I was reading Ande's tips for faster swimming and noticed the one about practicing the dolphin kick. My butterfly has always been pretty bad and a function of this is my timing between the kick and the stroke. However, my dolphin kick alone is very weak. Anyone have any tips for improving my kick?
THanks for asking the question Bergsteiner - it turned me onto the gread SDK thread, which I don't think I would have gone to without the link in the answer here. I am definitely going to get on this - it was one of my goals in Ande's "What do you need to do to have a breakthrough" post.
Here we go...
Thank you, Vive Bene. ...
Quite welcome!
I'm not sure your specific timing question is addressed in detail, but it is a good one. So why not add it to the thread? I am discovering that my timing is off by a tick (or more) in just about everything I do. :confused:
Where do you steigen in the Bergen? (A terrific activity to increase speed.)
work on your technique
concentrate on kicking with perfect technique
make a video and post it on you tube
dolphin kick with a board
dolphin kick with no board
SDK sprints on your back side & belly
I do longer kicks on my side breathing to the side
my most recent 100 fly in a meet felt way better on the last length
I took more SDKs off each wall
lift weights to get stronger
if someones timing & kick is way off and getting in the way / slowing them down
when they swim fly
I tell them to barely kick & move their arms as fast as they can
I was reading Ande's tips for faster swimming and noticed the one about practicing the dolphin kick. My butterfly has always been pretty bad and a function of this is my timing between the kick and the stroke. However, my dolphin kick alone is very weak. Anyone have any tips for improving my kick?
Ha ha. No. I was on the "lesser" Venezuelan peaks. Pico Bolivar, Pico Humboldt, Pico Pan de Azucar. Played water polo on the ULA team while I was there too :)
YouTube - Phelps Rallies Past Crocker in 100-fly
I know this one was already posted but it shows some underwater shots along with above water. I probably need some more conditioning as well as someone taking a closer look at my stroke.
Congrats on finishing the 100 Fly! Can you believe people actually swim 200 of that stroke ;)
Aconcagua?!
I'm afraid I'll never get there, being able to count the likely years remaining and what I am likely to do with them.
Small bits of timing, well sub-second, can make a huge difference. This is a very worthy question, and if Ande doesn't get to it here, perhaps he will if you post a query on the SDK thread or "Ask Ande," or "What do you need to do to improve?" I'd be interested, as I just did my first 100 fly (Ok, I died), and would like to know more about timing, finessing the kick, and keeping on going.
Even when I was in great shape, swimming 5000+ yards a day every day I could barely make it through a 100 butterfly (Now at 3000 yards 2 or 3 times a week just imagine). Last summer when swimming at the Y a young lady mentioned that it looked like I had no upbeat to my butterfly kick just a downbeat with an extra little kick that was throwing my rhythm off. She was right and I started concentrating on putting some power behind the upbeat which slowed my kick and helped even out the stroke a little. I still feel like I am not quite hitting it right though--or maybe I am just not in very good shape!
No steigen lately. Did several trips in the Andes in my college days but at most manage a couple of trips a year to the Smokies for some light hiking. I still have the spirit though :)
