My *** kick currently takes me either nowhere or slightly BACKWARDS. =)
(Boy, that sounds a lot like my once-broken flutter kick I was complaining about here. =))
My instructor insists that I do it in the following way:
1. streamline
2. bend legs keeping knees together
3. begin to separate feet, keeping knees together
4. whip legs out and back together, finally separating knees for an instant
I've tried this a thousand times and while I do move quite nicely when I add in my arm strokes, my kick contributes little or nothing to that movement.
I've watched a bunch of videos and I've found that most competitive swimmers (and even James Bond in Casino Royale =)) do the following:
1. streamline
2. bend legs AND separate needs to form a bent "V" of sorts
3. whip legs back together
Which style do you guys use? Does it make sense that I wouldn't be getting any power from the former style? I haven't even tried the second style, but I have a feeling it would work a lot better for me.
Parents
Former Member
I would find the first set of description to be very difficult to do. This, to me, means that all the power is strictly coming from the knees down and I also don't think our knees were quite designed to rotate to that degree over and over.
Number two sounds more like what I do when I do IMs. The knees have to separate somewhat. Also, you did not mention if you are turning your feet outward when the feet start coming closer to the buttocks. Also, a lot of people do not finish the kick. Just so you know, breastrokers and backstrokers have mighty powerful kicks.
My :2cents: worth.
Donna
I would find the first set of description to be very difficult to do. This, to me, means that all the power is strictly coming from the knees down and I also don't think our knees were quite designed to rotate to that degree over and over.
Number two sounds more like what I do when I do IMs. The knees have to separate somewhat. Also, you did not mention if you are turning your feet outward when the feet start coming closer to the buttocks. Also, a lot of people do not finish the kick. Just so you know, breastrokers and backstrokers have mighty powerful kicks.
My :2cents: worth.
Donna
