I can't do an effective dolpin kick off of my turns. I usually do freestyle kick off my freestyle and back turns. But for 50 fly its crutial. I only do 2 or 3 kicks so that I dont slow myself down. Thats only about 5 meters. I always get beat on the turns because I am a bad under water swimmer. do you have any tips on dolphin kicking?
The only way to be a better underwater swimmer is to spend more time underwater. I personally like it underwater myself, so I spend a lot of time SDK-ing on my side, back and stomach. Try it with fins for awhile if that helps you get the hang of it. I always do 10 x 25 under water dolphin kick with fins almost every practice (or without fins and do easy free). But Jeff is right, not everyone likes or needs to do it. But I think it is faster...
Hi Warren,
I agree that practicing your SDK with fins may be helpful. Vertical dolphin kicking can help, too. This may seem silly, but you may also want to check your streamline when you dolphin kick. Sometimes people with great free kick streamlines break them with dolphin kick. Finally, you may want to work on making sure that you connect your kicks fluidly rather than taking really separated giant kicks (if that makes any sense). I hope something here helps a little! Good luck!
Test your streamline dolphin kick (SDK) times for several fast 15 meter efforts then
Test your streamline flutter kick (SFK) times for several fast 15 meter efforts
do a few from a dive
do a few from a push
Then 3 times a week work on your streamline dolphin kick
do 3 or 4 very fast 15 meter kicks with plenty of rest
then retest every 2 or 3 weeks
then 2 or 3 months from now retest
compare your times from the first time,
what you want to find out is if
1) you responded to training and
2) which streamlined kicking style is faster
I don't know if you fall into the
1) I don't dolphin kick well, but I never trained dolphin kicking or
2) I don't dolphin kick well, I trained to improve my dolphin kick and I still don't dolphin kick well
ande
I can't do an effective dolpin kick off of my turns. I usually do freestyle kick off my freestyle and back turns. But for 50 fly its crutial. I only do 2 or 3 kicks so that I dont slow myself down. Thats only about 5 meters. I always get beat on the turns because I am a bad under water swimmer. do you have any tips on dolphin kicking?
I try to incorporate some off the wall dolphins in my practices in hopes that someday I will have the ability to use them as a weapon in a race.
Perhaps you should try swimming the race in practice with the dolphin kicks and without. Whichever one is faster would be how I swam the race in a meet. However, keep working on the dolphins in practice and you will surely improve over time.
I just want to be able to do a fast 10 yards underwater off the turn in the 50 fly so that I can conserve some energy for the end while still going fast.
I always do freestyle kick for free and I dont plan on changing that.
Don't do dolphin kick if you can't do it. Just because lots of people are doing it doesn't mean you have to.
Jason Lezak never does dolphin kicks on his freestyle races, yet he manages to still remain the fastest 100 freestyler in the USA.
Warren,
If you have a bad underwater dolphin you should work to improve it, however you should also focus on the other aspects of the turn.
Jeff nailed it when he said Jason Lezak never does dolphin kicks on his freestyle races, yet he manages to still remain the fastest 100 freestyler in the USA. Jason gets in and our quickly, he has a phenomenal push off the wall, he has a great streamline, and he has an excellent transition from breakout to stroke.
If you can look at Fred Bousquet’s 2005 NCAA 50 free (18.74). No dolphins, just a great turn (power and streamline) and an amazing transition to stroke.
Work the streamline, work the push work the transition, and if you want to work the dolphin (which every flyer should); in addition to the suggestions above, I’d suggest the following drill:
Fast vertical fly kicking – cross your arms over your chest, and kick 5X20 seconds on a minute with 2 goals, first is to generate the kick form the torso (not the hips) and second to maintain a high tempo (60+ kicks in the 20 seconds).
