Last week, I blundered upon a kick set that proved to be fun and challenging for the likes of me, that is to say, a fellow with pretty piss-poor SDKs.
The idea behind the set was to gradually build up my dolphin kicking capacity by starting out with all flutter kick and 0 dolphin kicks per length, then adding (1) dolphin kick off each wall per 50, then (2) per length per 50, then (3) per wall per 50, and so on, till I was kicking the whole thing butterfly.
This happened at the 1450 yard mark. By this point, I'd gradually worked my way up to 30 dolphin kicks (and 0 flutter kicks) per 25 to finish a set that ultimately proved 1500 yards of kicking.
I wrote about this blundering set and its aftermath two days later on my abdominal muscles in my most recent vlog entry here forums.usms.org/blog.php
Taking 30 dolphin kicks per 25, I realize, sounds pretty godawful to the natural cetaceans in our midst. Anyhow, a couple vlog readers wondered what the average number required is, so I thought I would conduct a poll.
This isn't an ordinary poll--I don't want responders to answer off the top of their heads. Rather, the next time you at practice, do this experiment and report back your actual findings.
1. Use a kick board
2. Do not use fins.
3. Conduct this experiment in a 25 yard course for consistency of replies.
4. Kick butterfly for an entire 50 without stopping. Count the number of total number of kicks you take. (I know you would take less doing actual SDKs without a board, but for this particular poll, please do it with a board on the surface.)
In my case, it took me 30 dolphin kicks down, and 30 dolphin kicks back, for the unremarkable score of 60. Please do not ask me what my time was, because I am sure it was over a minute.
And PLEASE only respond after you're tried this--do NOT go from memory or approximate what you think you should or could do. I want an accurate count!
Note: one last thing--just kick as normally as you can kick butterfly (which in my case is not that normal). No need to try for some record by gliding as far as possible after each kick; neither should you feel obligated to do millions of tiny whip like kicks, as if in imitation of your father's contribution to your begetting.
Just do it normally, or as normally as you can. I want to get an idea of what the range is.
Thanks!
As far as the 1500 flutter/dolphin kick suggestion: a 1500 kick of any kind sounds pretty boring to me! We do aerobic/endurance kick sets sometimes but I think our longest repeats are maybe 300s. I am a little puzzled by the need to switch between flutter and dolphin; is DK so tiring to you that you need to do this? Flutter kick is more tiring for me because they seem to depend almost exclusively on quads rather than recruiting core muscles to help.
I didn't set out to do a 1500 kick, it just turned out that way! One of my problems with SDKs is that I don't seem to know how to recruit my core very well, and I am trying to practice this so that it makes it feel more natural. (I suspect the core cluelessness I suffer is part of the reason I can't dance, but this is only a working hypothesis.)
I also find kicking fly is much more tiring that flutter kick, and flutter kick is tiring enough. So as I wrote in my recent blog, I decided to sneak up on fly kicks by slowly adding one extra one per length each 50.
What surprised me was how ultimately this made the whole experience feel much more comfortable. Kicking 3 fly kicks per length didn't seem impossible, and it made kicking 4 doable. And from 4, going up to 5 hardly seemed an egregious punishment, and so forth. By the time I got to 30 kicks per length, my body was really used to the motion and not terribly traumatized by it.
I did fear back pain the next day, but this didn't come. Two days later, however, I had a lot of abdominal muscle pain, like I'd done a bunch of sit-ups. When I told my coach Bill about this, he said that it was because I was starting to recruit my core!
So for me, at least, it proved helpful in learning the right motion. I am still in the learning phase, so eventually, I hope to be able to do it faster.
As far as the 1500 flutter/dolphin kick suggestion: a 1500 kick of any kind sounds pretty boring to me! We do aerobic/endurance kick sets sometimes but I think our longest repeats are maybe 300s. I am a little puzzled by the need to switch between flutter and dolphin; is DK so tiring to you that you need to do this? Flutter kick is more tiring for me because they seem to depend almost exclusively on quads rather than recruiting core muscles to help.
I didn't set out to do a 1500 kick, it just turned out that way! One of my problems with SDKs is that I don't seem to know how to recruit my core very well, and I am trying to practice this so that it makes it feel more natural. (I suspect the core cluelessness I suffer is part of the reason I can't dance, but this is only a working hypothesis.)
I also find kicking fly is much more tiring that flutter kick, and flutter kick is tiring enough. So as I wrote in my recent blog, I decided to sneak up on fly kicks by slowly adding one extra one per length each 50.
What surprised me was how ultimately this made the whole experience feel much more comfortable. Kicking 3 fly kicks per length didn't seem impossible, and it made kicking 4 doable. And from 4, going up to 5 hardly seemed an egregious punishment, and so forth. By the time I got to 30 kicks per length, my body was really used to the motion and not terribly traumatized by it.
I did fear back pain the next day, but this didn't come. Two days later, however, I had a lot of abdominal muscle pain, like I'd done a bunch of sit-ups. When I told my coach Bill about this, he said that it was because I was starting to recruit my core!
So for me, at least, it proved helpful in learning the right motion. I am still in the learning phase, so eventually, I hope to be able to do it faster.
