I have always been terrible at kick, and I believe it holds me back, so I want to make some improvements. As an age group swimmer, we would train lots of 50m kick on 60 secs, and I would struggle at that pace, and now I am older and heavier than I was then.
Physically I am 6'2" and about 225#, but my feet don't measure up at all at size 8, with a high arch and hammer toes. I don't want to make excuses, but this may be why my feet struggle to catch the water properly. I know this means I'm going to struggle, but I am looking to do the best with what I have.
What should I do in training to:
Improve feel for the water and effectiveness of kick?
Greatly improve kicking endurance?
Keep my kick "switched on" when doing full stroke?
Are there other factors I should consider?
One thing you can look at is whether or not you let your knee drift upwards while your foot is kicking forwards after the knee bends slightly. The way to do this is go to the corner of the pool and holding onto the two sides of the pool, kick vertically and look down to see if your knee stays forward as you finish your kick. Imagine kicking a ball and extending your foot forwards. If you were to let your knee move backwards as you extend your foot while you kick a ball, there would be very little power in the kick. I was at a clinic that showed video of several swimmers who had slower kicks because as their foot extended down their knee moved upwards. If this is not a problem, I agree with the previous post that you probably just need to do sets of fast kicking and working on ankle flexibility.
One thing you can look at is whether or not you let your knee drift upwards while your foot is kicking forwards after the knee bends slightly. The way to do this is go to the corner of the pool and holding onto the two sides of the pool, kick vertically and look down to see if your knee stays forward as you finish your kick. Imagine kicking a ball and extending your foot forwards. If you were to let your knee move backwards as you extend your foot while you kick a ball, there would be very little power in the kick. I was at a clinic that showed video of several swimmers who had slower kicks because as their foot extended down their knee moved upwards. If this is not a problem, I agree with the previous post that you probably just need to do sets of fast kicking and working on ankle flexibility.
