:34 to go in the second quarter on Sunday.

While Nix’s throw was ill-advised, the protection wasn’t great, either. Right guard Quinn Meinerz fell to his knees after defensive tackle Leonard Williams slipped by him to create pressure on Nix as he prepared to throw the ball.

“We’ve got to give him a cleaner picture with some more time so he can start settling in quicker and feel safe in the pocket,” Meinerz said.

After Denver’s 26-20 loss to the Seahawks, Payton said the entire team has to be better around Nix, including the offensive line — a group that has been the team’s biggest investment over the past two seasons.

Even though Nix was only sacked twice, the Seahawks were tied for the second-most pressures (18) in the league in Week 1, according to Next Gen Stats. Seattle’s pressure rate (36.7%) tied the Minnesota Vikings for 10th.

Seattle’s defense is tough. But the defensive fronts Denver’s set to face in the coming weeks will provide a greater challenge, starting on Sunday with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“(The Steelers) do a lot of things extremely well, and that’s not by accident,” Payton said. “I think we’ll be seeing a better defense this weekend, and that’s with no disrespect at all to Seattle.”

Seattle’s defense, led by first-year head coach Mike Macdonald, rallied to the football, making it difficult for the Broncos to create explosive plays. The chaos created by the Seahawks pass rush added another degree of difficulty. Denver’s starting offensive line allowed multiple pressures, with right tackle Mike McGlinchey giving up a game-high five, according to Next Gen Stats.

Still, Payton thought the Broncos were OK in pass blocking compared to the unit’s effort in the run game. OK will not be good enough against the Steelers.

Pittsburgh is fresh off an 18-10 win over the Atlanta Falcons, in which the Steelers relied heavily on their defense. The Steelers forced three turnovers, held Atlanta to 89 rushing yards and pressured Kirk Cousins 11 times. The veteran quarterback struggled, throwing for just 155 passing yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.

Last season, the Steelers were quick at applying pressure on QBs. Pittsburgh’s time to pressure (2.52 seconds) and quick pressure rate (20.2%) ranked fourth in the NFL, according to Next Gen Stats.

It doesn’t bode well for Denver that the Steelers have one of the sport’s best defensive players in edge rusher T.J. Watt, who recorded 19 sacks and 50 pressures in 2023. Against the Falcons, he had four tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery. Making matters worse, Broncos starting left tackle Garett Bolles injured his ankle in the loss at Seattle. Payton said the X-rays were negative but didn’t shed light on whether Bolles will miss time.

“The Steelers’ defensive tradition and how they’ve performed over the years is deserving of the accolades and all the success they’ve had,” Payton said. “It’s tough (and) physical.”

Meinerz said the offensive line dictates wins and losses. He accepted Payton’s criticism of Denver’s pass protection being “average at best” in the season opener and looks forward to improving.

Meinerz said an emphasis for the offensive line is sharpening their technique. With games against the Steelers, Buccaneers and Jets looming, Denver hopes adjustments come quickly.

“For us, it’s taking what we did and did not do well, and building new intentions,” Meinerz said. “This is a long season (and) every game is a learning opportunity to get better.”

Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.

Bo Nix’s first interception wasn’t pretty.

The rookie tried to make a play in the end zone, but wide receiver Courtland Sutton was surrounded by multiple defenders. Seattle safety Julian Love took advantage, securing the pick at the 1-yard line with 11:34 to go in the second quarter on Sunday.

While Nix’s throw was ill-advised, the protection wasn’t great, either. Right guard Quinn Meinerz fell to his knees after defensive tackle Leonard Williams slipped by him to create pressure on Nix as he prepared to throw the ball.

“We’ve got to give him a cleaner picture with some more time so he can start settling in quicker and feel safe in the pocket,” Meinerz said.

After Denver’s 26-20 loss to the Seahawks, Payton said the entire team has to be better around Nix, including the offensive line — a group that has been the team’s biggest investment over the past two seasons.

Even though Nix was only sacked twice, the Seahawks were tied for the second-most pressures (18) in the league in Week 1, according to Next Gen Stats. Seattle’s pressure rate (36.7%) tied the Minnesota Vikings for 10th.

Seattle’s defense is tough. But the defensive fronts Denver’s set to face in the coming weeks will provide a greater challenge, starting on Sunday with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“(The Steelers) do a lot of things extremely well, and that’s not by accident,” Payton said. “I think we’ll be seeing a better defense this weekend, and that’s with no disrespect at all to Seattle.”

Seattle’s defense, led by first-year head coach Mike Macdonald, rallied to the football, making it difficult for the Broncos to create explosive plays. The chaos created by the Seahawks pass rush added another degree of difficulty. Denver’s starting offensive line allowed multiple pressures, with right tackle Mike McGlinchey giving up a game-high five, according to Next Gen Stats.

Still, Payton thought the Broncos were OK in pass blocking compared to the unit’s effort in the run game. OK will not be good enough against the Steelers.

Pittsburgh is fresh off an 18-10 win over the Atlanta Falcons, in which the Steelers relied heavily on their defense. The Steelers forced three turnovers, held Atlanta to 89 rushing yards and pressured Kirk Cousins 11 times. The veteran quarterback struggled, throwing for just 155 passing yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.

Last season, the Steelers were quick at applying pressure on QBs. Pittsburgh’s time to pressure (2.52 seconds) and quick pressure rate (20.2%) ranked fourth in the NFL, according to Next Gen Stats.

It doesn’t bode well for Denver that the Steelers have one of the sport’s best defensive players in edge rusher T.J. Watt, who recorded 19 sacks and 50 pressures in 2023. Against the Falcons, he had four tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery. Making matters worse, Broncos starting left tackle Garett Bolles injured his ankle in the loss at Seattle. Payton said the X-rays were negative but didn’t shed light on whether Bolles will miss time.

“The Steelers’ defensive tradition and how they’ve performed over the years is deserving of the accolades and all the success they’ve had,” Payton said. “It’s tough (and) physical.”

Meinerz said the offensive line dictates wins and losses. He accepted Payton’s criticism of Denver’s pass protection being “average at best” in the season opener and looks forward to improving.

Meinerz said an emphasis for the offensive line is sharpening their technique. With games against the Steelers, Buccaneers and Jets looming, Denver hopes adjustments come quickly.

“For us, it’s taking what we did and did not do well, and building new intentions,” Meinerz said. “This is a long season (and) every game is a learning opportunity to get better.”

Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.