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?
This sounds a little strange but if you want to improve your dolphin kick, I recommend going to an aquarium or get a video on Dolphins. Every so often, I will hit a wall (the hypothetical one where I seemingly can't get much faster) in my fly, and will take a trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. There they have a huge tank for the dolphins with a huge sub-level window where you can watch them from ~15 feet under the surface.
Now granted these animals are made for swimming and dolphin kick comes pretty naturally to them, but being able to watch the kick from under water is truly amazing. Watch their tails as they move around. Watch the body undulations.
Humans are incredibly ineffecient swimmers, but here are a few notes I took from my visit to the Aquarium Summer '05 (they had a really cute 6mo old dolphin at the time!)
1 - Steamline: Dolphins were built for swimming; I was not. Stay tight and long on streamline.
2 - Body: They move their entire body to kick. A full cycle has the body in a wave motion from nose to tail. Note most noticable body movement in middle. KICK FROM THE HIPS.
3 - Tail: Tail doesn't move all that much on downward force when kicking. Forward movement probably generated mostly by the downward force coming from the hip movement. KICK FROM HIPS. small, but powerful kicks
With the help of a good fly coach - he totally advocated the short/powerful kicks - and 3 months in a cast where all I did was Kick, I had PBs in both my fly events (50,100) at SCY Nats.
May sound kinda lame, but why not learn from the best!:dedhorse:
This sounds a little strange but if you want to improve your dolphin kick, I recommend going to an aquarium or get a video on Dolphins. Every so often, I will hit a wall (the hypothetical one where I seemingly can't get much faster) in my fly, and will take a trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. There they have a huge tank for the dolphins with a huge sub-level window where you can watch them from ~15 feet under the surface.
Now granted these animals are made for swimming and dolphin kick comes pretty naturally to them, but being able to watch the kick from under water is truly amazing. Watch their tails as they move around. Watch the body undulations.
Humans are incredibly ineffecient swimmers, but here are a few notes I took from my visit to the Aquarium Summer '05 (they had a really cute 6mo old dolphin at the time!)
1 - Steamline: Dolphins were built for swimming; I was not. Stay tight and long on streamline.
2 - Body: They move their entire body to kick. A full cycle has the body in a wave motion from nose to tail. Note most noticable body movement in middle. KICK FROM THE HIPS.
3 - Tail: Tail doesn't move all that much on downward force when kicking. Forward movement probably generated mostly by the downward force coming from the hip movement. KICK FROM HIPS. small, but powerful kicks
With the help of a good fly coach - he totally advocated the short/powerful kicks - and 3 months in a cast where all I did was Kick, I had PBs in both my fly events (50,100) at SCY Nats.
May sound kinda lame, but why not learn from the best!:dedhorse:
