I'm a fairly experienced swimmer with a good stroke and body position, but my kick SUCKS. Someone tell me what I can do to increase my kick efficiency. I am frustrated by the standard drills because when I try them I barely make foward progress with out fins. HELP!
Former Member
It's hard to tell without seeing you swim but one thing you might try is to swim a couple of laps with fins on with good body extention in both directions then immediatly take the fins off for about a 50-100yds, repeat this several times and it may help you feel the proper leg mechanichs. Hope this helps. Tim
Terry,
How's your ankle flexibility? Strong flutter kickers can bend their foot such that the angle between the top of their foot and the front of their lower leg is 180 degrees (or more in exceptional individuals). In contrast, runners with little swimming experience, have relatively inflexible ankles, and have difficulty bending their feet much past 90%. Consequently, they tend to have weak kicks, and it is easy to see why. Their feet are pointed down, rather than back, and every kick they take is like digging an anchor into the water (hence the reason why some of them can actually go BACKWARDS when they kick).
If this describes you, you don't need conditioning. You need flexibility. There are plenty of stretching regimes, including things like pilates and yoga, that can be a big help. When you are in the water and you want to kick, get yourself a pair of fins. IT IS NOT "CHEATING!" Fins do two things for your kick, both beneficial: (1) regardless of your ankle flexibility, it is just about impossible to wear fins and keep your feet pointing down instead of back. Thus, every lap you spend kicking with fins loosens up your ankles in addition to conditioning your legs (the term "win-win" comes to mind). (2) The extra boost fins give you allows you to actually move forward at a reasonable speed, and finish a reasonable number of laps in a reasonable time. If you want kicking in your workouts, you are much more likely to feel confidence and actually do the kicking sets if you do them reasonably well. Don't continue to ram your head into the wall by kicking without fins; you'll just get discouraged. And, there are no kicking only events in competitive swimming. It is not like the fins will become a crutch because kicking without them is not an event.
Does this help? Good luck.
Matt
Well, some poor freestyle kickers are breaststrokers. Breaststrokers tend to have trouble with the freestyle kick. You might try some breaststroke kicking in your workout.
I think Matt S. hit the nail on the head. I am a triathlete and do put in quite a few running miles so my ankle flexibilty is probably not what it should be.
