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?
I can probably cope with a 5x100m kick at the end of a session, but it won't be very quick. Although, I'm a little concerned that this set will only assist with fc kick, as I assume you didn't mean to alternate strokes? The goal is to improve all types of kick.
Fc kick is probably my strongest, compared with fly, back, and brst, but it is also the kick that is most likely to just switch off when I go back to doing full stroke. I was wondering if there is a good drill to try to correct that, like counting kicks for each arm stroke? I'd like to be able to go to my feet when sprinting, rather than trying to move my arms quicker and just messing up my stroke.
What do you mean by "Fc kick?" I don't recognize that acronym. Do you mean freestyle? Usually I do my kick sets as 25 dolphin/50 flutter kick (so my 100s are 25/50/25) whether with a board or on my back. Times should be relatively consistent either way though I am faster on my back.
One of the things with applying more kick to the full stroke is that mechanics do have to change a bit. A 6-beat kick is going to result in a different rhythm than a 2-beat kick no matter what - you're going to be sitting higher in the water, your body rotation is going to be different.
I can probably cope with a 5x100m kick at the end of a session, but it won't be very quick. Although, I'm a little concerned that this set will only assist with fc kick, as I assume you didn't mean to alternate strokes? The goal is to improve all types of kick.
Fc kick is probably my strongest, compared with fly, back, and brst, but it is also the kick that is most likely to just switch off when I go back to doing full stroke. I was wondering if there is a good drill to try to correct that, like counting kicks for each arm stroke? I'd like to be able to go to my feet when sprinting, rather than trying to move my arms quicker and just messing up my stroke.
What do you mean by "Fc kick?" I don't recognize that acronym. Do you mean freestyle? Usually I do my kick sets as 25 dolphin/50 flutter kick (so my 100s are 25/50/25) whether with a board or on my back. Times should be relatively consistent either way though I am faster on my back.
One of the things with applying more kick to the full stroke is that mechanics do have to change a bit. A 6-beat kick is going to result in a different rhythm than a 2-beat kick no matter what - you're going to be sitting higher in the water, your body rotation is going to be different.
