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.
Let's get this thread back on track
I'd like to see swimmers who are slow kickers
accept the challenge to improve YOUR kick
test
do the KICK IMPROVEMENT training,
retest and
post your results here.
those of you who already started
Please retest and post your progress
Ande
Ande I could do all that kicking if there was a 100 kick event. But I don't think it would be a flutter kick.
The event would be 100kick which ever kick you want to do.
So we would call it 100freestyle kick.
Let's get this thread back on track
I'd like to see swimmers who are slow kickers
accept the challenge to improve YOUR kick
test
do the KICK IMPROVEMENT training,
retest and
post your results here.
those of you who already started
Please retest and post your progress
Ande
As soon as this coming weekend is over--Metro. College Swim Championships, I am going to really start working on my kicking (freestyle and SDK) I would like to do some of the tests that you do--where you time your 25 kick every once in a while to monitor progress--I've never had a coach try that before, and I think it definatly would be interesting to see how fast one could get strictly kicking (and swimming too as a result).
I was not a slow kicker but a "no" kicker. Legs used to drag behind in all strokes.
I have to agree w/ Ande (sorry George!), but kicking is important. Drats. :bitching:
I never kicked fly kick at all in practices. But I called myself a flyer. Just started kicking fly (w/ and without a board in practice). This started around December or so I believe. I was SLOW but I kept at it.
Went from a 27.30 to a 26.46 in the 50 fly this past meet. I asked my coach before the race what to do to go a 26 something. She said, "snap the kick." I found I could kick. From the wall lane - 8.
Let's get this thread back on track
I'd like to see swimmers who are slow kickers
accept the challenge to improve YOUR kick
test
do the KICK IMPROVEMENT training,
retest and
post your results here.
those of you who already started
Please retest and post your progress
Ande
it would be awesome to be fit enough to take 8 - 10 fast SDKs off the last turn in the 100 fl, bk IM & fr
There is always SOMETHING to work on, that's what keeps it interesting.
Good luck with your training, and congrats on 3 years of your blog.
Monitoring 25 kick speed is great. But I would encourage you -- and anyone else interested in events above a 50 -- to ALSO monitor longer kicks like 50/75/100 distances. What you will probably find (as I did) is that kick drops off much more quickly with distance than swimming. But you CAN definitely work on "kick sprint endurance" (ie, to hold onto high intensity kicking). This will help you bring it home on that last 25 or 50 of the 100/200. When it starts to hurt, just imagine blasting past your competitors on that last turn with a few extra (and very fast) SDKs, a la Phelps in the 200 LCM free.
Wow! I have always had a terrible flutter kick and thought that the reason my speed died off so badly was because my kick was so awful. Well, guess I can't use that excuse anymore... thanks, Chris
Here are my flutter kick times, with a board*
25 - 20 sec
50 - 52 sec
100 - 1:56
My 100 free time is close to a minute, so yes folks, I am nearly 100% slower kicking vs. swimming. Think there's room for improvement? :)
*getting times is one of the few times I kick with a board, because I tend to push myself harder when I can see the clock tick-tick-tick away as I inch agonizingly closer to the wall...
Carrie,
You've GOT to improve your flutter kicking speed and conditioning
right now that's big weakness for you
start doing the speed kicking training
focus on 25's, 50's & 75's
make it a project
train hard on improving your kicking speed
report your results each week or every other week
integrate your new deadly kick into your stroke
Being a faster flutter kicker will make a
H U G E
difference in your 100 FREE
Ande
Wow! I have always had a terrible flutter kick and thought that the reason my speed died off so badly was because my kick was so awful. Well, guess I can't use that excuse anymore... thanks, Chris
Here are my flutter kick times, with a board*
25 - 20 sec
50 - 52 sec
100 - 1:56
My 100 free time is close to a minute, so yes folks,
I am nearly 100% slower kicking vs. swimming.
Think there's room for improvement? :)
*getting times is one of the few times I kick with a board, because I tend to push myself harder when I can see the clock tick-tick-tick away as I inch agonizingly closer to the wall...
Hi George,
Ande's Blog started on March 23rd, 2005
but the thread that lead to it
started on February 22nd, 2005
www.usms.org/.../showthread.php
Ande
Ande are we jumping the three years by a month. It seems to me It was some time in late March. I remember getting back from Mexico on the 15th of March then seeing your blog about a week after that. Everyone here should be thanking you for such great stuff.
Ande are we jumping the three years by a month. It seems to me It was some time in late March. I remember getting back from Mexico on the 15th of March then seeing your blog about a week after that. Everyone here should be thanking you for such great stuff.
