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.
Should I hold my ankles rigid, pointing my toes, or should I let my ankles be a little "floppy"?
I solicit the wisdom of the forums on this matter.
when I kick,
I don't think about rigidly pointing my toes on the down beat,
(leg going from bent to straight)
I have a gentle toe point and water pressure from the down kick does the rest and my foot is in the position it needs to be.
I think I have a more pronounced toe point on the up beat
(leg going from straight to bent)
Especially when kicking fly, I want to feel resistance both directions.
It's kind of a sweeping motion.
when flutter kicking fast, there should be some splash.
when I kick,
I don't think about rigidly pointing my toes on the down beat,
(leg going from bent to straight)
I have a gentle toe point and water pressure from the down kick does the rest and my foot is in the position it needs to be.
I think I have a more pronounced toe point on the up beat
(leg going from straight to bent)
Especially when kicking fly, I want to feel resistance both directions.
It's kind of a sweeping motion.
This makes good sense. I'm going to re-test next week with an emphasis on toe-pointing only on the upsweep.
when flutter kicking fast, there should be some splash.
That is consistent with my thinnking so my body position was definitely not corect when I was rigidly pointing my toes as I suspected. Hopefully relaxing on the downbeat will correct this. I will report back.
if your "Ankles seem to cross each other" then they are. At some point in your stroke cycle they are crossing & probably hitting each other
you asked: How can I work on this coordination?
Do 25's where you concentrate on doing a strong steady 6 beat kick
See if you can learn to keep your legs slightly apart and get to where they don't cross.
Have a friend with an Iphone or an underwater camera video you.
Thanks, I really improved in only one session. I felt at the end the legs were making it my arms easier to do 25 meters in sprint.
This makes good sense. I'm going to re-test next week with an emphasis on toe-pointing only on the upsweep.
That is consistent with my thinnking so my body position was definitely not corect when I was rigidly pointing my toes as I suspected. Hopefully relaxing on the downbeat will correct this. I will report back.
Karl: your question triggered me. I tried tonight both variations but then vertical. I felt no difference in maintaining my head out of the water when practising both ways.
When using a kickboard, I tend to believe I have a good and strong kick, although it still is an activity that needs a lot of oxygen.
However, when sprinting, I feel lack of coordination and my kick has little of the kick-alone quality. Ankles seem to cross each other, rythym is gone and I believe that no kicking does not have an impact on speed.
How can I work on this coordination?
if your "Ankles seem to cross each other" then they are. At some point in your stroke cycle they are crossing & probably hitting each other
you asked: How can I work on this coordination?
Do 25's where you concentrate on doing a strong steady 6 beat kick
See if you can learn to keep your legs slightly apart and get to where they don't cross.
Have a friend with an Iphone or an underwater camera video you.
I've become convinced that to improve my freestyle, the lowest hanging fruit is fixing my kick. For most of my life I used a 2-beat cross-over kick. In retrospect this is a little odd. Over the years I've generally been pretty good flutter-kicking with a board (compared to my team-mates). About a year ago, a coach told me she couldn't understand why my freestyle kick was so weak, because (she says) my backstroke kick is very strong. She says this is definitely where I can get the most bang for my buck if I want to improve my freestyle.
So... I've been doing lots of kick sets. I aim for 1000 yds of kicking at every practice, and my kicking is getting better, but now I have question about technique:
Should I hold my ankles rigid, pointing my toes, or should I let my ankles be a little "floppy"?
Yesterday I did this experiment: I did 10x(50 flutter kick with board/1:00) shooting for best average, so these were not sprints, but good solid consistent efforts.
On the odds, I let my ankles flex, almost floppy.
On the evens, I held my ankles rigid, pointing the toes.
I was quite surprised to find that the evens (rigid ankles) were consistently 1s+/50 faster!
I had always thought that the ankles should be a little loose so the feet act kinda like flippers.
Ok, so the clock does not lie. It would appear that rigid ankles are better, but there are a few caveats. First, the evens may have been faster but they also hurt more. I'm not sure if I was just (unintentionally) kicking harder on the evens, or if the rigid ankle is indeed faster. Second, I noticed that my body position felt less "correct" on the evens. My legs hung lower in the water with my feet not breaking the surface as much.
I solicit the wisdom of the forums on this matter.
YES!!
I haven't been able to get anyone to time me so I haven't posted anything here. It's really improved though and I know that timing it would show that. It's just been a matter of putting in the work and realizing that the gains come slowly.
YES!!
I haven't been able to get anyone to time me so I haven't posted anything here. It's really improved though and I know that timing it would show that. It's just been a matter of putting in the work and realizing that the gains come slowly.
Do you have a water resistant digital watch? Just place it on deck at the end of the lane (or wear it) and you can time yourself! :agree:
