Yesterday a friend of mine who has just started lifting weights mentioned that she was surprised at what little upper body strength she had. That started me thinking about my upper body vs lower body strength.
I can just zip right through pull sets where as I feel as if I'm trudging through kick sets. I realize that means my kick is weak. (I've had coaches watch my kick to make sure I'm kicking correctly and I always throw in some kick sets even if there isn't one in the workout)
Anyway, my question is: What is typical for most swimmers, is pulling generally faster than kicking? In other word, should the time for, say 100m of pulling, be faster than 100m of kicking, or vice versa, or should they be about equal?
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Originally posted by laineybug
What is typical for most swimmers, is pulling generally faster than kicking? In other word, should the time for, say 100m of pulling, be faster than 100m of kicking, or vice versa, or should they be about equal?
Good breaststrokers normally get most of their propulsion from their kick. Those who are physiologically challenged with regard to breaststroke kicking tend to balance propulsion between the arm stroke and the kick.
In the other strokes, the arm pull is a lot more propulsive than the kick. In fact, Doc Counsilman did an experiment a number of years ago in which he build a mechanism that allowed him to tow swimmers in a gliding position, both with and without kicking. By measuring the tension on the line, he could determine how much their kick was contributing to their propulsion at different speeds. He found that at speeds over 5 feet per second (that's 30 seconds for 50 yards), kicking didn't reduce the tension on the line at all, and in some cases it actually increased it. The conclusion was that kicking is not a significant source of direct propulsion when your 50y time goes under 30 seconds.
Of course, kicking does provide an important aid to your body roll, which can, in turn, help to power your stroke.
Originally posted by laineybug
What is typical for most swimmers, is pulling generally faster than kicking? In other word, should the time for, say 100m of pulling, be faster than 100m of kicking, or vice versa, or should they be about equal?
Good breaststrokers normally get most of their propulsion from their kick. Those who are physiologically challenged with regard to breaststroke kicking tend to balance propulsion between the arm stroke and the kick.
In the other strokes, the arm pull is a lot more propulsive than the kick. In fact, Doc Counsilman did an experiment a number of years ago in which he build a mechanism that allowed him to tow swimmers in a gliding position, both with and without kicking. By measuring the tension on the line, he could determine how much their kick was contributing to their propulsion at different speeds. He found that at speeds over 5 feet per second (that's 30 seconds for 50 yards), kicking didn't reduce the tension on the line at all, and in some cases it actually increased it. The conclusion was that kicking is not a significant source of direct propulsion when your 50y time goes under 30 seconds.
Of course, kicking does provide an important aid to your body roll, which can, in turn, help to power your stroke.
