So I was browsing through the forum, LOTS of talk about kicking. Which brings me to discuss:
What's up with my kicking?
My kicking has been, is, and I believe will forever be SLOOOOOW. It's horrible. My breaststroke kick is MUCH faster than my free kicking. When I was a teenager on my club team, the coaches thought it would be funny to have me race some of the 10 year olds a 25yd free kicking. Needless to say, they won, and I didn't find it so funny. And not by a little bit, they were done and I was just getting to the flags. That's how slow I am.
I'm convinced I'm a puller-swimmer, not a kicker-swimmer, if there is such a thing. I'm a sprinter, and I'm sure if you watch me swim a race there is little kicking going on (4 beat kick, rarely 6 beat). I don't have any video to share, sorry. My breaststroke kick is a decent speed...but it's breaststroke kick!!! What's wrong with my free kick? Seriously! In sets, I cannot make the times if I do free, but if I do *** I'm just fine.
Is this normal? I've been "stuck" this way forever. I can hold 100's easily on the 1:50 with ***, and I can do that all day....I can do about 1 on the 2:00 with free and it just gets slower from there. :drown:
Swimming? I can hold 100's on the 1:20 all day. I can also pull 100's on the 1:20 all day. Hmmmmm.
Is there someone out there that can figure this out? :help:
So I was browsing through the forum, LOTS of talk about kicking. Which brings me to discuss:
What's up with my kicking?
My kicking has been, is, and I believe will forever be SLOOOOOW. It's horrible. My breaststroke kick is MUCH faster than my free kicking. When I was a teenager on my club team, the coaches thought it would be funny to have me race some of the 10 year olds a 25yd free kicking. Needless to say, they won, and I didn't find it so funny. And not by a little bit, they were done and I was just getting to the flags. That's how slow I am.
I'm convinced I'm a puller-swimmer, not a kicker-swimmer, if there is such a thing. I'm a sprinter, and I'm sure if you watch me swim a race there is little kicking going on (4 beat kick, rarely 6 beat). I don't have any video to share, sorry. My breaststroke kick is a decent speed...but it's breaststroke kick!!! What's wrong with my free kick? Seriously! In sets, I cannot make the times if I do free, but if I do *** I'm just fine.
Is this normal? I've been "stuck" this way forever. I can hold 100's easily on the 1:50 with ***, and I can do that all day....I can do about 1 on the 2:00 with free and it just gets slower from there. :drown:
Swimming? I can hold 100's on the 1:20 all day. I can also pull 100's on the 1:20 all day. Hmmmmm.
Is there someone out there that can figure this out? :help:
I'm only a decently fast kicker, although a sprinter as well. (Except for BR kick, that sux.) Think I use the upper body and core strength more than the leg strength when swimming. Although my legs seem pretty strong. I also have never liked kick sets all that much. And, not using a board, they drag on forever if you don't have fins.
However, I do think fast kicking is critical for sprinting. So it is worth practicing and improving. I also am just forced to do more kicking than I would be inclined to do to save my shoulders. So I've tried to jazz up the kicking to make it more fun. I do loads of dolphin kicking with and without my monofin, on my front, back and sides. I do underwater shooters as well as some longer stuff. I've also been doing flutter kick shooters. For my anemic BR kick, I'm trying out the speedo BR fins, and they seem to help. In short, changing up the type of kicking, focusing on SDKs, and using some toys has helped improve my "kicking." I say "kicking" because the dolphin kicking is not just kicking, it hits the core and is part of the stroke. So maybe change things around a bit. A traditional kicking set would probably make me groan too.
There's an old thread that discusses the issue of whether you should bother to focus on kicking. I think it's called "Challenge: Who's willing to give up their kicking sets?" or something like that. Personally, not me.
So I was browsing through the forum, LOTS of talk about kicking. Which brings me to discuss:
What's up with my kicking?
My kicking has been, is, and I believe will forever be SLOOOOOW. It's horrible. My breaststroke kick is MUCH faster than my free kicking. When I was a teenager on my club team, the coaches thought it would be funny to have me race some of the 10 year olds a 25yd free kicking. Needless to say, they won, and I didn't find it so funny. And not by a little bit, they were done and I was just getting to the flags. That's how slow I am.
I'm convinced I'm a puller-swimmer, not a kicker-swimmer, if there is such a thing. I'm a sprinter, and I'm sure if you watch me swim a race there is little kicking going on (4 beat kick, rarely 6 beat). I don't have any video to share, sorry. My breaststroke kick is a decent speed...but it's breaststroke kick!!! What's wrong with my free kick? Seriously! In sets, I cannot make the times if I do free, but if I do *** I'm just fine.
Is this normal? I've been "stuck" this way forever. I can hold 100's easily on the 1:50 with ***, and I can do that all day....I can do about 1 on the 2:00 with free and it just gets slower from there. :drown:
Swimming? I can hold 100's on the 1:20 all day. I can also pull 100's on the 1:20 all day. Hmmmmm.
Is there someone out there that can figure this out? :help:
I'm only a decently fast kicker, although a sprinter as well. (Except for BR kick, that sux.) Think I use the upper body and core strength more than the leg strength when swimming. Although my legs seem pretty strong. I also have never liked kick sets all that much. And, not using a board, they drag on forever if you don't have fins.
However, I do think fast kicking is critical for sprinting. So it is worth practicing and improving. I also am just forced to do more kicking than I would be inclined to do to save my shoulders. So I've tried to jazz up the kicking to make it more fun. I do loads of dolphin kicking with and without my monofin, on my front, back and sides. I do underwater shooters as well as some longer stuff. I've also been doing flutter kick shooters. For my anemic BR kick, I'm trying out the speedo BR fins, and they seem to help. In short, changing up the type of kicking, focusing on SDKs, and using some toys has helped improve my "kicking." I say "kicking" because the dolphin kicking is not just kicking, it hits the core and is part of the stroke. So maybe change things around a bit. A traditional kicking set would probably make me groan too.
There's an old thread that discusses the issue of whether you should bother to focus on kicking. I think it's called "Challenge: Who's willing to give up their kicking sets?" or something like that. Personally, not me.
