Originally posted by Paul Smith
Here's the deal folks...forget about weights...if you REALLY want to make a significant break through in your swimming relative to competition stop swimming for 4-8 weeks and go to kick only workouts...as you ease back into swimming you will have the opportunity to "learn" how to integrate a new and powerful element to your stroke...something that 90% of the swimmers I see competing do not do well....
This really caught my attention. I seem to have been hearing this a lot lately: people coming back after a shoulder op, doing kick only workouts and then having their best seasons ever.
I don't doubt the authenticity of it either. I am just interested on what is actually going on. Why should this be the case?
Has anyone ever scientifically measured the amount the kick contributes to forward propulsion? I mean ratio wise, compared to the arms, what would it be? 80% arms : 20% legs?
What about the swimmers who are great kickers in workouts but can't translate it into faster swimming?
How do we actually integrate the kick into our swimming so that it becomes a new and powerful element to our stroke as Paul suggests?
Would it be fair to say that a big part of the improvement these (post op/ focus on kicking )swimmers achieve can be attributed to the strengthened core which is a result of the additional kicking. In other words more credit given to the strengthened core than increased forward propulsion.
I don't know. I just throw out these ideas for discussion.
Syd
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Former Member
Thanks for posting that kick workout Paul. It is just the kind of workout I was looking for.
Of course I will have to modify the intervals, though. It is just not possible for me to do 12 x 50m on 1:00 min. I am not able to go under .50 secs for a 50 m flutter kick even though I can go .21 for 25m. That second 25 kills me. There is so much lactate acid build up that my legs go all stiff and can hardly move. It's agony and I have to rock my whole body just to get forward momentum.
I don't use fins. I get great 'feel for the water' when I use fins but it doesn't seem to transfer well when I take them off. My legs feel dead in the water. It is like strapping on a 50 horse power outboard motor to practice and then only having a 5 horse power motor when it counts.
Perhaps it is because my kick isn't integrated with my pull at all. I don't have any of that feeling of connection between pull and kick that Tree describes:
Originally posted by Tree
Then one day all of a sudden it really came naturally. My kick and pull felt sort of connected. There was one primary sign I presumed indicating this: I sometimes felt that one beat of my left leg down kick can combine my left arm pull to produce a little bit more propulsion (just a feeling. no empirical evidence). But I cannot feel the same with my right leg kick and right arm pull. There are some other signs too, like, my thighs were sore after some intensified practise, my ankles were more relaxed, I can slow down the arm pull tempo but still feel fluidly going forward. Of course it is far from being a well integration of kick and pull. But I can sense that I am moving towards the right direction.
Syd
Thanks for posting that kick workout Paul. It is just the kind of workout I was looking for.
Of course I will have to modify the intervals, though. It is just not possible for me to do 12 x 50m on 1:00 min. I am not able to go under .50 secs for a 50 m flutter kick even though I can go .21 for 25m. That second 25 kills me. There is so much lactate acid build up that my legs go all stiff and can hardly move. It's agony and I have to rock my whole body just to get forward momentum.
I don't use fins. I get great 'feel for the water' when I use fins but it doesn't seem to transfer well when I take them off. My legs feel dead in the water. It is like strapping on a 50 horse power outboard motor to practice and then only having a 5 horse power motor when it counts.
Perhaps it is because my kick isn't integrated with my pull at all. I don't have any of that feeling of connection between pull and kick that Tree describes:
Originally posted by Tree
Then one day all of a sudden it really came naturally. My kick and pull felt sort of connected. There was one primary sign I presumed indicating this: I sometimes felt that one beat of my left leg down kick can combine my left arm pull to produce a little bit more propulsion (just a feeling. no empirical evidence). But I cannot feel the same with my right leg kick and right arm pull. There are some other signs too, like, my thighs were sore after some intensified practise, my ankles were more relaxed, I can slow down the arm pull tempo but still feel fluidly going forward. Of course it is far from being a well integration of kick and pull. But I can sense that I am moving towards the right direction.
Syd
