Hi, new to the board, back in the pool about 4 months.
Worked up to doing Mo Chambers workouts, but always substituting for fly in the IM's because I just never learned it.
I've always been a lousy kicker, but I bought a pair of Zoomers and quit using the board, which has helped a bunch. I do dolphins front and side and flutter on my back. I just started to dolphin kick off the flip (without the fins), which has really helped reduce stroke count (10 catchup; 13 -- 14 normally; 15 + is a failed lap). I'm 6'2" and dropped from 200+ when I started down to 190 - 195, which feels great.
Today I tried doing the fly legs in the IM's wearing the Zoomers, and I think there's some hope. Can a 44 year old lousy kicker learn to fly? Is it OK to learn with fins? Are there bad habits to watch out for when learning with or without the fins? Or should I forget about fly and just concentrate on the other three strokes?
I'm having a lot of fun swimming again, love the workouts and chat here, and am not afraid of looking like a complete dweeb.
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Former Member
No disagreement from me that the kick can eventually include a significant bend in the knees (as illustrated by the image of Michael Phelps I posted elsewhere). My point was that you need to learn to undulate properly first and then learn to strengthen the kick. I've just seen too many people that haven't learned to undulate substitute kicking from the knee, which doesn't work well. It's a learning strategy thing not a final stroke form thing.
When I want to really stretch out my stroke I find it useful to delay my kick until after my hands enter to ensure that I get a good "downhill" glide, and then wait until my hips and legs are fully up on the surface before starting the next pull.
I also use the one arm fly a lot to warm up and establish the feel of the stroke before doing full fly, and do sets of 4-4-4, or 3-3-3 or 2-2-2 or 2-2-rest of the way full, etc.
Off topic: if you make a duplicate post you can click on the edit button, check the box at the top left and then click on the delete button at the top right.
No disagreement from me that the kick can eventually include a significant bend in the knees (as illustrated by the image of Michael Phelps I posted elsewhere). My point was that you need to learn to undulate properly first and then learn to strengthen the kick. I've just seen too many people that haven't learned to undulate substitute kicking from the knee, which doesn't work well. It's a learning strategy thing not a final stroke form thing.
When I want to really stretch out my stroke I find it useful to delay my kick until after my hands enter to ensure that I get a good "downhill" glide, and then wait until my hips and legs are fully up on the surface before starting the next pull.
I also use the one arm fly a lot to warm up and establish the feel of the stroke before doing full fly, and do sets of 4-4-4, or 3-3-3 or 2-2-2 or 2-2-rest of the way full, etc.
Off topic: if you make a duplicate post you can click on the edit button, check the box at the top left and then click on the delete button at the top right.
