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.
Parents
Former Member
Chris,
I do a fair amount of vertical kicking but for the most part I use it as recovery. I got pretty efficient at it rehabing from a shoulder operation and got to the point that doing it for 30 minutes straight was low to moderate effort. These days I like to mix verticle kick with horizontal kicking and swimming. For example, kick 1 minute vertical and immediately do a 50 (25 kick 25 swim) on an interval that gives you about 15-20 seconds rest. Ten reps is good. I work the horizontal kick-swim much harder than the vertical kick where I just try to maintain good form (straight up and down looking straight forward, chin about 2" over the water and hands out to at least the wrist).
If you want to work vertical kick hard just hold a diving brick over your head. If you can do that for more than 20 seconds you're the man. You'll notice quite an increase in kick tempo in order to keep your head high.
I like to use vertical kick during warm up at big meets. You can take up very little space and not worry about people swimming over you.
Chris,
I do a fair amount of vertical kicking but for the most part I use it as recovery. I got pretty efficient at it rehabing from a shoulder operation and got to the point that doing it for 30 minutes straight was low to moderate effort. These days I like to mix verticle kick with horizontal kicking and swimming. For example, kick 1 minute vertical and immediately do a 50 (25 kick 25 swim) on an interval that gives you about 15-20 seconds rest. Ten reps is good. I work the horizontal kick-swim much harder than the vertical kick where I just try to maintain good form (straight up and down looking straight forward, chin about 2" over the water and hands out to at least the wrist).
If you want to work vertical kick hard just hold a diving brick over your head. If you can do that for more than 20 seconds you're the man. You'll notice quite an increase in kick tempo in order to keep your head high.
I like to use vertical kick during warm up at big meets. You can take up very little space and not worry about people swimming over you.
