Kickboards (pro-con)

I try to do several hundred yards of kicking like this each day so how long should I glide after each kick before I begin my next. ande Originally posted by breastroker People who swim breaststroke should NEVER use a kick board. Using a kick board cause the hips to sink and bad technique to be "learned" by the leg muscles. It is very important to kick without a kick board, and to learn to kick while the head and body are streamlined, and slightly underwater. Every single swimmer is faster underwater than on the surface. Simple drag theory. By kicking and GLIDING after each kick, breaststroke becomes easy. Plus some swimmers are 60-80 percent leg power in breaststroke. Taking it easy during a kick set is the wrong way to go for breaststrokers. It would be like freestylers talking during a pull set, not much gets accomplished:D

People who swim breaststroke should NEVER use a kick board. Using a kick board cause the hips to sink and bad technique to be "learned" by the leg muscles. It is very important to kick without a kick board, and to learn to kick while the head and body are streamlined, and slightly underwater. Every single swimmer is faster underwater than on the surface. Simple drag theory. By kicking and GLIDING after each kick, breaststroke becomes easy. Plus some swimmers are 60-80 percent leg power in breaststroke. Taking it easy during a kick set is the wrong way to go for breaststrokers. It would be like freestylers talking during a pull set, not much gets accomplished:D

They serve a purpose, but should used sparingly, and properly. Not all kicking sets are to be done with a kickboard, just like not all kicking sets are to be done with fins. I see fair amount of swim gear go misused. Not all kick sets and drills mean grab a kickboard and do laps... My coach found an article not too long ago that talks about 101 ways to kick... Some of them do use a kickboard, a lot of them don't. It depends what you're trying to accomplish with any particular kicking set. Now, if you don't know why you're doing certain kicking sets or how to do them properly, it's not the kickboard's fault ;) It's liek a debate which tennis shoes are best for running, well, it depends on what kind of running, where, how much, and what kind of a foot and posture you tend to have. Some runners swear by running barefoot too... Things are seldom black or white, yes or no, same for the kickboard. If you don't hold it properly, it will strain your shoulders, if you do hold it properly, it will give your arms a bit of rest while you're working the leg muscles. For some beginners, it will give them feel for the kick only, when having the whole body in water and stumbling through basics of balance is too confusing for them to know what their legs are doing. If all kicking you do is do straight laps with the kickboard in kicking sets, you're missing out on about 100 other ways to kick and improve.

Kickboards, like any other pool toy, are great, when used in moderation and under a coach's direction. I personally love kicking without a board; it's really helped me with my backstroke flipturn. Having said that, I know a lot of beginner swimmers that simply don't have the strength or cardio to kick, say freestyle kick without a board, because they would have difficulty with the sculling and breath control.

Kickboards break the alignment of your body. They don't help you with balance, that is a falacy. they can do great damage to your neck and generally most people don't kick fast enough when using a kickboard to have them do any good. I see so many swimmers use them for rest periods. I use a kickboard to attachment my workout to it. they are very habndy that way.

I regard kickboards as evil, evil, evil. I admit that I'm prejudiced because my kick was totally corrupted by the use of a kickboard, but I think that sort of prejudice is justified. The problems with kickboards are: 1) If you use them the natural way (i.e., leaning on the kickboard with your head out of the water), your body is in a highly unstreamlined position, which tends to conceal any lack of streamlining in your kick. In fact, the kickboard actually encourages the use of a wide, flailing kick because that is the only way to overcome your body's unstreamlined position and move at a decent speed. 2) Even if you hold the kickboard at arm's length with your face down, you still end up kicking up and down, instead of side to side (as you will be doing most of the time in freestyle or backstroke). 3) If you're balanced in the water, you don't need a kickboard to do kicking sets (and if you're not balanced, you need to forget about kicking sets and learn balance). Of course, if you've already got kickboards, you can invariably find useful things to do with them. The kids' swim team at my Y tapes its workouts to them and props them up at the ends of the lanes so the kids can read them. I also know a coach who likes to hold them in front of the starting blocks when swimmers are doing their starts because this encourages swimmers to get their feet up. But there are other ways of doing all these things, so they aren't adequate to justify the use of kickboards.

I think this poll is turning out to be pretty interesting. I wish I had put more 'pro' choices to see a better granularity of where the "pro kickboard" people are lining up in terms of how they use it. But, as the originator of this thread and lifetime skeptic of most any use of the kickboard: I'm beginning to feel more and more like I could swim with rocks in my hands and call them useful training tools if I wanted to. ;)

Originally posted by LindsayNB Sometimes it seems to me that some of the arguments against using a kickboard are really arguments against doing drills in general. Most drills (intentionally) sacrifice one aspect of the stroke to isolate another. That said, I hate kick sets in general. That said, I need to do more of them.:rolleyes: Linsay, I think too much time is spent on drills and not enough time on quality swimming. I also hate kicking, kick board or not!! George

Originally posted by LindsayNB Most drills (intentionally) sacrifice one aspect of the stroke to isolate another. I think the argument is that using a kickboard will give you a kick that is different than how you would normally kick during a normal swim. A good drill will have you practice a motion that *will* be coordinated with your full stroke. Having said that, I like kickboards early in practice. When my lats are tight, holding onto the front of the kickboard helps stretch them.

Sometimes it seems to me that some of the arguments against using a kickboard are really arguments against doing drills in general. Most drills (intentionally) sacrifice one aspect of the stroke to isolate another. That said, I hate kick sets in general. That said, I need to do more of them.:rolleyes: