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.
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Former Member
Long time no write. I ended up getting a craniotomy and taking a 2-1/2 week unscheduled break from the pool. The surgeon removed a large benign growth that was smushing my brainstem and causing physical problems. Surprise!
Then I did dry-head kickboard workouts for another 2+ weeks. I was kicking about 2000y total with fins with solid effort -- burning quads and high heart rate. I had significant atrophy and some anemia but kicking with fins built my legs back up very quickly.
5 weeks post-op I was allowed to swim/dip my head in pool water. I still do not kick any faster than I did before surgery. I still mostly drag my legs when I swim. Yet I dropped a lot of time on my swims almost immediately - 15 seconds on a 200y free. I'm swimming faster than I have for years. I believe this is a result of the surgery and effects on my brainstem. I thought for sure all the kicking would make me faster at it, but it didn't.
The other night during warmdown I did a little kicking while hanging on the laneropes so I could watch my feet kick. My feet don't travel in a straight path - they wobble and feather even though the legs travel where I want them to. I think this might be an important clue. The feet seem to dump water rather than catching it. When I kick barefoot it feels kind of like fist swimming. Has anyone else felt like this, or seen others who kick like this ? Our team's coaches hadn't heard of this.
Ande, I have your recommendations from earlier but haven't had the opportunity to try them out. I still am not diving and we're very constrained on pool space so I don't get to call the shots on what we do at practice.
Long time no write. I ended up getting a craniotomy and taking a 2-1/2 week unscheduled break from the pool. The surgeon removed a large benign growth that was smushing my brainstem and causing physical problems. Surprise!
Then I did dry-head kickboard workouts for another 2+ weeks. I was kicking about 2000y total with fins with solid effort -- burning quads and high heart rate. I had significant atrophy and some anemia but kicking with fins built my legs back up very quickly.
5 weeks post-op I was allowed to swim/dip my head in pool water. I still do not kick any faster than I did before surgery. I still mostly drag my legs when I swim. Yet I dropped a lot of time on my swims almost immediately - 15 seconds on a 200y free. I'm swimming faster than I have for years. I believe this is a result of the surgery and effects on my brainstem. I thought for sure all the kicking would make me faster at it, but it didn't.
The other night during warmdown I did a little kicking while hanging on the laneropes so I could watch my feet kick. My feet don't travel in a straight path - they wobble and feather even though the legs travel where I want them to. I think this might be an important clue. The feet seem to dump water rather than catching it. When I kick barefoot it feels kind of like fist swimming. Has anyone else felt like this, or seen others who kick like this ? Our team's coaches hadn't heard of this.
Ande, I have your recommendations from earlier but haven't had the opportunity to try them out. I still am not diving and we're very constrained on pool space so I don't get to call the shots on what we do at practice.
