Tried an interesting set tonight... did 10 50 frees on 45 seconds without kicking, just pulling.
I've always been a poor freestyle kicker, but I didn't expect the following result... I was going just as fast as I would be WITH a kick for that rate of turnover (35/34s), but with much less effort.
I found myself doing a bit more body rotation, I felt greater connectivity from my arms all the way down to my toes. I also found myself doing a deep straightarm catch (as opposed to my usual high elbow with the elbow withing a couple inches of the surface)... wasn't really trying to do something different, it just happened and I went with it.
Has anyone else had a similar experience when they removed their kick from their freestyle? Does anyone have any idea about how to train my kick so it can contribute more effectively?
I have a hunch that my kick may actually be counterproductive when I get tired, in that it doesn't help me go forward or gives a very poor return for the effort I put in... so maybe learning to freestyle kick in a way that syncs with my body rotation would be a way to start. (Not sure how to do that though, so ideas for learning rotation rhythm would be welcomed too.)
Thanks in advance!
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No idea why one would only want to use half the body to swim ...
If you have time to work on your kick and are motivated to improve, check out: forums.usms.org/showthread.php
Yeah, given a choice I would totally want my legs to be helping out. The odd discovery is that they were not helping me out at all when I was swimming... so if they're not *adding* to my arm power, wouldn't I want to save my energy for my upper body/rotation?
Not sure how much plantarflexion (toe pointing) is needed to have a kick that propels you forward... when I sit down and point my toes as much as I can on the wall, the plane of my foot is in line with my shins... so my toe is about 4.5 inches up from the floor.
Like debugger, I'm mainly a breaststroker... my feet are naturally rotated outwards when I'm standing. SO might outwards oriented feet slow down a freestyle kick? When I think about it more maybe when I kick down then the water goes to the side instead of down or back... maybe I should try turning my feet inwards (pigeon toed).
That said, this is during practice. IN races, I kick like crazy and my legs are definitely helping me then. But there's very little synchronization going on, it's basically kick as fast as I can with emphasis on the downbeats, and keep a steady rhythm with the arms. The problem is I don' t have the energy to sprint kick during workouts for all my swimming...
Fortress, thanks for the suggestion. I'll try doing a couple all-out kicks this afternoon.
Gator, you speak of kicking "drills". Care to share any of these drills? I hadn't really thought about "drilling" kick before. I don't isolate components of the kick, I just isolate the entire kick with a kickboard (but maybe that's what I should try too.)
No idea why one would only want to use half the body to swim ...
If you have time to work on your kick and are motivated to improve, check out: forums.usms.org/showthread.php
Yeah, given a choice I would totally want my legs to be helping out. The odd discovery is that they were not helping me out at all when I was swimming... so if they're not *adding* to my arm power, wouldn't I want to save my energy for my upper body/rotation?
Not sure how much plantarflexion (toe pointing) is needed to have a kick that propels you forward... when I sit down and point my toes as much as I can on the wall, the plane of my foot is in line with my shins... so my toe is about 4.5 inches up from the floor.
Like debugger, I'm mainly a breaststroker... my feet are naturally rotated outwards when I'm standing. SO might outwards oriented feet slow down a freestyle kick? When I think about it more maybe when I kick down then the water goes to the side instead of down or back... maybe I should try turning my feet inwards (pigeon toed).
That said, this is during practice. IN races, I kick like crazy and my legs are definitely helping me then. But there's very little synchronization going on, it's basically kick as fast as I can with emphasis on the downbeats, and keep a steady rhythm with the arms. The problem is I don' t have the energy to sprint kick during workouts for all my swimming...
Fortress, thanks for the suggestion. I'll try doing a couple all-out kicks this afternoon.
Gator, you speak of kicking "drills". Care to share any of these drills? I hadn't really thought about "drilling" kick before. I don't isolate components of the kick, I just isolate the entire kick with a kickboard (but maybe that's what I should try too.)
