Based on how my legs feel at the end of a race, my answer would definitely be fly. I don't swim the 100 back or ***, but I don't think it would would change my answer. For an all out 100 LCM free my legs kill for at least 10 minutes post race. My legs don't feel at all tired after same distance butterfly. I don't know how a 200 backstroker survives.
However, I'm not sure if how I feel at the end of a race really addresses the question of which kick contributes the least to speed.
Tough to answer the question as phrased so my answer is to the question 'Stroke requiring the least contribution from the legs to swim fast'
Yep this is how I meant it ..
I don't know how a 200 backstroker survives.
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Rich,
You pray that you have put enough in the tank leading up to the race. If one hasn't done enough fast kicking and fast swimming with a strong kick, then the 200 back hurts worse than any 200 fly I have ever done.
Swim a fast 200 back sometime. You will never complain about the 100 free agian.
John
Hmm I almost voted freestyle as I don't use my legs all that much on distance free. However kicking for an entire fast 100, hurts big time, same as for back. I find *** leg-dominated anyway, so by process of elimination ended up with butterfly!
I think a good experiment would be pulling each stroke and seeing how different the times would be without any leg power. My guess is that the average swimmer would be slowest pulling breaststroke compared to swimming it.
If it was 200+ distance, I'd say freestyle is the easy answer.
at 50-100, it's a tossup. My legs are probably least tired after doing fly. But, that probably has something to do with the fact that I do more fly kick than the other strokes.
Based on how my legs feel at the end of a race, my answer would definitely be fly. I don't swim the 100 back or ***, but I don't think it would would change my answer. For an all out 100 LCM free my legs kill for at least 10 minutes post race. My legs don't feel at all tired after same distance butterfly. I don't know how a 200 backstroker survives.
However, I'm not sure if how I feel at the end of a race really addresses the question of which kick contributes the least to speed.
My legs are dead after a 100 fly! But then my fly stroke is very leg driven and I kick 10-15 meters per length in short course.
I voted for freestyle. I kick a ton in freestyle too, but my legs contribute relatively more to my speed in fly and back.
I cannot opine about breaststroke. But it's hard to imagine being very fast without a vicious kick.
My legs barely hold me up on land so I don't see any use in utilizing them for water based propulsion. I will say that the 100 back hurts my legs more than any other race.
