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'm not a big fan of vertical kicking
I think horizontal kicking for speed and speed endurance
is much more important
ande
Does anyone here do vertical kicking (flutter or dolphin)? Any favorite sets to share?
I haven't done very much of this, but I have been impressed when I do it. I swam with the U of Richmond kids once and the coach had us do vertical kicking where you try to do as many as possible in a short interval (eg, 10 seconds). It was absolutely exhausting, the kind of set I really need a coach to force me to do.
I had another coach who would have us do 5 fast vertical dolphin kicks (or 10 flutters) before each repeat of a set. So, if you were doing 100's off 1:30, for example, on the interval you'd do the kicks first then push off and swim. You can do lots of variations on this theme, I would imagine.
I'm not a big fan of vertical kicking
I think horizontal kicking for speed and speed endurance
is much more important
ande
Does anyone here do vertical kicking (flutter or dolphin)? Any favorite sets to share?
I haven't done very much of this, but I have been impressed when I do it. I swam with the U of Richmond kids once and the coach had us do vertical kicking where you try to do as many as possible in a short interval (eg, 10 seconds). It was absolutely exhausting, the kind of set I really need a coach to force me to do.
I had another coach who would have us do 5 fast vertical dolphin kicks (or 10 flutters) before each repeat of a set. So, if you were doing 100's off 1:30, for example, on the interval you'd do the kicks first then push off and swim. You can do lots of variations on this theme, I would imagine.
