Is it possible to develop a great kick later in "life"?

A key to a great two-beat kick is synchronizing it with your stroke; that's all about drilling / focusing on this when you swim. Isn't coordination the key to a good six-beat kick too? I used to be a strict two-beat kicker on my front, although I have a decent backstroke with a strong kick and I have always been decent at kick-only efforts. When I decided to force myself to use that leg strength more on freestyle it took many months of slow, thoughtful swimming to figure out how to match kicks to arms. Now that it fits I have that extra passing gear for OW (and a faster 200, too) but for a while I was just flailing.

PWB - thanks! My rotation is average - and we are working on it. He also has me incorporating the snorkel for kick sets. My current sets are: 1 - hands to side rotating shoulders back and forth - similar to the one you mentioned but rotating throughout the length. 2 - streamline free kicking with snorkel 3 - Breakstroke with free kick - keeps me kicking all of the time and not pausing with my kick 4 - vertical kick 5 - we discussed dolphin but have not incorporated it yet. We haven't started working on the two-beat kick. When I have done two-beat kicking I tend to "naturally" kick with the same side as my stroke. Probably compensating for something. Not sure if there are any tips to correct this other than just working on it.

Try sets of fast for 25 then med the next 25 then slow for 25 then repeat for distance events .

I believe an efficient kick is more important that a strong kick. Developing a strong kick just for the case of a strong kick needs to be balanced against what it might take away from your stroke overall. Then again, don't listen to me, kicking is for the birds.

I've completely turned my thinking around on kicking and I'd like to develop my kick. I've been told/read that it is difficult to develop a great kick if #1 - you didn't start young and incorporate it #2 - if you developed a stroke like I did and then tried to incorporate good kicking. I think you should forget what others have told you and, starting from where you are now, work to improve the kick you have and to integrate it into your stroke. *You* can improve. Ande has a great thread on freestyle kicking. I'll link it in a bit. :)

Ande has a great thread on freestyle kicking. I'll link it in a bit. :) I just thought I'd help: Help My Flutter Kick is Horrible! - U.S. Masters Swimming Discussion Forums

I believe an efficient kick is more important that a strong kick. Developing a strong kick just for the case of a strong kick needs to be balanced against what it might take away from your stroke overall. Good point, and this is especially true for triathletes, I would think. The one thing you don't want to do in that first leg of the triathlon is burn out your legs. I imagine you would want a 2-beat kick for most of the OW swim in a triathlon, though a more vigorous 6-beat kick might be good early on to get to clear water. I think that the key will be to develop ankle flexibility. Increasing it just a little bit makes a huge difference in forward propulsion for the same kicking effort. Many lifelong runners (and others who didn't swim when young) have pretty poor ankle flexibility which might be the cause of statement #1 in the OP. On the other hand, not being a runner, I have no idea how developing better ankle flexibility will impact one's running (especially susceptibility to injuries such as turning an ankle).

... I'm a triathlete and was told for the longest time that kick wasn't important so I didn't do any kick sets and focused primary on my upper body form... is difficult to develop a great kick if #1 - you didn't start young and incorporate it #2 - if you developed a stroke like I did and then tried to incorporate good kicking. Good point, and this is especially true for triathletes, I would think. The one thing you don't want to do in that first leg of the triathlon is burn out your legs. I imagine you would want a 2-beat kick for most of the OW swim in a triathlon, though a more vigorous 6-beat kick might be good early on to get to clear water. Developing a good kick is like any other part of the stroke -- technique elements and training elements. It's entirely possible; might be hard, but entirely doable. I'm with geek and Chris on the efficiency of your kick. Like Chris's comments, you're probably going to do 90%+ of your OW / triathlon racing with a 2-beat kick. A key to a great two-beat kick is synchronizing it with your stroke; that's all about drilling / focusing on this when you swim. As far as conditioning for this, I have a few possibly different thoughts from others: Ditch the kickboard.I don't think traditional kick sets with kick boards are going to do you a lot of good for improving your kick as the board puts your body in a very different position than when you're swimming. I prefer kicking on my sides, hands at my hips, head facing down, switching sides either in the lap (to work on body roll as well) or for each lap. This drill has a number of added benefits beyond kicking -- head position, body roll, learning to swim on your side. Work your body rotation. I have no clue how you swim, but I see way too many triathletes swim "flat" in the water. I grew up as a solid, 2-beat kicker as a fairly decent distance swimmer, but my kick for my events was less about propelling me forward and more about propelling my body rotation around the long axis. If you can think of your 2 beat kick as initiating the body roll, you'll end up getting decent kick propulsion, but more likely end up with longer distance-per-stroke and will slice through the water better. Don't use pull buoys. Again, I see lots of triathletes resort to doing a lot of pulling sets with buoys. That's great if you want to build your arms, but I think they are detrimental to a fully-connected freestyle. They train your body not to learn the muscle / coordination connections between pull and kick. Plus, I think they generally make people swim flatter in the water. My :2cents:, as well, would be to read up / view some of the Total Immersion, GoSwim or other videos like this to see how a connected 2-beat kick looks YouTube- Comparison of Freestyle (Jones, Phelps and TI coach)

I think to be a better and faster swimmer you have to improve your kick. But, just improving your kick doesn't guarantee you will be a faster swimmer by itself. I totally agree with pwb, pull buoys do nothing for you. I like them for recovery, however!

I'm 37. I've been swimming for 2.5 years. I'm a triathlete and was told for the longest time that kick wasn't important so I didn't do any kick sets and focused primary on my upper body form. I've completely turned my thinking around on kicking and I'd like to develop my kick. I've been told/read that it is difficult to develop a great kick if #1 - you didn't start young and incorporate it #2 - if you developed a stroke like I did and then tried to incorporate good kicking. In others opinions is it possible to develop a strong kick given what I've outlined above? I have a good coach right now and we've started a plan to do lots of kick sets (of different types) and weight my workouts over the next several months towards kick sets and other drills given my next A race isn't until mid-Sept. Yes you can improve your kick even if you begin later in life. It's only too late if you don't start now. It's important to have a strong kick, it gives you an extra gear to "pick up the pace" but I don't think you should blast your legs the whole way in a triathlon swim. One of my buddies who does open water races says he always sprints the first 200 of his open water swims then he looks around for someone to draft, then he drafts off them for most of the race then attempts to break away at the finish. I also like the idea of getting more out of your 2 beat kick. I swim with many triathletes and some are terrible kickers. A strong kick also creates balance. Here's the kick improvement program I've developed & shared in the "Help! My Flutter kick is Horrible" Thread Anything you do & measure, IMPROVES so start doing & measuring the right stuff.