In my quest to figure out how to improve my freestyle speed away from embarrassingly slow times, I am working on the following three categories:
1) General form (especially arms) - I made a post about this awhile back with video and have improved a good deal since then, shaved a few seconds off my 50.
2) Stroke frequency - eventually going to one of those pace beepers and experiment with different frequencies.
3) Kick - kick frequency, kick width, and foot flexibility
This post is concerned with the last of these - the kick. I recently compared my fastest kick-only time (no snorkel or flippers) with my fastest freestyle time and it is almost exactly 2x slower. I read various places that the kick provides a much smaller portion of the total propulsion in freestyle, so this gap seems smaller than I would expect.
One explanation is that I am probably not giving the same attention/efffort to my kick during freestyle, which makes sense.
Nevertheless, I still think I have much more work to do on my kick - its about ~86 seconds for 50m.
Please let me know your kick times and ratio to equivalent free style times so I can set some reasonable goals and figure out how much my kick is holding me back.
Thanks!
... It makes me think that it's not just adding the pull and the kick together to get swimming speed, but some weird synergy where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
But what, I wonder, accounts for this? What is the Mystery Factor? Body roll? Some unintended anchoring effect whereby the legs allow the arms to gain greater purchase on the water?
I don't think it's a mystery at all ... (my :2cents: follows) ... Ignoring the finer points, in swimming you use two systems of two levers: an anterior system (arms)consisting of two arms, coupled by the (relatively) rigid pectoral girdle, and a posterior system (legs) consisting of two legs, coupled by the pelvis. The two systems are themselves coupled by the axial skeleton and core muscles. Our coaches are constantly telling us to "engage your core!" in freestyle and backstroke -- they are saying. "coordinate the two systems!"
But why? In the laterally asymmetric long axis strokes, legs serve two purposes -- yes, for propulsion (moreso in sprint events than in distance events), but even more importantly, for navigation. Acting as rudders, the legs allow you to keep your upper body in the correct orientation and moving in the correct direction. Core strength is important for transferring force from legs to arms, for both purposes.
What is a mystery to me is why pulling sets, without kicking, are a virtue. When I try to pull only, I flounder hopelessly. I need legs to stay straight!
:2cents:
... It makes me think that it's not just adding the pull and the kick together to get swimming speed, but some weird synergy where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
But what, I wonder, accounts for this? What is the Mystery Factor? Body roll? Some unintended anchoring effect whereby the legs allow the arms to gain greater purchase on the water?
I don't think it's a mystery at all ... (my :2cents: follows) ... Ignoring the finer points, in swimming you use two systems of two levers: an anterior system (arms)consisting of two arms, coupled by the (relatively) rigid pectoral girdle, and a posterior system (legs) consisting of two legs, coupled by the pelvis. The two systems are themselves coupled by the axial skeleton and core muscles. Our coaches are constantly telling us to "engage your core!" in freestyle and backstroke -- they are saying. "coordinate the two systems!"
But why? In the laterally asymmetric long axis strokes, legs serve two purposes -- yes, for propulsion (moreso in sprint events than in distance events), but even more importantly, for navigation. Acting as rudders, the legs allow you to keep your upper body in the correct orientation and moving in the correct direction. Core strength is important for transferring force from legs to arms, for both purposes.
What is a mystery to me is why pulling sets, without kicking, are a virtue. When I try to pull only, I flounder hopelessly. I need legs to stay straight!
:2cents:
