The Sprint Free Lane
If you could be a sprinter, you would.
We get more rest.
We don't train as far but we go faster.
Every move matters.
We're fast twitch. We're strong. We're fierce.
It's adrenalin
We get the glory
50's & 100's are our thing, we wish we could race 25's & 75's, we think of 200's as distance & tend to split longer races quite badly because we have no sense of pace. But it proves to ourselves, our coaches & friends that we have absolutely no business in any race over a 100.
100m Freestyle world record, Cesar Cielo Filho - YouTube
What did you do in practice today?
the breastroke lane
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Former Member
Technically, kicking is a very simple motion. If you don't have flexible ankles and large feet however, you might struggle with it.
Want to know if you have "flexible" ankles? Point your toe as much as you can. Is the angle created by the top of your foot and your lower leg greater than 180 degrees, equal to 180 degrees or less than 180 degrees? If you can get it past 180, congratulations you have flexible ankles. If you can get to 180 you have slightly flexible angles, certainly not stiff. If you can't get your toe point to 180 degrees you are going to have a lot of trouble kicking fast. A former gymnast friend of mine has such terrible ankle flexibility she can't do a full squat without almost falling over. She has trouble getting much past maybe 120 degrees.
What can you do to make your ankles more flexible? First of all this stuff should be done with great care, you can do serious damage to ligaments when you stretch your ankles. The simplest way to stretch ankles is to sit down with your knees bent and toes pointed, so that your heels are under your butt. The weight of your body will do the work for you.
If you have flexible ankles already and try adding in a foam roller. Place the foam roller under your toes and the end of your foot and again let your body do the work.
Another method that I personally used my freshman year of college is to soak your feet and ankles in hot water for 10 minutes or so prior to stretching. If you do this be gentle with the stretches, I have seen a swimmer sprain an ankle doing this stuff.
When measuring: do you go off of the top of the foot where it meets the ankle or the top of the foot nearer the toes (or maybe an averatge of the two). When i point my foot out, i get different angles depending on how far down my foot you'd measure. I'd take a pic for you, but posting pictures of feet is scary lol.
Technically, kicking is a very simple motion. If you don't have flexible ankles and large feet however, you might struggle with it.
Want to know if you have "flexible" ankles? Point your toe as much as you can. Is the angle created by the top of your foot and your lower leg greater than 180 degrees, equal to 180 degrees or less than 180 degrees? If you can get it past 180, congratulations you have flexible ankles. If you can get to 180 you have slightly flexible angles, certainly not stiff. If you can't get your toe point to 180 degrees you are going to have a lot of trouble kicking fast. A former gymnast friend of mine has such terrible ankle flexibility she can't do a full squat without almost falling over. She has trouble getting much past maybe 120 degrees.
What can you do to make your ankles more flexible? First of all this stuff should be done with great care, you can do serious damage to ligaments when you stretch your ankles. The simplest way to stretch ankles is to sit down with your knees bent and toes pointed, so that your heels are under your butt. The weight of your body will do the work for you.
If you have flexible ankles already and try adding in a foam roller. Place the foam roller under your toes and the end of your foot and again let your body do the work.
Another method that I personally used my freshman year of college is to soak your feet and ankles in hot water for 10 minutes or so prior to stretching. If you do this be gentle with the stretches, I have seen a swimmer sprain an ankle doing this stuff.
When measuring: do you go off of the top of the foot where it meets the ankle or the top of the foot nearer the toes (or maybe an averatge of the two). When i point my foot out, i get different angles depending on how far down my foot you'd measure. I'd take a pic for you, but posting pictures of feet is scary lol.
