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
is it 15 meters in yards pools
never knew that
I need to do more hard longer kicks like your impressive
5 x 100 averaging 59.5
whitney assigns a lot of fin kicking
what do you do when you run out of air and surface
what interval were you on
it's good when you can find that easy speed gear for the 100
to get out fast and relaxed yet have legs and gas
to attack the SKDs in the 2nd 50 and closely split the race
I wonder how much is mental vs physical
The 100s were on the 4:00. We do a similar set swimming off the blocks. Other test sets we do include
-- 5 x 200 on 7:00 (this set is just brutal)
-- 10 x 100 on 2:00 for best average
-- Drop out 50s, starting at 1:00, dropping 1 sec for each one, and lasting as long as possible.
These are all recorded; when we are about to do a test set, the coach will post the previous results. We probably do each one every 4-6 weeks.
On the kick set, I went from a push and kept underwater as long as I could (didn't worry about 15m on the first lap, came up at the flags) and kicked flutter when I surfaced each time. I did a backstroke flip (one pull) at each wall.
I think the mental part is mostly during training; once you've conditioned your body to swim that way in practice then the race itself isn't bad at all. High-rest test sets are good as gauges but they are also a great way to reproduce what you feel at the end of a race, in practice. But it is (mentally) VERY tough to truly leave it all in the pool and learn to swim through the pain.
You do a lot of race-pace stuff in your practices, of course, and I am always very impressed with your speed. I can't go that fast in freestyle in practice! Good luck with your training.
Chris
is it 15 meters in yards pools
never knew that
I need to do more hard longer kicks like your impressive
5 x 100 averaging 59.5
whitney assigns a lot of fin kicking
what do you do when you run out of air and surface
what interval were you on
it's good when you can find that easy speed gear for the 100
to get out fast and relaxed yet have legs and gas
to attack the SKDs in the 2nd 50 and closely split the race
I wonder how much is mental vs physical
The 100s were on the 4:00. We do a similar set swimming off the blocks. Other test sets we do include
-- 5 x 200 on 7:00 (this set is just brutal)
-- 10 x 100 on 2:00 for best average
-- Drop out 50s, starting at 1:00, dropping 1 sec for each one, and lasting as long as possible.
These are all recorded; when we are about to do a test set, the coach will post the previous results. We probably do each one every 4-6 weeks.
On the kick set, I went from a push and kept underwater as long as I could (didn't worry about 15m on the first lap, came up at the flags) and kicked flutter when I surfaced each time. I did a backstroke flip (one pull) at each wall.
I think the mental part is mostly during training; once you've conditioned your body to swim that way in practice then the race itself isn't bad at all. High-rest test sets are good as gauges but they are also a great way to reproduce what you feel at the end of a race, in practice. But it is (mentally) VERY tough to truly leave it all in the pool and learn to swim through the pain.
You do a lot of race-pace stuff in your practices, of course, and I am always very impressed with your speed. I can't go that fast in freestyle in practice! Good luck with your training.
Chris
