Kick sets for those with bad knees ...

Is there evidence to support that you are in fact better off avoiding kicking or am I just being a wuss? That's big reason why I quit competitive swimming way back, now I am resuming. The 3 things I found were pretty bad on knees (worst first) - Freestyle turns - Breaststroke kick - Flutter kick I mention freestyle turns because my knees hate unusual movements and sometimes just one flip with some twist in it could bring back the pain. The kicking would not hurt me at low speed. But back then, say you throw in a 10x100 free style kick hard off 2:00, would be a miracle to book it without being injured the day after. Now, the solution for me was hidden somewhere in the Gym. After several years of disciplined weight training (20min per session roughly, 2 leg exercises), I can flip, kick etc. The progress was monitored over 10 years. I can now conclude that without a weight resistance program, it would have been impossible to resume serious swimming. I am resuming competition this year, I expect my knees to complain about it a bit, I will increase my injury prevention gym workout by adding more exercises. - - - - Flippers would probably hurt you more. If you have a poor (weak) kick then huge chances are that you lack flexibility and that your ankles are tensed. This can be improved at very slow speed. A nice soft kicking drill (butterfly though, but helps for ankle flexibility etc) is this one here. It looks slow but I can easily hold a 1:15 interval for 50m kick sets while remaining very relaxing YouTube - Fly DrillSide Very relaxing for your knees, and kind of entertaining too.

Is there evidence to support that you are in fact better off avoiding kicking or am I just being a wuss? That's big reason why I quit competitive swimming way back, now I am resuming. The 3 things I found were pretty bad on knees (worst first) - Freestyle turns - Breaststroke kick - Flutter kick I mention freestyle turns because my knees hate unusual movements and sometimes just one flip with some twist in it could bring back the pain. The kicking would not hurt me at low speed. But back then, say you throw in a 10x100 free style kick hard off 2:00, would be a miracle to book it without being injured the day after. Now, the solution for me was hidden somewhere in the Gym. After several years of disciplined weight training (20min per session roughly, 2 leg exercises), I can flip, kick etc. The progress was monitored over 10 years. I can now conclude that without a weight resistance program, it would have been impossible to resume serious swimming. I am resuming competition this year, I expect my knees to complain about it a bit, I will increase my injury prevention gym workout by adding more exercises. - - - - Flippers would probably hurt you more. If you have a poor (weak) kick then huge chances are that you lack flexibility and that your ankles are tensed. This can be improved at very slow speed. A nice soft kicking drill (butterfly though, but helps for ankle flexibility etc) is this one here. It looks slow but I can easily hold a 1:15 interval for 50m kick sets while remaining very relaxing YouTube - Fly DrillSide Very relaxing for your knees, and kind of entertaining too.