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.
you want to copy great kickers
there's some knee bend when fast flutter kickers kick
I'll see if we can find some great underwater footage
so you can see what the best do
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.
you want to copy great kickers
there's some knee bend when fast flutter kickers kick
I'll see if we can find some great underwater footage
so you can see what the best do
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.
