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.
My flutter kick sucks, 27 seconds for 25M.
Today out of curiosity I did one-leg kicks with a board and found that right leg kicking takes much longer and requires more kicks per 25.
I developed the one-leg drill to see if there were differences between legs and there is. I was wondering if anyone knows if this would be a good drill to continue for helping my kick, or if there are any reports of it being counterproductive
Train to kick faster & test your speed
You'll improve
Post your results
Yes I did. Kicked 25M like it was for life or death - 25 seconds:D. So I shaved 2 seconds just by trying harder.
Thanks for the simple but true suggestion
great job,
keep working on it, you've got a lot more improving to do. you can kick much faster
Anything you do and measure improves
follow the training at Help My Flutter Kick is Horrible!
Yes I did. Kicked 25M like it was for life or death - 25 seconds:D. So I shaved 2 seconds just by trying harder.
Thanks for the simple but true suggestion
Train to kick faster & test your speed
You'll improve
Post your results
My flutter kick sucks, 27 seconds for 25M.
Today out of curiosity I did one-leg kicks with a board and found that right leg kicking takes much longer and requires more kicks per 25.
I developed the one-leg drill to see if there were differences between legs and there is. I was wondering if anyone knows if this would be a good drill to continue for helping my kick, or if there are any reports of it being counterproductive
hey Ande,
i am getting bored with my weekly kick set and have reached a plateau as well. could use a change of pace and some accountability wouldn't hurt either. basically i do 4x100yd flutter streamlined afap with 2-4min rest alternating free/back. then 2x100 with fins. times range from 1:30-1:35 w/o fins and :58-1:05 with fins.
today i tried one of the sets you suggested, 25 flutter sprint followed by 75 active recovery swim. did this 8 times from a push using pace clock:
18,18,17,18,18,17,18,17
finished up with 25free swim + 75 recovery. time was 12-13 ish
one thing i noticed already is that my kick was not deep enough. the 17's were using a deeper kick with slightly slower tempo. it actually felt slower but the clock doesn't lie.
wish i had a better way to time myself. i will try to find something.
anyway thanks for all the good advice you give on this thread.
it's OK to do 25's & 50's on the same day
work on your speed for: 15's, 25's, 50's 75's & 100's
the best thing to do is kick fast and get some rest before the next one
do different things on different days
get to where you can blast your legs for the entire race
ok. should i do 50's and 25's same day?
if so do you have a suggested set? or do you mean i should skip the 25's and concentrate on 50's?
i would like to improve my 50 and 100 free.
shane
hey steve
congratulations, you're improving, keep training & improving
measure your times to a 10th of a second
12/05/09 :23
12/01/09 :25
25 sec on Dec 1 (25M), 23 sec on Dec 5!
Timed by pressing the start and stop of my watch
This "help my horrible" thread works.
Hey Shane,
when you get to where you can flutter kick 25's under 20,
which you can, start working on 50's.
Also work on your SDK.
what events are you training for?
Ande
ok. should i do 50's and 25's same day? if so do you have a suggested set? or do you mean i should skip the 25's and concentrate on 50's?
i would like to improve my 50 and 100 free.
shane
