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?
Sorry, I usually write fc because our coach would always write frontcrawl (freestyle) sets as fc for short.
As for using a higher beat kick, I'm not sure how beneficial it would be given how slow my kick is? Currently, on full stroke freestyle I rely mostly on my arms with just a small kick on each stroke. My stroke is fairly efficient, but it isn't quick. Adding lots of leg kick affects my arm technique and I get slower rather than quicker, but that may be because I am just not used to it and need to keep practicing so I can hold the arm technique whilst kicking. I've been swimming for many years, but never mastered using both my legs and arms at the same time properly. When I practice, my legs often switch off almost entirely, with only a balancing kick being used.
Sorry, I usually write fc because our coach would always write frontcrawl (freestyle) sets as fc for short.
As for using a higher beat kick, I'm not sure how beneficial it would be given how slow my kick is? Currently, on full stroke freestyle I rely mostly on my arms with just a small kick on each stroke. My stroke is fairly efficient, but it isn't quick. Adding lots of leg kick affects my arm technique and I get slower rather than quicker, but that may be because I am just not used to it and need to keep practicing so I can hold the arm technique whilst kicking. I've been swimming for many years, but never mastered using both my legs and arms at the same time properly. When I practice, my legs often switch off almost entirely, with only a balancing kick being used.
