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
First the good news. Today I went a full 25 SDK in :25 on 30 kicks. (My lowest kick count ever is 27, but I think it was slower.) When I first completed a full 25 about 6 weeks ago it took me 40 kicks. That's progress! I have also been timing 10 yd SKDs, (when I can find someone to time me). I am more than a full second faster than I was several months ago. I like that trend.
In comparison, however, I can flutter kick a 25 in :19. (Probably faster actually, I haven't tested that in a few months because I have been working on other things.) This suggests that my flutter kick is faster than my SDK.
So I did some testing. I was swimming repeat 100s backstroke, using 3 SDK per wall. After doing 7 with very consistent times, I decided to push it harder. #8 was 2s faster, and I noticed that I didn't use 3 SDk on every turn. I thought, "that's interesting, I will do only 1 or 2 SDK off each wall and see what happens". #9 was another 1s faster. I decided to skip the SDKs entirely on the last one. #10 was 2s faster yet.
Today was my second day back in the pool after much more of a break than I planned, owing to a head cold, so maybe this isn't great data, but it strongly suggests that I should not be doing SDK in races yet (except possibly on the start, I think they are a little effective on my start).
Back to the pool tomorrow...
First the good news. Today I went a full 25 SDK in :25 on 30 kicks. (My lowest kick count ever is 27, but I think it was slower.) When I first completed a full 25 about 6 weeks ago it took me 40 kicks. That's progress! I have also been timing 10 yd SKDs, (when I can find someone to time me). I am more than a full second faster than I was several months ago. I like that trend.
In comparison, however, I can flutter kick a 25 in :19. (Probably faster actually, I haven't tested that in a few months because I have been working on other things.) This suggests that my flutter kick is faster than my SDK.
So I did some testing. I was swimming repeat 100s backstroke, using 3 SDK per wall. After doing 7 with very consistent times, I decided to push it harder. #8 was 2s faster, and I noticed that I didn't use 3 SDk on every turn. I thought, "that's interesting, I will do only 1 or 2 SDK off each wall and see what happens". #9 was another 1s faster. I decided to skip the SDKs entirely on the last one. #10 was 2s faster yet.
Today was my second day back in the pool after much more of a break than I planned, owing to a head cold, so maybe this isn't great data, but it strongly suggests that I should not be doing SDK in races yet (except possibly on the start, I think they are a little effective on my start).
Back to the pool tomorrow...
