I have similar problems, and this is what I have observed....

If your head is out of the water when you are doing your kick sets, you are causing your legs to drift down, so whatever propulsion you generate is negated by the added resistance of your sinking lower body. I now do kick sets with my head in the water and practice breathing at the same time. I make reasonable progress across the pool.

The second thing is while I have become an OK swimmer, it is do to better body positioning, feel of the water and high elbows during the pull part of the stroke. My kick is much more for stability rather than propulsion. When I watch fast swimmers with a strong kick, their legs are strong and flexible, particularely at the ankles, and resemble fish tales when they snap with each kick. My legs are essentially stiff boards pivoting at my hips, and that motion does not produce much thrust. I also am amazed at the pace some swimmers can do their kick sets. They will do three lengths to my two.

Hope this helps...Happy Swimming!

rpvc-adriana,

When you say that you can swim a 1:45 for 100m, is this consistently over a number of sets for instance 10x100m? if you can then I would say you are quite a decent swimmer. If this is a PB as a one off effort it is meaningless.

I am a 6:20 for 400m so my hard sets are off 1:40s, your kick is just another part of your technique which is all important so if it is weak then you should look to work on it.

From a personnel point of view I would say you have a weak kick if you struggle to use a kick board for more than 100m, I wouldn't worry about people being faster than you. I do a lot of kick over the winter months and will often use them as recovery between sets.

Keep doing kick sessions they will get easier.

If you're a girl, that's pretty fast. I know a girl who came third in her age group at Kona and that was her swim speed (1:45/100m). I doubt kick work is going to make you faster.

Not having a swimming background myself, I believe that kicking (while swimming) as related to speed and efficiency during endurance swimming, is more of a timing issue. The power from swimming comes mostly from arms/shoulders and core not from kicking. The kicking is more like the icing on the cake, it compliments the stroke but isn't the backbone of it. Ironmom will come on and give better details as she is more an expert in this area.

The best way I know to become a better kicker is to go to the pool and literally kick your a@# off! One of my favourite sets when I am swimming on my own, is to do a 400m kick set. I just basically take my flutter board and sprint kick one length, and recovery kick the next. I may take a 5s - 10s rest, in between, but that is all I do and repeat it 10x (it's a 20m pool). Its boring, but it builds your fitness and makes you a lot stronger. The only time I ever use a sprint kick while swimming, is if we are sprinting and for me that is less than 50m. Otherwise I use the regular 2 beat kick, even for 100s. But that is because I only swim in triathlons.

I hope that helps.

If you're not bending your knees too much (runner's or cyclist's kick), the other usual suspect to a poor kick is ankles that are not flexible and loose enough. Some of that can be caused by actual inflexibility, which can be helped by stretching. Some of it can be caused by holding tension in the feet (often from the effort to not bend the knees too much). An efficient kick comes from the hips, with relatively little knee bend, but a LOT of flexibility in the feet and ankles. Without that flexibility, you are just pushing water up and down, not behind you.

[quote=rpcv_adriana]Thanks for the advice!

@ longhair - my ankles are also incredibly inflexible. I know that has something to do with the poor kicking but I figure I can't place all the blame on them...

I generally do a 100m kick set. I've checked out websites, youtube, etc and it seems that I'm doing what they suggest yet still no progress so perhaps I need bump up the kicking. 400m kick set sounds scary but worth it if I'm a tad more comfortable during kick sets come training season.

As for 100m times, it depends. The other day during a main set I did 3 100s in 1:45 (yes, I was going pretty hard). For tri swims - depending on the course and length- I generally go anywhere from 1:40 to two minutes. My first ironman will be next year and the goal for the swim is to avg 1:50-1:55 pace. 1:45 would be amazing!

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A 400m kick set is really boring. Try to work up to a 200m kick set, but do it every time you get into the pool and make it all flutter kick. Keep up with this for a couple of months. And then see where you are in a couple of months. With the "runner's kick" I will admit I like that better because I have strong quad muscles, but unfortunately you don't go anywhere in the water. That's why I suggest long kick sets because they take much longer when you don't go anywhere! When you start using a straighter leg in your kick, you will notice your flutter board rotating a bit (side to side), this means you are using more hip and less bending at the knee to create the power.

The most common cause of a slow kick is inflexible ankles. 1-2 minutes a day on stretching your ankles will help. You might be bending your knees too much and missing the propulsion from your upward kick. This video from Swimprove explains it more: http://svpford.wistia.com/medias/9f7b680171