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.
Can you at least point your toes down far enough to be roughly in line with your shin? If so, then it will just take practice.
I was in my early 40’s when I learned to swim, and after a year I still could not kick worth a shißer. My feet would start sinking to where they touched the bottom, but I eventually got the hang of it.
There was a forum member years back when forums were popular, a distance guy, who actually did not kick at all while swimming. His legs and feet just trail behind him motionless, like 2 tails. It is quite a successful technique for him. He’d also blast a 50 in same manner. I swim mostly just 50’s at meets, and I rely on a decently conditioned kick
Can you at least point your toes down far enough to be roughly in line with your shin? If so, then it will just take practice.
I was in my early 40’s when I learned to swim, and after a year I still could not kick worth a shißer. My feet would start sinking to where they touched the bottom, but I eventually got the hang of it.
There was a forum member years back when forums were popular, a distance guy, who actually did not kick at all while swimming. His legs and feet just trail behind him motionless, like 2 tails. It is quite a successful technique for him. He’d also blast a 50 in same manner. I swim mostly just 50’s at meets, and I rely on a decently conditioned kick
The answer to the first question is a definite "no", but thanks to this forum (Elaine!) I am doing exercises/stretching which helps.
I've sometimes wondered if NOT KICKING is actually faster for me. :)
I will keep working on this. I hope that in a year or so, I can say that kicking gives me a 1-2% boost in what I do.
The people in this thread that do do sub50sec 50m just kicking.......are you from another planet? :)
25m flutter kick timed (estimated where 25m was in LC setup) 0:21
100m flutter kick timed 2:20
25m splits: 0:27, 0:32, 0:40, 0:41
I looked up at one of the three pace clocks to get the splits. If I work on 75’s and 100’s, maybe the back side of my 50’s would improve and help my 50 time. But that 100 was an acid bomb. The 25m was very slow for me, I should be in the 19’s, but I haven’t done a timed 25 in years, or maybe it was just a bad attempt
25m flutter kick timed (estimated where 25m was in LC setup) 0:21
100m flutter kick timed 2:20
25m splits: 0:27, 0:32, 0:40, 0:41
I looked up at one of the three pace clocks to get the splits. If I work on 75’s and 100’s, maybe the back side of my 50’s would improve and help my 50 time. But that 100 was an acid bomb. The 25m was very slow for me, I should be in the 19’s, but I haven’t done a timed 25 in years, or maybe it was just a bad attempt
I haven't done a true timed kick in a while, but we did some descend 25y kicks on :30 last week. I got down to a :17 on the last 25, but I was gassed by that point. Last season I recall a 50y kick with a board and one pull at the turn and finish was a :34. I want to say my Masters best 50 with the board/pull is about a :32/:33, and if I recall correctly my age group best time was right around a :30. Couldn't tell you the last time I did a timed LCM kick, though I did swim and kick some LCM over the summer.
My kick (both flutter and butterfly) definitely comes and goes. There was a point last spring where I was more or less comfortably able to push around a 1:20 on 100y backstroke kick on 2:00, but I had to push it fairly hard to hit a 1:26 last week, whereas my swimming times right now are right about where they were in the spring when I was hitting those 1:20s.
As an age grouper, we used to do a T-1000 kick 3 times a season, and for a while I held the team record both with a board and doing backstroke kick. My best was an 14:37 with a board, 13:04 without a board.
I'd be beyond thrilled now if I could hold a 1:27 base kick with a board or 1:18 backstroke kick for a 200, let alone a 1000!
I astonished that you can go 15 M underwater in a 25 M pool and have it be legal. And flipping over a stroke before flip turning? Is that legal? Seems like you could get away with doing about 36 M of actual backstroke in the 100M backstroke race? Really?
Yep, you can go 15m underwater in any fly, back, or free event. *** doesn't have that stipulation. For back, the rules just require that you be on your back and do a legal turn/finish, so whether you swim or kick, as long as you meet those two requirements, you can do it however you want!
