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.
hey Steve,
my best events are the 50 and 100 free but i wouldn't really say that i focus on them. i just mainly try to identify the weak areas in my technique/fitness and work on improving them. also our team coach has a training plan for us so i tend to mostly just go with the flow at practice. kicking/strength sessions are on my own time.
what are you training for?
LINKS to Speed Training Programs:
Try them out, report your results.
Help My flutter Kick is Horrible
U.S. Masters Swimming Discussion Forums - View Single Post - Help My Flutter Kick is Horrible!
my original advice
Help my SDK is Horrible
Help! My SDK is Horrible! - U.S. Masters Swimming Discussion Forums
Help my Speed is Horrible
Help My Speed is Horrible! - U.S. Masters Swimming Discussion Forums
This may have been answered already, my apologies if so. Is it possible to make any deduction from your flutter kick top speed being as good as anyone's with fins, but much slower without? Yeah I know ankle flexibility and foot size are a couple of the issues, but is a very fast fin-aided flutter kick indicative of some potential for a good kick? Or are fins the great equalizer no matter how bad a kicker you might be. Just trying to see if there is light at the end of my tunnel. :)
Fast fin kickers aren't always
Fast finless kickers
Conditioning, Distance per kick & kicking efficiency
This may have been answered already, my apologies if so. Is it possible to make any deduction from your flutter kick top speed being as good as anyone's with fins, but much slower without? Yeah I know ankle flexibility and foot size are a couple of the issues, but is a very fast fin-aided flutter kick indicative of some potential for a good kick? Or are fins the great equalizer no matter how bad a kicker you might be. Just trying to see if there is light at the end of my tunnel. :)
Hey,
Kicking can be a hard factor to master in swimming especially because it seems so simple- just move your legs and make splashes. However, building strength and endurance in your kicks is crucial and could be the winning factor in a meet. I agree with everyone else I highly suggest removing your fins and focusing on kicking drills. There are many different types of drills you can do to improve your speed:
* Grab a kickboard and sprint kick down and easy kick down
* 6 beat stretch (which is just kicking 6 kicks on each side and continuously rotating.
* Streamline kick
Check out this video for further description on drill ideas: www.ehow.com/video_4459097_kicking-drills-freestyle-swimming.html. Good luck on improving your kicks. :)
Excellent consider using a stopwatch to time yourself to the 10th of a second
Jazz's Blog www.usms.org/.../blog.php
I'm tracking my 25 and 50 kick on my blog. I'll be doing some fast flutter kicking three days a week.
