Help me with my kick
214
Member
970 days
Iron Man posted 1 year ago.
swimming is all about balance in the pool. Balancing "ON" the water. To test your streamline, swim a few laps of a 50M pool and count how many strokes you take per lap (this includes both arms) if you can get around 50's then you are not so streamlined, 40's is OK 30's is good and 20's is outstanding.
As for the kick, it should be generated from the hips, the leg moves up and down with a relatively straight knee. to perfect this you can use a kick board or do some of the following kicking drills.
super kick:
lay out on the water one arm beside you the other out front (like superman) then just kick up to half way and swap arms at the half way pt. (you may need fin's)
washing machine:
put your fins on in the deep end and try to use your kick to stay afloat in the deep water (similar to treading water.) when kicking you should rise up out of the water, try 30sec to begin with. Focus on a slow rhythm and kick from the hips. this should set up your timing nicely. it will also show if one side is stronger than the other because you will start to move down the pool.
if you need any more explanations i have pics and video's from some analysis i have done i can email to you.
I would say your stroke may be weak hence your are overcompensating your kick to make up for this....maybe. see if you can find a guy on here call GeoChuck he is a bit of a swimming pro.
Speed Kills. Strength Punishes
81
Member
956 days
ston_ar posted 1 year ago.
If you think you're wasting too much energy on your kick, try whats called a 2-beat kick. Bascially kick one leg down every time you take an arm pull. Your arm tempo should pick up a little and you'll spend less energy on your kick.
111
Member
709 days
thebeatcatcher posted 1 year ago.
if you want to concentrate on kicking less, you could try using a pull buoy:
you hold it between your thighs and don't kick at all, just pull with your arms and the buoy keeps the bottom half of you afloat alowing you to do this in a normal position.
it's a good thing to do some pull sets anyway, even if your kick is fine. it'll help your overall swimming strength.
and unlike most all other tri gear, they're not expensive. :D
My swimming is coming along pretty good. I'm not worried any more about being ready for my first tri in May. Even though I can cover the distance now, I am still slow and waist a lot of energy. Someone at the pool this morning watch me swim and gave me some pointers. Evidently I am kicking really fast and eating up a lot of energy I don't need to be. I tried a couple laps trying to concentrate on not kicking as much. I did better but still kick to fast. Are there any drills I can do to help this problem? Any suggestions are welcome? BTW, he said my stroke and form look really good for the amount of experience I have. My main problem is getting over wasting so much energy in my kick.