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
Syd,
Evil (John) Smith has posted many, many times that swimming is such a fad driven sport that it masks the fact that there really has not been all that much advancement in times being swum vs. 20 years ago. Most recently this came up when Ian Crocker swam unrested in a meet and went 19+, 42+ & 4:19...very imporessive swims and showing and incredible "reach" in bridging the sprint/middle distance gap...thing is Rowdy did the almost exact same times over 20 years ago.
I bring this up because even though I'm a major proponent of heavy kick training I see a LOT of swimmers right now fixated on SDK...even ones who are finding like you that they may ultimately be slower using it. The thing is not everyone can or should be using an SDK for competition....in my opinion it takes years of practice to fully integrate it successfully into the complete stroke and I would guess that easilly 50-75% of swimmers will never achieve that integration...
The ones that can and do are those that have an uncanny "feel" for overall streamline body position....something I'm still not convinced can be "taught". Not to worry however as MANY of the top USS/Collegiate/Masters swimmers out there are doing just fine without it...in fact just recently I swam the SCM meet at Long Beach and had some decent swims in my 100/200 free where I didn't use it at all...but I still practice it every workout.
Final thought....don't get caught up in what others are doing so much and so fixated on a certain number of kicks to use, be "fluid" in every workout and adjust as you see how your body is working/feeling...you may find that things will happen more naturally and hopefully with better results.
Good post. But I see hardly anyone fixated on SDK. I think SDKs have a lot of notoriety, but I don't see that many masters swimmers using them all that much.
I think you should try the SDKs in fly, Chris. Since it works for you in backstroke, you'd think it would work reasonably well for fly. My last two 100 flys, I SDK'd a lot, 15 meters on the start. My legs didn't die in the end. My arms did.
Syd,
Evil (John) Smith has posted many, many times that swimming is such a fad driven sport that it masks the fact that there really has not been all that much advancement in times being swum vs. 20 years ago. Most recently this came up when Ian Crocker swam unrested in a meet and went 19+, 42+ & 4:19...very imporessive swims and showing and incredible "reach" in bridging the sprint/middle distance gap...thing is Rowdy did the almost exact same times over 20 years ago.
I bring this up because even though I'm a major proponent of heavy kick training I see a LOT of swimmers right now fixated on SDK...even ones who are finding like you that they may ultimately be slower using it. The thing is not everyone can or should be using an SDK for competition....in my opinion it takes years of practice to fully integrate it successfully into the complete stroke and I would guess that easilly 50-75% of swimmers will never achieve that integration...
The ones that can and do are those that have an uncanny "feel" for overall streamline body position....something I'm still not convinced can be "taught". Not to worry however as MANY of the top USS/Collegiate/Masters swimmers out there are doing just fine without it...in fact just recently I swam the SCM meet at Long Beach and had some decent swims in my 100/200 free where I didn't use it at all...but I still practice it every workout.
Final thought....don't get caught up in what others are doing so much and so fixated on a certain number of kicks to use, be "fluid" in every workout and adjust as you see how your body is working/feeling...you may find that things will happen more naturally and hopefully with better results.
Good post. But I see hardly anyone fixated on SDK. I think SDKs have a lot of notoriety, but I don't see that many masters swimmers using them all that much.
I think you should try the SDKs in fly, Chris. Since it works for you in backstroke, you'd think it would work reasonably well for fly. My last two 100 flys, I SDK'd a lot, 15 meters on the start. My legs didn't die in the end. My arms did.
