Question on SDKs

I am also measurably faster on my back than the stomach, about 0.5 sec diff for a 25. Besides verifying with a stopwatch, be careful about the streamline. I think it is harder to maintain a tight streamline on the stomach than the back. Especially make sure you aren't lifting your head. I have thought that maybe the buoyancy is the reason. The downbeat is the stronger part of the kick, and on your back you are pushing against the tendency to float to the surface. I sometimes feel it is harder to stay under when on the stomach. I think the reason side SDKs CAN be faster is not gravity but having a larger 'column' of water to push against. If you are too near the surface, or too near the bottom, your kick is less effective at propelling you forward.

My coach says SDK on your side uses less energy than on your front or back because you aren't fighting gravity. I disagree. I think side vs front vs back is choice for each individual swimmer to make based on what's legal, what feels best and what's fastest. In training, all swimmers should SDK on their back, belly, sides, & even corkscrew to figure things out. They should test and retest. ie if a swimmer has an awesome SDK on their back for freestyle sprint turns it might be better for them to come off the wall on their backs, then do some SDKs then later transition to one side for their breakout For some strange reason, in practice on long kicks where breathing is essential, it feels best for me to kick on my side with my left arm down & my right arm up. The other way feels funny. for many swimmers, especially masters, I don't think gravity plays of the role in SDK because gravity is offset by the swimmers float factor.

The downbeat is the stronger part of the kick, and on your back you are pushing against the tendency to float to the surface. The odd thing for me is the opposite. I can't keep my body underwater long on my back at all. 10m tops before i naturally come to the surface. On the front, I can stay under close to 50m without problems if I don't run out of air :) Starting to make me wonder if I'm doing something wrong now.

I'm finding that I'm faster on my back than on my stomach. I'm not sure why but I suspect I get more hip snap looking up than looking down. ... If you haven't already, get this checked accurately with a stopwatch. I thouht the same thing for a long time, but when I had the coach time me, much to my surprise I found out that I am faster on my stomach. This was true consistently in multiple tests on multiple days. It just *feels* faster on my back. When you find out the key to getting better, please let me know. Learning to SDK well seems to be one of the most difficult challenges I have even undertaken in the pool.

I'm finding that I'm faster on my back than on my stomach. I'm not sure why but I suspect I get more hip snap looking up than looking down. Anyone have any tips on how to improve kicking on my stomach? I too SDK faster on my back than my stomach, haven't timed it lately, but I recall doing a FAST 25 yard SDK for time from a roll start dive on my: + stomach in around 10.9 & + back in around 10.5 (did a forward racing dive on both but on bk SDK I rolled over to my back just after I dove in) Tips on how to improve SDKing on your stomach? 1) Anything you do & measure IMPROVES so make it a personal project for you to IMPROVE your BELLY SDK focus on improving your SDK speed for 15 meters & 25 yards plus figure out what your SDK kick count sweet spots are for each of your races. You do all this by training, testing, timing, & repeat. Simulate race conditions in practice, warm up, rest more, get psyched & SDK FAST 2) Do my Help! my SDK is Horrible program, 3, 4 or 5 times a week & test your speed once a week. Report your RESULTS 3) SDK advice I gave to a 5 year old 4) Read & participate in The Butterfly Lane & The SDK Lane 5) SFF Tip 347 Eddie Reese on 4 Ways Swimmers Improve which are: a) Technique Improve your belly SDK technique Have someone video you underwater so you can see what you are doing, & what you could do better observe & copy the best Make lasting technique changes Key areas are: Push offs, Streamlines / Body position, SDK timing & amplitude, Break outs / transitions b) Get stronger Paul, you are big and strong, but all of us can get stronger & more explosive leg press, squats, jumps, deadlift ... c) work harder (& smarter) this is up to the athlete, doing each part of each work out to the best of your ability d) harder (& smarter) work outs this is up to the coach your coach, (you) needs to add some SDK improvement sets to each work out e) Improve Your Vessel this is thinking of yourself as a watercraft Become more aquadynamic Key areas are: Lug Less Lard: get your height weight proportions and your strength to weight proportions closer to those of world class swimmers, at least world class masters swimmers. IMPROVE YOUR STREAMLINE: how well do you streamline Improve you arm position, lock em in tight and straight, head position, neutral & body alignment straight SHAVE Occasionally Rock a RACING SUIT improve your float factor, BREATHE in the biggest breaths you can completely fill your LUNGS & hold your air, don't leak air go a little deeper on your dives & pushoffs and learn how to surge to your breakouts improve your foot / ankle flexibility FAST SDKers tend to have big feet & great foot flexibility (point with out trying) f) mentalmental aspects are huge being focused and determined Paul, after knowing you over the years and following your blog, my suggestions to you for this category are: 1) be persistent & consistent 2) control your emotions, don't let negative thoughts drag you down and keep you from doing what you know you need to 3) make good decisions in & out of the pool 4) hold yourself accountable, ask a few close friends to do so too 5) take real actions, make yourself do it Hope these help you Paul Let us know how you do Good luck Ande

I'm finding that I'm faster on my back than on my stomach. I'm not sure why but I suspect I get more hip snap looking up than looking down. Anyone have any tips on how to improve kicking on my stomach? I wonder if you might strike a compromise by rotating slightly to your side while you SDK to see if maybe you feel better in that position. Isn't that whay Misty and maybe Pancratov (sp?) used to do before the 15m rule took effect in butterfly? Jeff

My coach says SDK on your side uses less energy than on your front or back because you aren't fighting gravity.

For me the converse is true. Much faster on my front than my back for sdk. I noticed a huge difference on front sdk when I really concentrate on getting a good punch from the upkick and not just hammer on the downkick. Its easy to just kick down hard and recover up rather than also kicking upwards. The few times this week I did 25m sdk it was 15-16sec from a push on my stomach (timed off paceclock second hand).