I have been trying to learn how to do a decent front crawl. With the help of many Forum users I have made some progress improving the arm pull, kick and breathing - as separate elements of the total motion. I am having trouble synchronizing the kicks with the pulls. Right now I think I am just kicking at a fast, steady rate (probably too fast), whatever the arms are doing. It doesn't feel natural. At what points in the arm pull do the kicks occur?
Thanks, as ever, for your help.
BTW, I looked into the class that they have at my facility, but everybody is waaay too advanced (they work on diving in and flip turns - ack! - I'd probably drown).
Parents
Former Member
Originally posted by exrunner
What I'm thinking is there should be a way to integrate the arms and legs by thinking "one-two-three-one-two-three" where each count is a kick, and each "one" is pegged to an aspect of the pull. Should each "one" count coincide with a catch, or the start of a pull (for instance)? And where do the up kicks and down kicks occur?
I think you've got the right idea -- a few years ago, a coach (Doug Stern, whose article appears in month's SWIM Magazine) showed me just such a drill. The "one" coincides with the start of the pull. It's a difficult drill to get used to -- I felt like I was drowning the first time I tried it.
Kevin's right that you can learn to coordinate a 6-beat kick with the arm pull. Unfortunately, since practicing it can be difficult, many swimmers (and coaches) just let it happen. But I don't agree that it's too early to think about it. I've leaned from personal experience that it's harder to correct a bad habit than to get things right as early as possible.
Originally posted by exrunner
What I'm thinking is there should be a way to integrate the arms and legs by thinking "one-two-three-one-two-three" where each count is a kick, and each "one" is pegged to an aspect of the pull. Should each "one" count coincide with a catch, or the start of a pull (for instance)? And where do the up kicks and down kicks occur?
I think you've got the right idea -- a few years ago, a coach (Doug Stern, whose article appears in month's SWIM Magazine) showed me just such a drill. The "one" coincides with the start of the pull. It's a difficult drill to get used to -- I felt like I was drowning the first time I tried it.
Kevin's right that you can learn to coordinate a 6-beat kick with the arm pull. Unfortunately, since practicing it can be difficult, many swimmers (and coaches) just let it happen. But I don't agree that it's too early to think about it. I've leaned from personal experience that it's harder to correct a bad habit than to get things right as early as possible.
