I am slow, and when I mean slow, I mean slow. I can do a 26 sec 50 with fins, but without I come in just under 1:20! I think a big part of it is just taking the fins off and doing a lot of kick sets to learn to feel the water better with my feet. I have a good breaststroke kick so I don't think my problem is an overly weak pair of legs, although they could be in better shape. Also, myankles are fairly flexible as I can point my toes and make my feet bend backwards past an even position with my shins. However, I do think that I need to loosen up my ankles when I kick. I feel like I get more out of my kick for those brief moments when I allow my ankles to snap back and forth with my kick. I think I actually need to relax more to kick faster as weird as that sounds.
I suppose the answer to my question is that I simply need to take of the fins and do kick set after kick set until I learn to feel the water better with my feet and become more efficient.
I'd like to thank Blue Horn for starting this thread. I didn't start swimming competitively until I was 58, and have never been able to kick worth anything. I was doing more like 1:20 per 25 than per 50.
Anyhow I thought, here's this guy who at least isn't going to lap me in a kick set. What works for him might help me out too. I've now got it down to 45-50 seconds for 25 meters after working on it every practice for ten days. That's all I can do right now (the last 10 meters are sheer pain), but at least I don't die of boredom before the end of the length.
And I just keep the zoomers around for fly drills and cooldown.
Tom
I'd like to thank Blue Horn for starting this thread. I didn't start swimming competitively until I was 58, and have never been able to kick worth anything. I was doing more like 1:20 per 25 than per 50.
Anyhow I thought, here's this guy who at least isn't going to lap me in a kick set. What works for him might help me out too. I've now got it down to 45-50 seconds for 25 meters after working on it every practice for ten days. That's all I can do right now (the last 10 meters are sheer pain), but at least I don't die of boredom before the end of the length.
And I just keep the zoomers around for fly drills and cooldown.
Tom
