Here are the answers...
1. False. Kicking accounts for only about one-third of forward propulsion, and in the process, it uses your largest and most oxygen-thirsty muscles. Thus, super-hard leg work doesn't have much payoff and will probably tire you out quickly, slowing you down in the long run. Sprinters may want to kick harder than distance swimmers, but if you're swimming a short distance, build to a hard kick instead of working your legs the whole way, advises Jane Katz, author of The All-American Aquatic Handbook: Your Passport to Lifetime Fitness (Allyn & Bacon, 1996).
But if you train your legs during practice with a lot of fast kicking, don't you build some endurance that will help you kick harder and longer in races? Or, as with SDKs, don't you become a better, more efficient kicker so that you go fast without as much effort?
I always eat before I swim. No problem. Screw mornings.
Myth: Good swimmers are all tall. Rank heightism.
Myth: Yoga is good cross training for swimming. No, only if you're inflexible like Tall Paul in his tutu. Otherwise, spin, run, lift, do core work, etc. (Can you tell I went to a yoga class today? What a waste of time -- FOR ME folks.)
Here are the answers...
1. False. Kicking accounts for only about one-third of forward propulsion, and in the process, it uses your largest and most oxygen-thirsty muscles. Thus, super-hard leg work doesn't have much payoff and will probably tire you out quickly, slowing you down in the long run. Sprinters may want to kick harder than distance swimmers, but if you're swimming a short distance, build to a hard kick instead of working your legs the whole way, advises Jane Katz, author of The All-American Aquatic Handbook: Your Passport to Lifetime Fitness (Allyn & Bacon, 1996).
But if you train your legs during practice with a lot of fast kicking, don't you build some endurance that will help you kick harder and longer in races? Or, as with SDKs, don't you become a better, more efficient kicker so that you go fast without as much effort?
I always eat before I swim. No problem. Screw mornings.
Myth: Good swimmers are all tall. Rank heightism.
Myth: Yoga is good cross training for swimming. No, only if you're inflexible like Tall Paul in his tutu. Otherwise, spin, run, lift, do core work, etc. (Can you tell I went to a yoga class today? What a waste of time -- FOR ME folks.)
