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
One thing I'd like to mention... As a beginner, I've been told repeatedly to not bend my legs (or only bend them very slightly). When I practice streamlining with a flutter kick I barely move. So I've been watching videos of swimmers and see that the knee does in fact bend *a lot*. For instance in the video above, when the feet are the farthest apart in the flutter kick, one knee will be bent as much as 45 degrees. This is quite a bit and far from "don't bend your legs".
I think the main point is that the thigh should be in line with the torso, and the leg should only bend maybe 5 - 10 degrees at the hip. Knees should never toward the chest. But, the leg is in fact bent quite a bit during half of the kick.
But I'm just now learning to swim so correct me if I'm wrong.
One thing I'd like to mention... As a beginner, I've been told repeatedly to not bend my legs (or only bend them very slightly). When I practice streamlining with a flutter kick I barely move. So I've been watching videos of swimmers and see that the knee does in fact bend *a lot*. For instance in the video above, when the feet are the farthest apart in the flutter kick, one knee will be bent as much as 45 degrees. This is quite a bit and far from "don't bend your legs".
I think the main point is that the thigh should be in line with the torso, and the leg should only bend maybe 5 - 10 degrees at the hip. Knees should never toward the chest. But, the leg is in fact bent quite a bit during half of the kick.
But I'm just now learning to swim so correct me if I'm wrong.
