I decided to get back into swimming after not swimming seriously for 30 years. Right now, I'm trying to figure out where my weaknesses are, time-wise, but my times don't make sense to me. Freestyle and backstroke have always been my fastest strokes. Butterfly has always been my weakest and *** stroke my slowest. I'm not concerned about my *** stroke right now but today, I discovered that my fly kick is significantly faster than my freestyle kick - like by 8 seconds in 25yds. I find this very weird, especially considering that I'm pigeon toed, making it impossible for me to keep my feet together during the fly kick. I would think that at the very least, my freestyle kick would be as fast as my fly, but not slower. Is this normal? I think there's something seriously wrong with my flutter and whatever is wrong, it's not related to drag (I've already ruled out drag).
I decided to get back into swimming after not swimming seriously for 30 years. Right now, I'm trying to figure out where my weaknesses are, time-wise, but my times don't make sense to me. Freestyle and backstroke have always been my fastest strokes. Butterfly has always been my weakest and *** stroke my slowest. I'm not concerned about my *** stroke right now but today, I discovered that my fly kick is significantly faster than my freestyle kick - like by 8 seconds in 25yds. I find this very weird, especially considering that I'm pigeon toed, making it impossible for me to keep my feet together during the fly kick. I would think that at the very least, my freestyle kick would be as fast as my fly, but not slower. Is this normal? I think there's something seriously wrong with my flutter and whatever is wrong, it's not related to drag (I've already ruled out drag).
Most elites are faster at fly kick, but not by this margin. It is reasonible to believe that the difference might come from the fact that fly kick better exploits the contribution from the whole body. Also, there's less myths evolving around the fly kick. Of course, kicking with both legs together would be one of them. In reality, you should not try to keep your legs together whilst fly kicking (it doesn't make much sense to even try). At free, you have all the "don't splash" and the "don't bend the knees" advices etc, which may prevent someone from achieving optimal kick speed.
I decided to get back into swimming after not swimming seriously for 30 years. Right now, I'm trying to figure out where my weaknesses are, time-wise, but my times don't make sense to me. Freestyle and backstroke have always been my fastest strokes. Butterfly has always been my weakest and *** stroke my slowest. I'm not concerned about my *** stroke right now but today, I discovered that my fly kick is significantly faster than my freestyle kick - like by 8 seconds in 25yds. I find this very weird, especially considering that I'm pigeon toed, making it impossible for me to keep my feet together during the fly kick. I would think that at the very least, my freestyle kick would be as fast as my fly, but not slower. Is this normal? I think there's something seriously wrong with my flutter and whatever is wrong, it's not related to drag (I've already ruled out drag).
Most elites are faster at fly kick, but not by this margin. It is reasonible to believe that the difference might come from the fact that fly kick better exploits the contribution from the whole body. Also, there's less myths evolving around the fly kick. Of course, kicking with both legs together would be one of them. In reality, you should not try to keep your legs together whilst fly kicking (it doesn't make much sense to even try). At free, you have all the "don't splash" and the "don't bend the knees" advices etc, which may prevent someone from achieving optimal kick speed.
