How much does a good kick contribute?

chris, explain what you mean by the "modest goal" give a few examples ande In a nutshell: increase by one the number of SDKs you would otherwise take (unless you are already at the 15m mark). Do it for everything. I think one should have goals for the number of SDKs off each wall of a race. For example, in my 50 back I take 10 off the start, then 11 off the wall; these are pretty much the most I can do without risking a DQ, so my goal would be to increase my speed, not the number of kicks. 100 back: I do 10-10-9-8. Ultimate goal: 10-11-11-11. Goal for next year: add 1 off the 3rd and 4th wall. 200 back: 10-7-6-6-5-5-5-5. Goal: change the 5s to 6s. (There is, of course, no reason to limit yourself to backstroke.) Two things I think are true: (1) you shouldn't attempt to do in a meet what you don't practice and (2) it is difficult to make drastic changes in one year. Hence my "modest" suggestion. Everyone has a "baseline" number of SDKs. Imagine a set of 100s or 200s without much rest, where you are pretty much operating at your lactate threshold. The number of SDKs you are taking is your baseline, and it is usually pretty close to the number of SDKs you will take at the end of a 200. So for me to increase my baseline by one, I need NEVER to take fewer than 6 kicks in practice. For sets with much rest (eg, test sets), I should make sure I never take fewer than 9 kicks (ie, my goal on the last wall in the 100). Maybe this was more than you wanted...but that's what happens when you ask a professor a question. (I can see the glazed look in your eyes from here.) Good luck in your training; it must be exciting to have nationals in your backyard.

Also, I'm guessing the influx of immigrants from south of the border and Asia has helped to keep the U.S. height pretty constant. It's entirely possible that Americans of European heritage have continued to get taller. Interesting observation. I wonder what the numbers say. Though I am from "way" south of the border, I am definetly doing my best to keep that average trending upwards... at 6'0" (or 6'1" according to the blue muppet), I'm definetely in the upper height echelon of this group. "We" are typically lactose intolerant... milk, as we know, does a body good, and it is believed that the absence of milk in the diet of young spanish-speaking western-hemisphere dwellers is the reason for a generally smaller stature at adulthood.

How I integrate kicking into a workout: Today after wam up main set was: LCM 4 x 200's @ 3:15 (swam 175 free/50 back-7SDK's off each wall) 2 x 50 recover @ 1:15 3 x 200's @ 3:00 (used split fins and snorkel kicking 6 x 6-5 SDK's off each wall) 2 x 50's recover @ 1:15 2 x 200's @ 2:45 (pulled with snorkel-3 x SDK's off each wall) 2 x 50's recover @ 1:15 1 x 200 (kicked dolfin kick on my back/7 SDK's off each wall) Paul, by a 6x6 kick do you mean a regular 6 beat kick? Syd

there's a kid on my team that pulls insanely fast, but kicks really slow. He's one of the fastest freestylers on the team. He pulls twice for every kick. he just pulls 2 times really quick followed by one GIANT kick.

Hi Chris, thanks for your explanations no eye glazing here I confess, I have a hard time with SDKs on sets where I don't get much rest. I need to be better at doing them there For a while Tyler last season was taking 10 kicks off every wall on fast stuff in the 50 bk I take 12 off the start and 12 off the turn lately I've been switching to smaller faster kicks, less amplitude I also need to figure out how many to take for the: 50 fl & fr and the 100 fl, bk, fr & IM In a nutshell: increase by one the number of SDKs you would otherwise take (unless you are already at the 15m mark). Do it for everything. I think one should have goals for the number of SDKs off each wall of a race. For example, in my 50 back I take 10 off the start, then 11 off the wall; these are pretty much the most I can do without risking a DQ, so my goal would be to increase my speed, not the number of kicks. 100 back: I do 10-10-9-8. Ultimate goal: 10-11-11-11. Goal for next year: add 1 off the 3rd and 4th wall. 200 back: 10-7-6-6-5-5-5-5. Goal: change the 5s to 6s. (There is, of course, no reason to limit yourself to backstroke.) Two things I think are true: 1) you shouldn't attempt to do in a meet what you don't practice and 2) it is difficult to make drastic changes in one year. Hence my "modest" suggestion. Everyone has a "baseline" number of SDKs. Imagine a set of 100s or 200s without much rest, where you are pretty much operating at your lactate threshold. The number of SDKs you are taking is your baseline, and it is usually pretty close to the number of SDKs you will take at the end of a 200. So for me to increase my baseline by one, I need NEVER to take fewer than 6 kicks in practice. For sets with much rest (eg, test sets), I should make sure I never take fewer than 9 kicks (ie, my goal on the last wall in the 100). Maybe this was more than you wanted...but that's what happens when you ask a professor a question. (I can see the glazed look in your eyes from here.) Good luck in your training; it must be exciting to have nationals in your backyard.

I confess, I have a hard time with SDKs on sets where I don't get much rest. Yep, me too. But oxygen is just SO overrated... If you work on this enough, though, taking fewer than (say) 5 kicks feels completely unnatural, even when dying and gasping for air on the 7th turn of a 200. I'm not sure how good a strategy this would be for longer freestyle events, but I thought that of butterfly once and then come along people like Ian Crocker (21 strokes for a 100 yd fly? Incredible). Has anyone seen a distance swimmer take many many kicks off each wall? I have seen it for the last turn or two, in the sprint for the finish, but not for an entire distance race.

I emphasis "integrated" above because as many of you have seen/experienaced a lot of strong "kickers" can't coordiante that strength with their arm/core movements....Quicksilver....I will tell you that for me my turnover slows down slightly when I engage my kick (6-8 beat) So how do you "integrate" I suggest applying the Fartlec concept to your kicking...no board...and varying distances....change it up between a 6 x 6 switch, 3 x 3 and straight swim, something like: 400 (freetstyle position) rotating 25-6 x 6, 25-3 x 3, 25-easy swim with 2 beat kick building to 6 beat kick, 25 going as far on the push off as you can with a constantly increasing kick speed. . Here is a novice swimmer's little experience on integrating kicks into the pulls, mainly for novice swimmers like me, not you experts. :wiggle: When I started learning freestyle I cannot get my kicks and pull coordinated. It seemed that there was no whatsoever connection between my kick and arm pull. It felt like my upper body doing the pull independent of my kick. I asked and was told by Terry and George that it would eventually come naturally. And they also told me to focus on arm pull. So what can I do except for waiting for it really coming in the end? Well, I could do nothing but reluctantly to follow their advice. However I paid attention to three things: 1, try to learn how to kick from thighs; 2, try to relax my ankles as much as possible; 3, occasionally I swam a two stroke six kick very slowly (at least I assumed it was a two stroke six kick since I could not see myself swimming) with a focus on the kick and rhythm. 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. Hope this could help others.

Fridays are always kick days at Brophy....hard and fast stuff which I personally think is the best way to train your kick...low amplitude, "social" kicking is worthless. LCM warm-up = 0-30 minutes (300 for me) 12 x 50's @ 1:00 descending (no fins) 1-4, 5-8, 9-12 (I did the first round free w/board, second round fly with board, 3rd round no board, kick 12 sdk into a 6 x 6 flutter...all fast under :40 100 w/fins for time (used tyr split fins 7 sdk on push off turn into 6 x 6 flutter for a 1:06) 6x kicking the following: 50 fast/50 easy @ 2:30 (used tyr split fins and snorkel, 5 sdk's into 6 x 6 free all fast under :30) 500 pull (used snorkel, pull buoy, large tyr paddles holding 1:15 pace) 4 x 50's no interval using short/power fins and Han's paddles

AMEN you didn't ask for one but your comment deserved it kick days at Brophy.... hard and fast stuff which I personally think is the best way to train your kick... low amplitude, "social" kicking is worthless.

Syd....pop for a good set of fins...my personal favorite if I were to have just one set (I have 3) would be the TYR split fins because they are fantastic at both longer and shorter/power kick sets and have a real low impact on the joints (zoomers suck IMHO unless you are doing powerwork-fins w/paddles 25s or 50s) because they are so rigig....and some of the longer solid fins slow your tempo/amplitude to much. Fins are great used strategically....where I see problems is people using them to move into a faster lane and be able to make intervals. When I see someone standing on deck ready to dive in and take their first stroke and already have fins on...theres a bit of a problem!