I have trouble keep my hips high up at the water. I think it is mainly because of my kicks. My flutter kicks are also sometimes irregular such as when i kick at the right, only my right leg kicks at the right, my left leg is either dead or kicking flat. I remember hearing that when you see a swimmer high up in the water ( hips visible) , you know that guy is swimming very fast.
So i want to concentrate on my flutter kicking as it is such a HUGE factor in swimming. Now i seen some posts from internet that kick board kicking only improves endurance and not speed. Is that true or there are some drills which helps kicking?
there are many ways to improve kicking.
one way (and its not all that *fun*) is using a half board with arms fully extended and face (freestyle snorkel) in the water.
now if your shoulders wont allow it you can always kick on your back arms out.
there is also the use of burners, full fins and the mono-fin.
btw, breaststroke kick is just an invention of knee docs and should NEVER be done. nor raced! (partly kidding).
steve
I like kicking with no board with my head facing down (as I would when swimming) and doing one of these variations:
Both arms at my hips, focusing on staying straight and just rotating my head to breath, but keeping my body with shoulders in a line perpendicular to the bottom of the pool,
Same as #1, but focusing on using a strong propulsive kick to rotate my body from side to side
Variant of #1 but with bottom arm out-stretched, focusing on keeping that arm straight (e.g., if my left shoulder is up, my right arm is stretched out and I breathe to my left)
Now i seen some posts from internet that kick board kicking only improves endurance and not speed. Is that true
My opinion is that, no, it's not true. Kicking helps kicking, with a board or otherwise. And make it hurt.
You can try either using a smaller kickboard, or you can keep the board at arms-length while you are kicking.
I use both of these tricks. I frequently kick without a board, and when I do use one, I try to use the smallest one I can find.
It has taken just over 5 years (from when I began, to recently) for my flutter kicking to finally kick in, but for this to happen I had to understand some of the basic principles at work first. Maglischo (Swimming Fastest, Guidlines for Increasing propulsion and Reducing Resistance) states forward propulsion during a kick, only occurs with plantar flexion in the early portion of the downbeat (when surfaces face back), and further states "The upbeats of the front crawl flutter kick and the dolphin kick are probably not propulsive." The upbeat's purpose "is probably to position the legs to deliver propulsive force durning the next downbeat". I had to develop a new feel for the kick, and from there managed to make an improvement to my kicking speed, which sucked real bad BTW, and didn't improve no matter what I tried. After learning the physics behind it everything clicked.
I still have some kicking issues that I am addressing, but these I believe are stroke-rotation related. First issue happens on first stroke cycle at breakout, one leg kicks way out. The other time is during a breath.
Now that I wrote two off topic paragraphs, here are my 3 cents: Use kickboards when you need them, sometimes you don't, snorkels are convienient, drills like the ones PWB mentioned work excellent for me, and if you have trouble flutter kickingyou may be doing something incorrectly
I have trouble keep my hips high up at the water. I think it is mainly because of my kicks. My flutter kicks are also sometimes irregular such as when i kick at the right, only my right leg kicks at the right, my left leg is either dead or kicking flat. I remember hearing that when you see a swimmer high up in the water ( hips visible) , you know that guy is swimming very fast.
So i want to concentrate on my flutter kicking as it is such a HUGE factor in swimming. Now i seen some posts from internet that kick board kicking only improves endurance and not speed. Is that true or there are some drills which helps kicking?
Hi SpeedoRocks, kicking is definitely an essential part of your stroke, so its great to hear that you are focusing on strengthening your kick. There are benefits and disadvantages to the kickboard. Disadvantages include over-use of the board, which actually can put stress on your shoulders, neck and lower back, while you are resting your arms on the board. You can try either using a smaller kickboard, or you can keep the board at arms-length while you are kicking.
Alternatives to the board include kicking on your side and a more challenging drill is the hyperkick, during which you keep your arms hyperextended in front of you and kick, either keeping your head up at all times with the elbows locked as you hyperextend your arms (the most challenging version) or keeping your head down and lifting it occasionally to breathe. Hyperkick should only be practiced over short distances. You can also do drills that involve kicking within the context of the pull motion (single arm, and so forth).
Good luck!
This video shows a few new kick ideas right after the 3:30 mark.
Apparently Gary Hall Sr. feels that the traditional kick board may prompt you to kick with too much knee bend. He uses a snorkel (while streamlining) to teach a tighter more efficient flutter.
www.youtube.com/watch
