How Pointing Your Toes Helps with Speed

What's the value of pointing your toes in the flutter kick? By that, I mean lifting your toes up higher than the highest point your heels go in your upward kick. Over and over this past Summer, when I was using the kickboard, I heard advice to point my toes. It perplexed me. All it ever seemed to do was to cause my calf muscles to cramp up and my thighs to burn. But since the advice was so repetitive, I kept working on it. The result? More speed. I really never found additional speed using the kickboard, but when applied to the freestyle flutter kick, the additional speed was noticeable. I believe the additional force of that extra leg extension and the small additional distance added to the vertical kick itself is where the extra speed comes from. If you are trying this yourself, give yourself time to build up the muscles in your legs - a few months. It's not easy, but you'll find you go faster over time.