How Can I Make My Body Dolphin Better?

i got the most improvement in my dolphin kick by doing kick drills on my back (along the surface) w/o a kick board. it felt REALLY awkward at first, and the head tends to stay in place (which is not necessarily true in fly), but eventually i found a groove, and things have improved a lot since then. this sdk thread has a number of coolbeans vid links. one thing i've found interesting is that in the SDK (streamlined dolphin kick) the head pretty much stays in place. in fly it tends to follow the sine wave motion of the stroke (but i'm finding in fly practice now that the flatter the "wave" the better). as with a lot of things, high frequency wave forms seem to be more efficient than low frequency ones (like twisted-pair telephone wires vs. fiber optics). if you can watch vids in QuickTime you can step them one frame at a time. i found this to be amazingly useful in analyzing strokes of the experts. this youtube download thread may help. expert \`ek-spert\ n - "x" = the unknown factor, "spurt" = a drip under pressure. :-) at this point i'm beginning to truly understand that you can't be tense in fly (i reckon the same applies to SDK). as i see it now, that is the ultimate hat trick (hey rocky! watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat!), knowing when to flex, and when to relax, and the changes are fast (which is a real challenge for those aging fast twitch muscle fibers). while i'm still testing it, i also recently discovered that if i kick in a slightly knock-knee (ankles wider) position it allows me to get more power as the top of my foot is flatter (so less slippage in the biggest power portion of the kick). hip flexibility (relaxation) is needed here for the legs to be able to turn that way. there are a lot of Yoga asanas (postures) that will help increase flexibility and strength in the pelvic region. ankle flexibility seems really critical too. swim.ee used to have a vid called "Frolander-flexible-legkicks" this guy is a rubber band! my fly sets now mostly consist of kick out (as described above) and fly back, catch my breath, repeat (but i'm a bit of a lightweight... relative to many posters here). my facility is SCY (25yds). in the earlier part of my fly practice/study i discovered i was really getting a deeper understanding of the body motion when i was able to start doing fly from a dead stop. this was a HUGE breakthrough discovery/moment for me. if you are interested in doing fly... try these two articles by Coach Emmett Hines, they helped me a lot: Slip-Slid’n’ Away Vive le Papillon! (or Is There Fly After 25?)

i got the most improvement in my dolphin kick by doing kick drills on my back (along the surface) w/o a kick board. it felt REALLY awkward at first, and the head tends to stay in place (which is not necessarily true in fly), but eventually i found a groove, and things have improved a lot since then. this sdk thread has a number of coolbeans vid links. one thing i've found interesting is that in the SDK (streamlined dolphin kick) the head pretty much stays in place. in fly it tends to follow the sine wave motion of the stroke (but i'm finding in fly practice now that the flatter the "wave" the better). as with a lot of things, high frequency wave forms seem to be more efficient than low frequency ones (like twisted-pair telephone wires vs. fiber optics). if you can watch vids in QuickTime you can step them one frame at a time. i found this to be amazingly useful in analyzing strokes of the experts. this youtube download thread may help. expert \`ek-spert\ n - "x" = the unknown factor, "spurt" = a drip under pressure. :-) at this point i'm beginning to truly understand that you can't be tense in fly (i reckon the same applies to SDK). as i see it now, that is the ultimate hat trick (hey rocky! watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat!), knowing when to flex, and when to relax, and the changes are fast (which is a real challenge for those aging fast twitch muscle fibers). while i'm still testing it, i also recently discovered that if i kick in a slightly knock-knee (ankles wider) position it allows me to get more power as the top of my foot is flatter (so less slippage in the biggest power portion of the kick). hip flexibility (relaxation) is needed here for the legs to be able to turn that way. there are a lot of Yoga asanas (postures) that will help increase flexibility and strength in the pelvic region. ankle flexibility seems really critical too. swim.ee used to have a vid called "Frolander-flexible-legkicks" this guy is a rubber band! my fly sets now mostly consist of kick out (as described above) and fly back, catch my breath, repeat (but i'm a bit of a lightweight... relative to many posters here). my facility is SCY (25yds). in the earlier part of my fly practice/study i discovered i was really getting a deeper understanding of the body motion when i was able to start doing fly from a dead stop. this was a HUGE breakthrough discovery/moment for me. if you are interested in doing fly... try these two articles by Coach Emmett Hines, they helped me a lot: Slip-Slid’n’ Away Vive le Papillon! (or Is There Fly After 25?)