Do distance swimmers spend less time w/kicking workouts

I always think of kick improvement as the triple bang (or more!). You get faster by better kick alone. Then your body is ever so slightly better aligned, so you have less resistance. Then, because you are better aligned and have less resistance, you can more fully activate your arms and then your arms are actually "stronger" without lifting any more weight or doing more yardarge! Last, with a better kick & core, you use K&C to kick, balance, and breath rather than your arms, at least incrementally more, so that also frees up your arms to do more of just one thing - pulling you through the water rather than balance & breathing. It's like getting stronger arms just by improving your kick! My (perhaps) antiquated view of the importance of the kick in freestyle speed agrees with Michelle's statement. The kick doesn't provide much in the way of propulsion, but is very important in keeping the body balanced & aligned so the upper body can be as efficient as possible in providing propulsive force. My conclusion would be that kick sets would then be tailored to the sprint/distance swimmer the same way swimming/pulling/drill sets are. So the sprint vs. distance issue would be more about intensity & rest than it would be amount of time. Just my 2 cents (as a confirmed sprinter who managed TT in all 6 freestyles this year) ...

I always think of kick improvement as the triple bang (or more!). You get faster by better kick alone. Then your body is ever so slightly better aligned, so you have less resistance. Then, because you are better aligned and have less resistance, you can more fully activate your arms and then your arms are actually "stronger" without lifting any more weight or doing more yardarge! Last, with a better kick & core, you use K&C to kick, balance, and breath rather than your arms, at least incrementally more, so that also frees up your arms to do more of just one thing - pulling you through the water rather than balance & breathing. It's like getting stronger arms just by improving your kick! My (perhaps) antiquated view of the importance of the kick in freestyle speed agrees with Michelle's statement. The kick doesn't provide much in the way of propulsion, but is very important in keeping the body balanced & aligned so the upper body can be as efficient as possible in providing propulsive force. My conclusion would be that kick sets would then be tailored to the sprint/distance swimmer the same way swimming/pulling/drill sets are. So the sprint vs. distance issue would be more about intensity & rest than it would be amount of time. Just my 2 cents (as a confirmed sprinter who managed TT in all 6 freestyles this year) ...