I have been trying to incorporate the butterfly kick off the start and turns with my backstroke. I get 2 -4 kicks in before I come to the surface. My question is: how much faster is the butterfly kick than the flutter kick? Or do you have to have a strong fly kick to gain any benefit? ** years ago we were very content with a quick flutter to the surface (and I'm not anywhere near as fast now!)
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I'm pretty sure the underwater dolphin is superior to the underwater flutter kick, and it takes only minimal trainig for that to be true. The question is how long to continue the kick before surfacing. You want to do it at least as long as required to avoid your own turbulence that followed you into the wall.
I've read it that the order of speed of strokes, from fastest to slowest, starts with freestyle (crawl) and is followed by underwater dolphin kick. If that were true than one should try to do the underwater dolphin kick for as long as possible in fly and back, but not in freestyle. That is the way Coughlin swims those strokes. However, I do not believe that underwater dolphin is that fast for most competitive swimmers, including masters swimmers at the national level. It takes a lot of training to make underwater kicking superior to swimming.
I'm pretty sure the underwater dolphin is superior to the underwater flutter kick, and it takes only minimal trainig for that to be true. The question is how long to continue the kick before surfacing. You want to do it at least as long as required to avoid your own turbulence that followed you into the wall.
I've read it that the order of speed of strokes, from fastest to slowest, starts with freestyle (crawl) and is followed by underwater dolphin kick. If that were true than one should try to do the underwater dolphin kick for as long as possible in fly and back, but not in freestyle. That is the way Coughlin swims those strokes. However, I do not believe that underwater dolphin is that fast for most competitive swimmers, including masters swimmers at the national level. It takes a lot of training to make underwater kicking superior to swimming.
