We love to SDK. It's the 5th stroke. It takes skill, strength, flexibility, conditioning & mental toughness.
For many it's the 2nd fastest stroke, but it's not a legal stroke.
We wish it was legal. We wish there weren't 15 m restrictions in races.
We count our kicks because kicks count.
We train to SDK faster. Some call SDKs underwaters or dolphins.
What are you doing to improve your SDK?
How many do you take in each race?
Help! My SDK is Horrible! has many tips & a program to get faster.
Here's a helpful post in it.
What are your SDK times?
15, 25, 50, 75, 100, 150 & 200?
Spend some time in the SDK lane & you'll be kicking faster before you know it.
the breastroke lane
The Middle Distance Lane
The Backstroke Lane
The Butterfly Lane
The SDK Lane
The Taper Lane
The Distance Lane
The IM Lane
The Sprint Free Lane
The Pool Deck
I need to spend A LOT more time in this lane!
About a year ago I decided that to be more competitive needed to learn how to do SDKs. I am trying to use it predominantly for backstroke, but also for butterfly. (So far, there is no way my SDK is faster than my freestyle, so I just get to the surface and start swimming.) To date, I can do 6 SDKs off every wall backstroke in warmup and 3 in the main workout. (In a race it is like 5 on the start and 3 off the turns.) For fly I do 3 SDKs off every wall, but I don't swim a lot of fly. A few times per week I do sets of repeat 25s doing SDK as far as I can and then ez stroke for the rest of the 25. On a good day I can do about 12 SDKs and that gets me.... I am embarrassed to say... just past 7 yards out. This seems like a miserable performance to me. The only good news is that there is NO danger of being DQ'ed for going past the 15m mark! I guess it is better than the 0 SDKs that I could do a year ago, but I am wondering how many more years it is going to take before the SDK thing starts to be an advantage for me. I have a plan to do better this season. Hopefully progress will be swifter.
I'd like to hear others' experiences. From when you started to try SDK for the first time, how did it progress for you?
I need to spend A LOT more time in this lane!
About a year ago I decided that to be more competitive needed to learn how to do SDKs. I am trying to use it predominantly for backstroke, but also for butterfly. (So far, there is no way my SDK is faster than my freestyle, so I just get to the surface and start swimming.) To date, I can do 6 SDKs off every wall backstroke in warmup and 3 in the main workout. (In a race it is like 5 on the start and 3 off the turns.) For fly I do 3 SDKs off every wall, but I don't swim a lot of fly. A few times per week I do sets of repeat 25s doing SDK as far as I can and then ez stroke for the rest of the 25. On a good day I can do about 12 SDKs and that gets me.... I am embarrassed to say... just past 7 yards out. This seems like a miserable performance to me. The only good news is that there is NO danger of being DQ'ed for going past the 15m mark! I guess it is better than the 0 SDKs that I could do a year ago, but I am wondering how many more years it is going to take before the SDK thing starts to be an advantage for me. I have a plan to do better this season. Hopefully progress will be swifter.
I'd like to hear others' experiences. From when you started to try SDK for the first time, how did it progress for you?
