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
Tough sets
Whitney doesn't assign many fast kicking sets or
write down results
she did write down times on the fast 500's we did a week or 2 ago, she said we're going to do the set again 5 or 6 weeks later, since I'm focusing on 50's & 100's I'm probably not going to go for it like I otherwise would
I do free, fly, back, and SDK in practice
I believe if I train for and improve in one of the strokes,
I tend to drop proportionately in the others
Thanks on my freestyles, lately I've been working on freestyle and occasionally pop some times that surprise me
like last summer I did a LCM roll start 50 fr at Mabel Davis in 24.1
I tend to swim fast in practice and
believe the faster I swim in practice
the faster I'll swim in meets.
I need to work on aggressive SDKs of the 2nd & 3rd turns in the 100 bk
swimming faster in May depends on
getting stronger
weighing less and
swimming fast in practice
This past season I thought I'd go faster in the 50 fr than 24.69
in that race, I didn't hit the turn right so I didn't get a good push off
I also touched with the wrong hand,
in the past I've sometimes had good drops from prelims to finals,
like in 1984 at a pre national meet,
I went 24.7 in the 50 fr in prelims then 24.0 at night
Chris you've inspired me to do a more fast 75's & 100's kick in practice
take care,
Ande
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
Tough sets
Whitney doesn't assign many fast kicking sets or
write down results
she did write down times on the fast 500's we did a week or 2 ago, she said we're going to do the set again 5 or 6 weeks later, since I'm focusing on 50's & 100's I'm probably not going to go for it like I otherwise would
I do free, fly, back, and SDK in practice
I believe if I train for and improve in one of the strokes,
I tend to drop proportionately in the others
Thanks on my freestyles, lately I've been working on freestyle and occasionally pop some times that surprise me
like last summer I did a LCM roll start 50 fr at Mabel Davis in 24.1
I tend to swim fast in practice and
believe the faster I swim in practice
the faster I'll swim in meets.
I need to work on aggressive SDKs of the 2nd & 3rd turns in the 100 bk
swimming faster in May depends on
getting stronger
weighing less and
swimming fast in practice
This past season I thought I'd go faster in the 50 fr than 24.69
in that race, I didn't hit the turn right so I didn't get a good push off
I also touched with the wrong hand,
in the past I've sometimes had good drops from prelims to finals,
like in 1984 at a pre national meet,
I went 24.7 in the 50 fr in prelims then 24.0 at night
Chris you've inspired me to do a more fast 75's & 100's kick in practice
take care,
Ande
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
