I have found my sprints didn't improve until I started really working on my kick. That is also when the weight really started to drop too! Just an added bonus.
Lochte (pronounced LOCK-tee) swims 3 to 5 miles most days, sometimes even twice a day. Few non-Olympic hopefuls could, or would want to, replicate that kind of distance.
Oh how wrong this statement is.
Interesting that the article states Lochte has tendinitis in his shoulders yet he kicks with a kickboard. I would think that'd aggravate the shoulders...
What I say is you do not have to spend a lot of time on the kick, the kick can be incorporated into your full stroke swimming.
The way a few go on is the kick is more important then the arms.
An old argument, of course...basically, you are saying that the best way to train for competitive swimming is to swim. And it is true: the vast majority of swimmers spend much more time swimming than doing anything else.
But if you apply this reasoning to its extreme, then all of the following should be dropped in favor of devoting the time to more swimming: weights, Pilates, situps, pushups, pullups, kicking, pulling, yoga, stretching, etc etc etc. People differ about the relative merits of all of these things, but almost all swimmers do something besides straight swimming all the time.
Besides the training benefits (which I believe are substantial), it would be too boring otherwise!
I have to say that my most recent time drop of 1.5 seconds in 100 SCM free has to be due to kick. I started the race with the goal of doing 2 SDKs off the start and every turn and to hit a strong 6 beat kick the whole way. Before, I would be lucky to even do one SDK and my kick was weak at best. Even with having been sick the last week and almost no pool time in 2 weeks, I still managed to drop the time. Granted I died on the last length (28.23 - 31.71 split), I came home in 59.94.
Paul
This was interesting:
Leg muscles require far more oxygen than the arms do, he added, so the legs “must be fit” or a swimmer risks early exhaustion.
“The amount of kicking that most elite swimmers do in practice has gone up at least 20 percent in the past few years,” Troy said.
He said that coaches used to have athletes kicking less because “it takes more time in the practices to kick than to swim,” so you get “less overall swimming volume.” But most of them have come to realize that less volume with more kicking produces world records.
This was interesting:
Leg muscles require far more oxygen than the arms do, he added, so the legs “must be fit” or a swimmer risks early exhaustion.
“The amount of kicking that most elite swimmers do in practice has gone up at least 20 percent in the past few years,” Troy said.
He said that coaches used to have athletes kicking less because “it takes more time in the practices to kick than to swim,” so you get “less overall swimming volume.” But most of them have come to realize that less volume with more kicking produces world records.
George is not going to like this!:duel:I have to admit though, ever since I started to focus on core work and kicking I have seen some significant drops in my times.
George is not going to like this!:duel:I have to admit though, ever since I started to focus on core work and kicking I have seen some significant drops in my times. I actually like it. I kicked my guts out for years. But when I swtched to swimming marathon races I had to ease off.
Can you imagine swimming a 10 hour swim kicking hard for 108,000 beats.
What I say is you do not have to spend a lot of time on the kick, the kick can be incorporated into your full stroke swimming.
The way a few go on --- the kick is more important then the arms.
I did do 30 minutes kicking the other day as I could not find room at the pool to do laps. I could not kick laps the pool was so crowded I held onto the wall. It was not perfect but the only thing I could do.
Did Troy say exactly how much time the team kicked. It could have been 10 minutes up to 12 minutes every month.
Which is a little over 20%.
George is not going to like this!:duel:I have to admit though, ever since I started to focus on core work and kicking I have seen some significant drops in my times.
Syd do you relate your drop in times only to the kick. I think your stroke must have also improved.
Did you also increase your swimming time or was it just you did more kicking.
Any time spent in the water will help you swim faster. Add as much time sculing as you adde kicking your times will continue to drop.
Syd do you relate your drop in times only to the kick. I think your stroke must have also improved.
Did you also increase your swimming time or was it just you did more kicking.
Any time spent in the water will help you swim faster. Add as much time sculing as you adde kicking your times will continue to drop.
You are quite right George. It is probably not only due to the increase in kicking alone. I have been working a lot on my stroke and my body position in the water. Interestingly though, my actual swimming time has decreased.
I do believe though that kicking sets provide a tremendously good aerobic workout. For me, a kick set of 10 x 50m at 1:00 is LEG-NUMBINGLY exhausting. My pulse races and my legs go into spasms. Also kicking goes a long way in improving core strength. My abdominals ache after a hard kicking set (particularly fly). Perhaps these are kick training's two greatest values.
Syd
