Geochuck's Kicking is a Total Waste of Time Thread
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Former Member
Lindsay what I am referring to is breathing is going to cause unbalanced leg action. You will never learn anything swimming slow, if you want to swim fast. The shortcut to balance is not to breathe and swim correctly.
Just like in butterfly you will never attain your goals if you do that artificial distance butterfly.
I agree totally that butterfly is not a stroke that can be slowed down beyond a point, slowing down applies more to freestyle. I don't know that I'm ready to buy that there is nothing to learn from swimming slow, my argument is that generally if I can't achieve a technique or coordinated timing at a slow speed I probably won't be able to do it fast either. Naturally once I can do it at a slower speed I have to then work on doing it at faster and faster speeds if I want to swim fast. I think a lot of well respected swimmers advocate swimming slow as one component of working on technique.
With butterfly I have found that using small fins allows me to swim in a slower more controlled manner than without fins and makes it easier to work on fitting the timing of all the components together, and the fins also allow me to do more repetitions before fatigue causes everything to fall apart. Actually my speed through the water is higher but my stroke rate is slower. My hope is that as my timing and coordination get more solid I will be able to progressively speed up and swim without the fins. I know that I am now getting that "it's working" feeling much more consistently with the fins on and I feel like my butterfly without fins is already improving, but when I swam in a meet back in April when I tried to go fast my arms sped up more than my body and legs and the general timing and therefore undulation fell apart and I reverted back to my old stroke. I hope that this was the result of it being my first swim after three weeks off sick, and just that I wasn't ready for full speed yet.
Anyway, I won't know if this approach works or whether I'm just getting better at butterfly with fins for several more weeks at least. Too bad nationals are next week... :( On the plus side, butterfly with fins is fun! :agree:
Lindsay what I am referring to is breathing is going to cause unbalanced leg action. You will never learn anything swimming slow, if you want to swim fast. The shortcut to balance is not to breathe and swim correctly.
Just like in butterfly you will never attain your goals if you do that artificial distance butterfly.
I agree totally that butterfly is not a stroke that can be slowed down beyond a point, slowing down applies more to freestyle. I don't know that I'm ready to buy that there is nothing to learn from swimming slow, my argument is that generally if I can't achieve a technique or coordinated timing at a slow speed I probably won't be able to do it fast either. Naturally once I can do it at a slower speed I have to then work on doing it at faster and faster speeds if I want to swim fast. I think a lot of well respected swimmers advocate swimming slow as one component of working on technique.
With butterfly I have found that using small fins allows me to swim in a slower more controlled manner than without fins and makes it easier to work on fitting the timing of all the components together, and the fins also allow me to do more repetitions before fatigue causes everything to fall apart. Actually my speed through the water is higher but my stroke rate is slower. My hope is that as my timing and coordination get more solid I will be able to progressively speed up and swim without the fins. I know that I am now getting that "it's working" feeling much more consistently with the fins on and I feel like my butterfly without fins is already improving, but when I swam in a meet back in April when I tried to go fast my arms sped up more than my body and legs and the general timing and therefore undulation fell apart and I reverted back to my old stroke. I hope that this was the result of it being my first swim after three weeks off sick, and just that I wasn't ready for full speed yet.
Anyway, I won't know if this approach works or whether I'm just getting better at butterfly with fins for several more weeks at least. Too bad nationals are next week... :( On the plus side, butterfly with fins is fun! :agree:
