Using a Monofin will really help show you how your body needs to behave in the water....The thing that worked best for me is real live dolphins.
Hi,
Where I swim now (Bally's Fitness), I think the lanes so short and crowded that I might not be allowed to use a monofin. But I'll stay on the lookout for an opportunity to try one.
I checked with the NYC Aquarium and unfortunately they don't have dolphins there. Where's the next closest place to see dolphins?
OK. I bought a pair of blue Zoomers, primarily for helping with the body dolphin, but I've been practicing on the surface. I'll try some underwater. I purposely haven't tried doing it with a push off the wall either, as I had this idea to do a standing start and see if I could generate motion just from the dolphin. But I'll try that now too.
my approach to BD on the surface and uw are completely different.
on the surface it is a good idea to start from a dead-mans-float (this will enable to you to see if your BD is generating any forward momentum)
i like to start like this: press your chest down (below your arms and head) while reaching your arms forward (shoulder width). for now let the legs just follow through. add the kick only after the core motion is really comfortable.
before i swim i always stretch my back and shoulders with a modified cat/cow sequence: hands on a railing. bend over so that your body forms a 90 degree angle at the waist. exhale and let your chest sink below your arms (i usually get a few "ahh feels good spinal cracks" on the first one) inhale and curlyour back letting the crown of your head relax down. for me, this core body motion very closely simulates the surface BD motion except for the rhythm.
I also use fins to practice BD but it can give you a false feeling of improvement felt when you take off the fins.
I also agree that the movement should start from the top of the body with the legs kind of following thru.
I have found that my BD has greatly improved by simply doing BD everytime I push off the wall swimming freestyle. I am improving slowly but surely and I hope to get to a fast 10m. underwater BD in the near future.
Try underwater dolphin kick with fins. Literally start the wave with the tips of your fingers. Have the wave proceed down your arms, move your head with the wave and then your torso, core and finally legs and feet.
25yards easy and slow over and over just to get the motion of the wave.
When you are ready, push off the wall and try to do the wave with speed and power. Baby steps. I am a novice flyer too, but since we can;t turn back the clock, we have to super exagerate what comes naturally to those who started the stroke as kids.
There is nothing that will make it happen but doing it, all the kicking drills will never give you the true feeling.
When I teach fly I have them do a one beat dolphin kick one stroke, then a two beat dolphin kick one stoke. Then we do a three beat kick one stroke, and then a 4 beat kick one stoke. Example here is a go swim video www.goswim.tv/drill_pop.php
Then we get back to the 2 beat one stroke.
I like to come of the wall and kick the dolphin kick for 15 yards with my hands at the side.
From a dead man's float???? I like to feel motion.
Tom,
A tip I have for you is that dolphin kick is not all legs. In fact, most of it lies in your core. You've got to get your whole body involved.
Using a Monofin will really help show you how your body needs to behave in the water. If you try to use all legs, you'll hurt your back, but when you start using your upper body as part of your kick, you'll start to see some improvements. Watch the video posted in this thread and check out the underwater shots.
The thing that worked best for me is real live dolphins. This sounds kinda out there, but go to your local dolphin-housing aquarium and spend 30 minutes watching the dolphins swim (esp if there is an underwater glass viewing area). The date was a success and my SDK has never been the same since!
i like to feel and teach the generation of motion. this is easily missed if one starts from a push off.
I do this drill all the time. Love it. I think of it as putting my body in the Y postition, with my hands just a bit past shoulder position and start pressing with the chest with the rest of the body flowing though. This is called the caterpillar drill. Very slow.
I also do the drill George suggests. But I call it chest press fly. Arms at the side, doing the body dolphin, leading with the head, pressing with the chest. Last time my coach saw me doing this in warm up, she said I was very TI, George. ;) I'll do this drill on top of and below the water.
BUT I think the underwater kicking is equally important for learning a good body dolphin and a strong SDK, even more for the SDK perhaps. And I like to do them in a superman streamline position that mimics the starts and turns of a race. So I do four point dolphin kick shooters from a push (front, left side, right side, back) regularly with and without my monofin. I love my monofin. It's a rocking mermaid workout, you feel just like a dolphin and it's great for the core as Muppet notes. But if you really want to feel like a dolphin do the fly spin drill I posted on the other thread. Now, that is very fishlike.
Interesting, I do all the above much more than I swim regular fly. But my fly seems to be improving some.
