I have a two beat crossover kick. I am not sure why I even do the crossover thing. Perhaps I do it to maintain flotation while using two beats. I have noticed that if I stop kicking altogether my legs sink. Or perhaps it is happening when I am rotating to breathe.
There is another thread on this forum titled: Two beat crossover kick - is it bad? but this thread ended up talking about a two beat kick as opposed to a 4 or 6 beat kick and never discussed the crossover aspect of it at all. In that thread George mentioned that Rowdy Gaines had a crossover kick but I couldn't find any of Rowdy's videos on the web at all. Does anyone have this peculiarity or know of someone else who does?
My other question and my main intention of starting a new thread about this: is this a bad habit I should get rid of?
The thing is that I consider myself a sprinter and I feel this way of kicking is holding me back from improving my times. Because of the crossover thing I can't increase the tempo of my kick. My legs crossover while they should be doing the third of the fourth beat. My kick is weak and ineffectual and when I watch videos of the top sprinters, all of them are kicking like motorboats. Do you have to be a six beat kicker to be a good sprinter?
Finally, when I try to kick with my legs side by side, not only does it mess up my rhythm, but it also exhausts me. I can barely do a fifty with a six beat kick without wanting to collapse. But I feel it is something I could train myself to do. Yesterday I went to the pool for an hour and just practiced six beat, regular flutter kick. It was painful and required tremendous concentration and effort on my part but by the end of the hour, I did manage to go 28.72 for a 50m free. It didn't feel that good (it is hard to explain but it feels like my arms and legs are out of sync).
If this is a bad habit I should get rid of what is the best way of going about it? Should I just be doing tons of kicking sets? My flutter kick with a board (and without but just no arms) has improved quite a bit lately (thanks to the advice of Ande) but I just can't seem to fit it together with the arms. It is like there is no connection between the upper and lower half of the body. I have a weak lower back and this could be part of the problem. Another thing: I have noticed from watching myself on video that I have a higher head position than I thought I had. Could this higher head position be instrumental in forcing my hips down and thus making it more difficult to kick?
Sincerely Syd
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Former Member
.... In coach Emmet Hines' words I seem to be 'swimming uphill'.... Does this mean there is something seriously wrong with my flotation?....
i kind of suspected you may be doing the "uphill" thing... glad those links helped.
i don't know that anyone has "wrong" buoyancy... some just float better than others. basically: muscle sinks (and is more dense), while fat floats (and is less dense). but for most swimmers... lung capacity has more to do with buoyancy than anything. streamlining and balance are big factors too, and leg position (the kick) affects these two items a LOT.
i'm 6'2, 190#, mostly lean and muscular (though i do have some extra padding around the middle... hey! i'm a regular guy and 49), and i can float like a cork when i want to. part of this is genetics, but most of it i attribute to practice.
when i was (more goofy, and more ADD as) a kid i used to sit in class (bored/distracted) and see how long i could hold my breath. (being "the big kid" i was always way in the back.) i also played trumpet in grade school for a while. early on i loved to swim, or at least play in the water, and swam underwater a LOT (and still practice that). starting in my last 3 years of HS i've done a lot of lap swimming whenever i had easy access to a pool. as an adult, when not swimming, i've done a lot of Yoga, and Yogic Breathing exercises. so i've had a LOT of practice developing my lung capacity.
i believe any swimmer will benefit greatly by emphasizing lung capacity development. i reckon elite swimmers (and athletes in general) develop this naturally, while the rest of us regular folks have to work on it. check my post on Flotation is Fundamental – Good Breathing is the Key as a place to start... if you're interested.
in my mid 20's, when i was a carpenter, not swimming much, but doing a lot of Yoga (and starting to practice Yogic Breathing), i had a problem and went to see a Holistically oriented MD. he eventually sourced my problem as stress and told me to relax more, but in the process of examination he did a bunch of simple tests. one of them was to breathe into a simple mechanical device to measure my lung capacity/force. not giving it much thought, but puffing up a bit, i blew into it. i'll never forget his response... his eyes bugged out and he exclaimed that he'd never seen that good a result... it was better than anything he'd ever done, and he regularly played a trumpet! he had me give it a few more tries, but none topped the first. i reckon it just shows to go you that you frequently do your best when you aren't thinking about it... when it is automatic... when it is A STATE OF MIND.
my kick greatly affects my balance as i move through the water. i guess i'm lucky in that i've found a natural, balanced rhythm between my arms and legs in this respect. i pretty much exclusively do a 6-beat kick, but i don't give it that much thought really, i mostly just do what feels right at the time.
(somewhat along these lines... the thread on How would you train as a "Vessel Shaper?" is pretty interesting. and i thought the thread on Total Immersion and New Swimmers was pretty good too.)
i've gone on quite a bit about these and similar topics in other threads, you may want to check them out (the threads, as well as my posts). most specifically these:
Mass and Buoyancy (Re: Swimming Myths)
Streamlining and Buoyancy (Re: ... buoyant legs?)
.... In coach Emmet Hines' words I seem to be 'swimming uphill'.... Does this mean there is something seriously wrong with my flotation?....
i kind of suspected you may be doing the "uphill" thing... glad those links helped.
i don't know that anyone has "wrong" buoyancy... some just float better than others. basically: muscle sinks (and is more dense), while fat floats (and is less dense). but for most swimmers... lung capacity has more to do with buoyancy than anything. streamlining and balance are big factors too, and leg position (the kick) affects these two items a LOT.
i'm 6'2, 190#, mostly lean and muscular (though i do have some extra padding around the middle... hey! i'm a regular guy and 49), and i can float like a cork when i want to. part of this is genetics, but most of it i attribute to practice.
when i was (more goofy, and more ADD as) a kid i used to sit in class (bored/distracted) and see how long i could hold my breath. (being "the big kid" i was always way in the back.) i also played trumpet in grade school for a while. early on i loved to swim, or at least play in the water, and swam underwater a LOT (and still practice that). starting in my last 3 years of HS i've done a lot of lap swimming whenever i had easy access to a pool. as an adult, when not swimming, i've done a lot of Yoga, and Yogic Breathing exercises. so i've had a LOT of practice developing my lung capacity.
i believe any swimmer will benefit greatly by emphasizing lung capacity development. i reckon elite swimmers (and athletes in general) develop this naturally, while the rest of us regular folks have to work on it. check my post on Flotation is Fundamental – Good Breathing is the Key as a place to start... if you're interested.
in my mid 20's, when i was a carpenter, not swimming much, but doing a lot of Yoga (and starting to practice Yogic Breathing), i had a problem and went to see a Holistically oriented MD. he eventually sourced my problem as stress and told me to relax more, but in the process of examination he did a bunch of simple tests. one of them was to breathe into a simple mechanical device to measure my lung capacity/force. not giving it much thought, but puffing up a bit, i blew into it. i'll never forget his response... his eyes bugged out and he exclaimed that he'd never seen that good a result... it was better than anything he'd ever done, and he regularly played a trumpet! he had me give it a few more tries, but none topped the first. i reckon it just shows to go you that you frequently do your best when you aren't thinking about it... when it is automatic... when it is A STATE OF MIND.
my kick greatly affects my balance as i move through the water. i guess i'm lucky in that i've found a natural, balanced rhythm between my arms and legs in this respect. i pretty much exclusively do a 6-beat kick, but i don't give it that much thought really, i mostly just do what feels right at the time.
(somewhat along these lines... the thread on How would you train as a "Vessel Shaper?" is pretty interesting. and i thought the thread on Total Immersion and New Swimmers was pretty good too.)
i've gone on quite a bit about these and similar topics in other threads, you may want to check them out (the threads, as well as my posts). most specifically these:
Mass and Buoyancy (Re: Swimming Myths)
Streamlining and Buoyancy (Re: ... buoyant legs?)
