I'm something of a newbie to masters, though I've been swimming a long time. I have no kick, zero, nada. I have tried at masters swim workouts, but if I attempt to move down the lane using kick only, I float absolutely still in the water. If I kick a lot, I get cramps in feet and calfs. What to do???
swimswam.com/.../
I'm throwing this link out there without fully digesting the study. It may be complete BS. Apologies if it is. I'm just grasping at straws right now. :)
Unless I am missing something, I'd call it complete BS. I read the study. The word "kick" appears 0 times, as in zero, nada, zilch, none, in the paper. And in one of the methods, they adapt a system used for ships with propellers, where the props are a propulsive force component. This study used the arms as that propulsive force.
The editorializing by Swimswam appears to only focus on the drag component. Well, of course the legs create drag, and as any body moving through a fluid, that drag is squared relative to speed. However, if the propulsive force added by the legs exceeds the drag, then kicking is beneficial. Unless I am missing something, that is not brought up at all.
Swimswam published another article a few months ago where someone was speculating similar things. It was complete speculation, and the person was from a smaller country not really known for swimming (only mentioned because I doubt there were resrouces available to help said person test said theory). I had a problem with it because there was no data to support the speculation. Seems there are some folks at that site who have an aversion to kicking. Wonder why?
swimswam.com/.../
I'm throwing this link out there without fully digesting the study. It may be complete BS. Apologies if it is. I'm just grasping at straws right now. :)
Unless I am missing something, I'd call it complete BS. I read the study. The word "kick" appears 0 times, as in zero, nada, zilch, none, in the paper. And in one of the methods, they adapt a system used for ships with propellers, where the props are a propulsive force component. This study used the arms as that propulsive force.
The editorializing by Swimswam appears to only focus on the drag component. Well, of course the legs create drag, and as any body moving through a fluid, that drag is squared relative to speed. However, if the propulsive force added by the legs exceeds the drag, then kicking is beneficial. Unless I am missing something, that is not brought up at all.
Swimswam published another article a few months ago where someone was speculating similar things. It was complete speculation, and the person was from a smaller country not really known for swimming (only mentioned because I doubt there were resrouces available to help said person test said theory). I had a problem with it because there was no data to support the speculation. Seems there are some folks at that site who have an aversion to kicking. Wonder why?
