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
Finally got around to timing an underwater 25m SDK today.
From a pushoff it was 16 sec on the pace clock. Good or bad?
To us mortals that sounds very good. My 25 SCY SDK time is still effectively infinite as I have yet to complete a full length without stopping.
How many kicks does that take for you? Today I was consistently getting 8 YDS on 10 kicks from a push.
Positively awful. You want to have at least a 30 or a 40 second..... we're going for high score right?
Actually not that we should compare ourselves to people like Ryan Lochte, but you can find vids of him on youtube doing a 50 SCY in something faster than 25 seconds. Of course - that being a "some day I'd really like to be less than double that" goal seems totally attainable! :D
I think if I wasn't as tired at the time i could've probably done in the 15 sec range. Seems plausible i could do 13ish in a 25y... the turn and breathing would be the problem for me in a 50. I think about 40 yards wouldn't be a problem... those last 10 though would hurt. I'll make it my goal lol.
Just for reference what size are lochte's feet?
Yes... I always carry a camera :)
Have been waiting for just the right place to post these shoes!
They showed the shoes on TV :)
Cool pics though... you left out the shoe size tag though. Anyone know what size they are? Look smaller than my shoes.. in size at least.
I can't imagine you should ever be able to outkick your swim in a 50 free right? So at what percentage of your 50 pace should an SDK be to start to look elsewhere for things to improve on? 90? 95?
I thought that the value of the SDK is that you are going faster than you can swim (whatever stroker you are racing). If your SDK is slower, what is the point of doing it?
Lol... just like counting strokes across the pool was foreign to me before joining this forum... so is counting kicks. I guess I can't even estimate how many. 40? 50? I dolphin kick pretty fast with my size 15 s :) Not exactly going for distance per kick so much as overall speed.
Typically if I don't kick at all on a pushoff my feet are at the flags when i come up for the first stroke. If I kick off the turns, my head is at half pool with 3-4 kicks when i take the first stroke. (SCM pool)
FYI -- I am working on this a bit, too, and I found I go much faster with a larger wave and fewer kicks. I repeat 18s w/24 kicks or so and I'm around 20s with my fast kick, which is 30-34 kicks. My best is 16, always at the end of practice.
YMMV, and I have small, inflexible feet feet. And, I have no idea if these times are good.
To us mortals that sounds very good. My 25 SCY SDK time is still effectively infinite as I have yet to complete a full length without stopping.
How many kicks does that take for you? Today I was consistently getting 8 YDS on 10 kicks from a push.
Lol... just like counting strokes across the pool was foreign to me before joining this forum... so is counting kicks. I guess I can't even estimate how many. 40? 50? I dolphin kick pretty fast with my size 15 s :) Not exactly going for distance per kick so much as overall speed.
Typically if I don't kick at all on a pushoff my feet are at the flags when i come up for the first stroke. If I kick off the turns, my head is at half pool with 3-4 kicks when i take the first stroke. (SCM pool)
I suppose another way to phrase my good/bad question might be... when can one call their SDK so good that they should focus more on other things?
To say you're good enough "when you can kick your 50 sprint pace" sounds wrong. I can't imagine you should ever be able to outkick your swim in a 50 free right? So at what percentage of your 50 pace should an SDK be to start to look elsewhere for things to improve on? 90? 95?
I suppose another way to phrase my good/bad question might be... when can one call their SDK so good that they should focus more on other things?
The goal is to SDK 15 meters as fast as you can. Just because others can cover 15 meters quicker underwater doesn't mean it's right for you. A lot of very fast swimmers flutter kick off the wall.
Experiment. Test for time. Adjust. Experiment. Test for time...
The goal is to SDK 15 meters as fast as you can. Just because others can cover 15 meters quicker underwater doesn't mean it's right for you. A lot of very fast swimmers flutter kick off the wall.
Experiment. Test for time. Adjust. Experiment. Test for time...
Ok... so timing a 15m... at what point do you kinda call it good and work on something else? I kindof train myself as a, work-on-the-weakest-link-first, kind of swimmer. When you get 90-95% of the way there on the entire swim you have to pick out small parts and perfect them to get better. I want to verify that I'm doing everything i can underwater before i move on to the new weakest spot. So at what threshold does one kinda make the call "ok this part is better than the rest of the weaker parts now" and move on?
