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.
Former Member
3/15: 27.12
Faster, but holy cow they take a lot out of me.
I think it was this thread that talked about Distance Per Kick. For a 25-yard pool, how many kicks would you expect to make? On my back it was like 144 (I counted my right leg kicking 72 times.)
did a 10x33yd kick set and a 20x33yd kick set last week. They were all around 45 sec. I also did some fin sets and they are starting to feel better. I think kicking from the hips and not the knees conserves energy.
congratulations
post your comparison times and test dates
also get someone to time you because eventually you won't be dropping by seconds anymore, you'll measure improvements by portions of seconds
Flutter Kick
03/15/08 22
Dolphin kick on back
03/15/08 18
here's your first post
Not really following through as this is the first time to post on this thread, but here's my progress:
Went from barely getting 250yds of kick in per workout to doing 1000yds of kick now. It still takes me about 27 minutes to get it done but the time is dropping. I did a 50 of dolphin kicking on my back (push from wall) in :46, which is a 14 second drop from when I first started. It still takes me about :20 to do a 25yd flutter kick with a board, but I'll keep with it.
Ok, so I did two of these timed 25yd kicks today.
1) Flutter kick: 22 sec.
2) Dolphin kick (on back): 18 sec.
I'm guessing this is ok. The kicking is starting to feel more natural and not quite as forced. I'm also starting to integrate it more in my sprints. As an aside, I was able to swim some 12 and 13 sec. 25yd sprints the other day so maybe the kicking is helping.
:groovy:
good job
please test and post results
really need to see how you're kicking from the him
flutter kick begins with a slight downward movement from the hip
followed by a slight downward kick from the knee
like this
www.youtube.com/watchwww.youtube.com/watch
kicking fast is a combination of
technique, conditioning, and foot / ankle flexibility
keep working on it
ande
did a 10x33yd kick set and a 20x33yd kick set last week. They were all around 45 sec. I also did some fin sets and they are starting to feel better. I think kicking from the hips and not the knees conserves energy.
All right I know I just posted this morning but I went back to the pool this evening to do another kick workout (what can I say I'm a college student that has a lot of free-time and doesn't really have much desire to study on a Monday afternoon and I don't have work until Wednesday so I :dunno:).
SCM pool
Warmup was 400 free + 300 done 75 bk/25 br
Than I did my main set:
8x100 flutter kick w/board---after each 100 jump out do 20 pushups, jump back in, rest 10s and repeat. I held 1:52-53, before the last one I rested 1 minute and went AFAP and did a 1:45! Pretty happy about that.
The rest of the workout was survival mode as my legs were pretty drained at this point. Feel good about the effort today.
I'm right now in the process of doing kick-only workouts, with running and weights to maintain fitness, until April where I'm going to start working with a coach to help me with my technique. Anyways this morning I did some fast kicking and here are the results:
After full body weight routine + 15 minutes on the treadmill I did a swim workout that was mostly kicking, only swimming was warmup/cooldown:
SCM pool
400m flutter w/board, part of warmup (7:51)
4x100 rested 25 seconds between o)IM order e)flutter w/board (IM kick in 2:00, 1:59, flutter in 1:50, 1:49).
100 ez backstroke
6x25m rest 30s between 25s all on a push
1 & 2 on back, 7-8 SDKs off wall, went 22.2, 21.8
3 & 4 flutter with board, went 21.9, 21.4
5 on back again, short fast SDKs, went 21.4
6 w/board flutter, 21.3
100 cooldown
I come from a running background and my kicking seems to be coming around nicely. Now I just need to get my stroke technique down and hopefully drop a lot of time this summer.
that's good
I'm curious how you split it
many swimmers have a tendancy to kick 100's way too hard on the first 50 leaving themselves not much for the 2nd 50
you want to keep your splits within 0 to 3 seconds
first 50 should be easy speed,
build 3rd 25 ,
give the 4th 25 every thing you've got
All right I know I just posted this morning but I went back to the pool this evening to do another kick workout (what can I say I'm a college student that has a lot of free-time and doesn't really have much desire to study on a Monday afternoon and I don't have work until Wednesday so I :dunno:).
SCM pool
Warmup was 400 free + 300 done 75 bk/25 br
Than I did my main set:
8x100 flutter kick w/board---after each 100 jump out do 20 pushups, jump back in, rest 10s and repeat. I held 1:52-53, before the last one I rested 1 minute and went AFAP and did a 1:45! Pretty happy about that.
The rest of the workout was survival mode as my legs were pretty drained at this point. Feel good about the effort today.
