So much faster with a pull buoy

I will be watching the replies with interest. I am also much faster with a pull buoy - about 10 seconds per 100 yards. Swimming takes about 1:50-1:55, while pulling is more like 1:40-1:45. It drives my coach crazy. He says it's because I don't kick enough when I swim.

Often, weak kickers will use a 2 beat kick as counter weights to their arms. When that happens they create more drag, inhibit rotation and give no leverage to the pull. Oh, so true. And the cruel irony is that a wide 2-beat kick, maybe with a cute little crossover, can make the swimmer feel as if she is accomplishing a lot of powerful hip rotation even though it is not making her go any faster. I definitely use a 2 beat kick when I get into a long set, with the excuse that I mostly compete in open water. I compete most successfully in open water too but I have become even more successful since I put my mind to mastering the six-beat kick and using it as often as I can in workout. (I should do it every single moment but sometimes my mind does wander.) In a straight 5K I am sure I switch to a more relaxed 1/1 or 3/1 pattern in the middle, but it is nice to have that extra gear for starting, passing, and finishing.

I just posted a response in this thread. You might find my post helpful with this question. It may not be that you are kicking too little when you swim. Sure you might not be kicking A LOT, but you're not kicking when you are pulling either, right? So what's the difference? I like to think about this the way doctors think about practicing medicine. To paraphrase, the kick should first, do no harm. The pull buoy will often help a swimmer move faster through the water because it will lift the legs out of the way, helping to reduce drag. This is the most obvious benefit. The less obvious benefit is that the buoy helps you form a tighter axis in the water, thereby allowing you to rotate more freely. Try having a friend watch you swim underwater. Have them note how low your legs are in the water when you swim and when you pull. Also have them check to see how far you are splaying your legs when you kick. Often, weak kickers will use a 2 beat kick as counter weights to their arms. When that happens they create more drag, inhibit rotation and give no leverage to the pull. One of two solutions is likely to help you. Either you will need to work on body balance like what Total Immersion promotes (there are many discussions on here about how to do that) or you will need to work on kicking with a smaller tighter kick which allows you better rotation and reduces drag.

I think the 2-beat kick is for highly skilled swimmers who can actually accomplish it with minimal drag. For endurance it's called "hip driven" swimming I suppose. For me a 2-beat kick means I'll be kicking the person next to me in the face or scraping the wall, even though it's slow I could swim for hours.

I'm with Mike. Agree with what he says. As for a "drill": When I wear a buoy, I almost always wear a strap around my ankles. The buoy keeps my legs afloat, and the strap keeps me from kicking even a little. This quickly exposes any imbalance issues you have in your stroke - the ones that are counterbalanced with a split of the legs (the kind of split that creates drag and slows you down). For me, it's the best way to keep my stroke in check and in line. The reactions I get from people who do this "drill" for the first time are remarkable. Most only take a few strokes before they stop and exclaim how "out of control" they feel. Many end up rolling over on their back because they don't have that crazy countering, split leg kick to keep them on their stomachs.

I definitely use a 2 beat kick when I get into a long set, with the excuse that I mostly compete in open water. I had not made the connection between using the kick to stabilize (which I know I do) and impeding my rotation. I will try swimming with a strap around my feet tonight and report back. I used to do a drill when I was working on pacing where I counted kicks per stroke, changing the number each 50. I might try that again, to think about isolating my kick from my stroke and cutting back on compensation. Does that seem useful? Thanks for the suggestions!!

Try pushing down ever so slightly on your chest. Your lungs are full of air, so that part of your body automatically bobs up to the surface, which pivots your legs downward. You can compensate with the slight pressure on the sternum. (Or, if it's back stroke, on the shoulder blades.)You may have to experiment a bit, by kicking without a board, to find out just how much pressure you need to get horizontal.

Try 4 - 6 kick per cycle.

First off, if your full stroke is built around 2beat kicking, the odds of getting as fast over longish distances without a pull as you would be with the pull are very low. If you want to gradually try to get there, my favorite drill for this is band around the ankle. No pull. Try to learn to swim with a constraint around the ankles, preventing you from using your legs. Often we use a rubber band, hence the name of the drill. By doing so, you are forcing your body to improve its natural balance. The fun begins when you remove the band a try the 2beat kick again. You'll notice how easy it will feel. So typical sets of these involve switching with/without the band to see how well you're doing with the two beat. Also, to avoid one of the most common flaw related to 2beat (wide scissor kick), there's this very simple drill I like so much. You just get into a relaxed full stroke state, almost catch up. Two beat kicking with an emphasis put on making sure your two big toes are always close to each other. You gently touch the right big two with the left foot big toe and make sure the feet stay close, then the left foot big toe touches the right foot big toe etc... Best if to combine both drills. Like 50min of band around the ankle followed with 100m of smooth 2beat touching toes stuff. That should feels great.

Do those of you with strong kicks feel a connection between the timing of your kick and the timing of your stroke, or are they independent? Hmm... I would be interested to hear what others say. For me, the kick is a subconscious thing, so I was tempted to say it is independent, but that is not quite right. I think it is so close to the foundation for my stroke that I don't think about it and often have to actively think to reduce the kick. Given that reasoning, I would argue that it is fundamentally connected with the timing of the stroke.