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
Former Member
A simple solution to see whether using SDK's is an advantage or disadvantage for anyone (in a shorter race) is to have yourself timed to 15 meters going off the blocks with full rest numerous times on numerous different days. Make sure the timer is being consistent. Compare times to the 15 meter mark with no kicks, 2 kicks, 4 kicks, etc., etc.
40-50 efforts over a two week period should give you a pretty good idea of what your ideal SDK amount would be. You can also do this off turns starting the watch on the feet.
For me the "sweet spot" is 4 kicks on free and 5 on fly. For some reason the extra one on fly helps me avoid the dreaded arms under water breakout.
Is this Rich Abrahams, as in THE Richard Abrahams? IF it is, let me say, it is an honor to meet you!!
When you watch Coughlin, Phelps, Crocker, etc. they are going 5'-8' below the surface in order to get the length and proper surfacing angle...far to many folks literally are on the surface splashing away and slowing themselves down...or their breakouts are terribly splashy as well...there is a LOT of finesse to doing a proper SDK.
I've seen that too, of course. And I guess I'm used to seeing people do a few token SDKs without much propulsion and then pop up. Not effective at all.
Do you think you have to go that deep to have an effective SDK? I don't think I go 8 feet deep, but I know I'm faster underwater, especially off the start. Of course this is just my uncoached view. lol
Mike Collins(previously USMS coach of the year) what he calls the checkmark start and turn(so called because the path looks like a checkmark) in which you go deep off the pushoff and then surface slowly.By the way the SDK idea isn't new.I had a teammate in high school in the mid 60s who had a great dolphin kick and a not so great fly so he went the first length underwater in the 200 IM.
Being back in the sport for only 3 1/2 years now, I tried the SDK off the walls but it is not effective for me on freestyle. I am better off with a standard flutter kick, which I am working really hard on. My coach has made me kick so much lately that the fat is just melting off my thighs! YEAH!
Unfortunately I am still very slow by most peoples standards. My best 50 kick has only gotten down to :52. But it used to be a 1:05 so I am whittling it down.
I have found I almost naturally do an SDK off my starts which I do use most of the time, but then I am a distance swimmers who usually leaves the legs somewhere on the starting block and then picks them back up on the last 50.:rofl:
If your SDK is faster then you can swim do it. I personally only do 3 kicks before I breakout.
I did 10-14 off the start (depending on stroke) at my last meet.
Paul:
This is a little reductionist, but are you saying that if you can't SDK like Coughlin or Lochte, you shouldn't do it? Or just that it's overused? Or that only a few can do it properly and most of us should put the energy into working on our kick instead?
I did 10-14 off the start (depending on stroke) at my last meet.
Paul:
This is a little reductionist, but are you saying that if you can't SDK like Coughlin or Lochte, you shouldn't do it? Or just that it's overused? Or that only a few can do it properly and most of us should put the energy into working on our kick instead?
What I'm saying is everyone is different and what works for those types of swimmers on't necessarily work for everyone. Rich A ND george said it best, time this kind of stuff and find out for yourself if its truly working or only perceived.
My main point is that there are a lot of people who see swimmers like Coughlin and read blogs here and on USS and watch meet clips on YouTube who become convinced they need to be doing SDK's....even if they don't know how to do so properly/or can't and are actually slower.
Swimmers like Jazz Hands who are self coached are a perfect example...he is reading lifting magazines and reading swimming blogs and training himself...and at a very young age is already getting overuse injuries and using questionable techniques that down the road may really hurt him...pony up and get some good coaching (i.e. one on one not via the internet) through some outstanding clinics/trainers/etc. and do things right and you'll have longer term success.
