Swim Kick

[deewfitz]

I have just begun swimming with my face in the water, freestyle, about 2 weeks ago. I have seen huge improvement in the four times I have been in the pool, but I seem to struggle with the kick portion of the swim. When I do drills with the kickboard it takes FOREVER to get anywhere. I feel like my kick is not helpful at all, like I am moving with my arms only! I am a runner and never thought my legs would be the issue in this endeavor, but so it seems! Any suggestions? I am not kicking up to my butt or creating a huge splash so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

[Veronica]

I try to imagine that my feet are flippers and try to get more "foot" action in when I am kicking only.

V.

[alpinerabbit]

In long distance swimming (1500m freestyle and up) & triathlon, you generate most of your propulsion with your arms. Big Girls, correct me if I am wrong.: your legs are mostly used to stabilize your position in the water. Hence the girl from South Africa who qualified for the Olympics in the long distance swims despite being a leg amputee!

A good exercise to improve your kick is this drill that I saw on the green turtle wetsuit website (huge zip file to download so I won’t link): you float in the water, vertically (start by treading water) shoulders & arms above water (hands by your ears) and kick, to keep your head above. This is hard, I can do it about 15 sec at a time.

You want a smooth motion from your hips, you want your feet to elongate, like fins. Look at Ian Thorpe Videos.

You might have a “runner’s kick”. We have a super runner in our club who is slower than I (and I'm slow) regular style, doesn’t move hardly during kick drills, but beats the heck out of me using a pullbuoy - when his runners kick is eliminated. A wetsuit will do the same and that shows on his IM swim split....


Are you having lessons?

[deewfitz]

Thanks for the drill suggestion. I will add it to my routine. As for a "runner kick", that is possible. I try to keep my legs straight and point my feet in order to eliminate the knee bend. I can tell my legs get really tired very quickly and my legs start to flail. It is amazing how the muscles used for running and swimming are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!

Lessons? Well, two girls that I run with have been doing tris for a while and they work with me two days a week, so yeah sort of. They have been to clinics and the drills they have me doing are the main ones I have seen repeatedly on the internet and one is a PT. I was thinking about ordering Triathlon Swimming Made Easy from the Total Immersion series. I looked at the clinics, but am not willing to pay nearly $500! I could swing $20 for a book, though. Anyone have an opinion on this option?

[alpinerabbit]

yes, I do: nothing beats an external observer to correct you. A good swimmer to help you is a good start. A class or club would be good in the long term.

[Thorn]

Lessons? . . . . Anyone have an opinion on this option?

Do it. Do it now.

When I first jumped into doing tri's, I was a pitiful swimmer...severe hydrophobia so that as a kid I never really learned how (OK, I had an awesome sidestroke, but that doesn't really help with a tri, does it? ). I thought my form was OK, but that I was just weak in the water.

I spent money I didn't have on a private swimming lessons. Egads, what I learned! He critiqued everything--despite the books, despite everything I read, I really wasn't even close. In the end, not only did he get me better form, but I started to enjoy the swimming more because I flowed through the water better--it was just more fun when I wasn't fighting the water. Oh, and he taught me flip turns which gave me something else to play with as I swam up and down and up and down and. . .

Do it! You'll be glad you did.

[Gret1122]

I agree with swim lessons. I read and watched the videos but i never really did it right when i got into the pool. The swim coach really broke it down for me and got me swimming correctly and saving so much energy. He even video taped me under and above water and that really shows ya everything you are doing. I went from struggling in every race to being a lot more calm and collected. I do my first HIM in September and do not dread the swim like i did before my lessons. And I had 4 good quality lessons for $100 from a very well decorated swimmer, and still go back and see him just to make sure I am still doing it right.

[Kimmyt]

I try to keep my legs straight and point my feet in order to eliminate the knee bend. I can tell my legs get really tired very quickly and my legs start to flail.

This sounds like it might be your problem. When I kick, my legs are active but loose. Thats the difference, like you said, between when you're cycling and running and when you're swimming. You don't want to kick just from the knees down, but you also don't want your legs really stiff. You have to kick from your hips, keep your muscles loose but active, and let your ankles act as flippers and be flexible in the water. By pointing your feet, you're essentially stiffening them and limiting their motion.

If you want to see perfect form, see if you can find that Japanese in-water footage of Micheal Phelps' swim that they've been showing on the Olympic Trials, it's probably on nbc.com somewhere. They focus on his feet and it's inSANE how floppy they are. Thats what yours should be doing, but obviously not as well as his.

All this is really hard to explain but it seems like you're trying to focus too much on legs straight and by doing this are overusing your muscles, thus causing exhaustion after kicking for a short while. The whole 'soft but active' muscle thing is kinda confusing, thats just the way I'm trying to explain it.

I think lessons would really help here, good luck with everything!!

[deewfitz]

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense, tense muscles=tired muscles! I will see if I can find the footage and I'll relax my legs next swim and see what happens.

[Jolt]

In long distance swimming (1500m freestyle and up) & triathlon, you generate most of your propulsion with your arms. Big Girls, correct me if I am wrong.: your legs are mostly used to stabilize your position in the water. Hence the girl from South Africa who qualified for the Olympics in the long distance swims despite being a leg amputee!

That is correct. Besides, it would make sense that if you're doing a tri you don't want to tire out your legs in the swim since you still have the bike and run to do afterward. BTW, my freestyle kick is pretty pathetic as well--and I was on swim teams for years!! Not sure what's up with that, but I'll bet it was part of the reason I was always one of the slowest swimmers. What exactly is a "runner's kick"?

[alpinerabbit]

Feet flexed, knees bent. Some people manage actually going backwards with a runner's kick.

[Wahine]

In long distance swimming (1500m freestyle and up) & triathlon, you generate most of your propulsion with your arms. Big Girls, correct me if I am wrong.: your legs are mostly used to stabilize your position in the water. Hence the girl from South Africa who qualified for the Olympics in the long distance swims despite being a leg amputee!

True that the kick functions predominently to stabilize the body and help with roll etc (in distance swimming). What's common thought and not true is that we should intentionally minimize our kick (Alpine didn't say that in her post, I just bring it up because it's a common myth). You should kick in the way that gets your hips high in the water. For some distance swimmers, that happens with a 2 stroke kick, for others, that's a 6 or even 8 stroke kick. If a higher kick rate improves body position, the amount of energy you expend increasing your kick is more than made up for by improving your drag co-effient in the water. On the other hand, if you've got good body position with a 2 stroke kick, there's no reason not to kick at that frequency.

That brings us back to the goal... getting faster means getting streamlined in the water, so long but relaxed leg kicks focusing on moving from the hips joints and using your glutes is best.

[deewfitz]

Kimmy T, thank you so much for the suggestion of relaxed legs and feet, bent knees and the video. I just got back from a swim and cannot believe how much more together my swim is! I was able to glide just by making that change to my kick. In fact, I cut my time for 50m from .55 Monday to .53 and my stroke count from 25m went from 24 to 20. To top it all of, I did not feel as tired and out of control while I was swimming!

[Kimmyt]

Wow, I'm so glad that helped! It made sense in my head but I wasn't sure if it would translate.

I am having trouble providing a link to the Phelps video, but it's really interesting.

Click here and then pick the vid for 'Breaking Down Phelps assets' if you're interested...