Gives a Whole New Meaning to Kicking

I don't know if this is sad or really cool.

Any thoughts?

Check out the flutter kick!

What Kick Board Kicking Does for You

I love kicking, but I notice so few swimmers actually practicing with the board more than a couple laps at a time. I wonder why. This post shares some of why I think kicking rocks!

I fell in love with kicking about nine years ago when I injured my elbow. Since I couldn't use my arms, I concentrated on my legs. Up until then, I could go maybe two laps with the kickboard before tiring. After that month, I could go virtually forever. It wasn't that I did anything different, other than force myself to go longer. That said, I imagine anyone can get over the exhaustion hump if they "just do it"(thanks Nike).

But more came out of my experience than an enhanced ability to push the old styrofoam for more laps. I learned that I could kick harder as needed and easily recover. I learned that an extra kick is what can push me ahead, when I want to boost my speed temporarily (e.g., to pass another swimmer), without having to pull harder with my arms. I learned that kicking makes my legs stronger even out of the pool. I can now climb stairs faster, walk stronger, and even fit into my skinny college jeans again.

Yes, kicking is an unappreciated aquatic skill that needs to be practiced, but the gains can be huge.

Kickboard Techniques that Build Speed

Several years ago I saw two young women with a college team logo on each of their swim caps using kickboards, seemingly gliding along parallel to one another and chatting amiably. What was most interesting was not any of this, but that they were going very fast, and their "efforting" didn't seem to phase them at all. Their conversation was animated and they weren't breathing particularly different than had they been walking down the street. I'm guessing they were averaging one minute per 50 meters. The speed to them seemed inconsequential. Obviously, those two women had some speed secret I did not share.

Ever since, I've striven to have a strong kick. Not to chase the women - though that might come in handy should that pair ever return - but to build up my swimming speed. I devote twenty percent of my workout to the kickboard and have found it has definitely helped my overall swimming performance.

In the several years since I first saw those kickboarding women, I've found a few techniques that have built my speed:
1. Lift my toes out of the water to maximize my leg length and depth of my kick
2. Keep my legs as straight as possible for maximum sized paddle thrust and kick from the hip.
3. Whip my legs like one whips a rope (kick from the hip - see #2). The whip action promotes a stronger leg thrust than your typical back and forth leg motion.
4. Focus on the whole leg rather than the ankles and feet. Feel it in your belly.
5. During the kickboard period - I do it at the end of my workout - do periodic sprints to the point of getting yourself nearly out of breath and legs burning. I use key points in the pool as my starting and stopping points.
6. Don't lie on the kickboard. Push it out in front of you and extend your body to its full length.

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.

How to Get that Big Kick and Win

Have you ever watched a swim meet and seen someone really sprint ahead just before hitting the finish? Are you wondering how he/she did that? I've found a secret that seems to work for me. I'm not saying this is sanctioned by professional coaches, but like I said before, it works for me. Instead of flutter kicking faster, I just kick bigger. I force my legs to go deeper (several inches more than my usual flutter) and from that I get a much stronger push forward out of the whole motion. I learned this watching an adjacent lap swimmer who seemingly was equal to me except for his deep kick. He just seemed to go further than me for every stroke. I couldn't figure it out until I tried the deep kick myself. Suddenly I was even with him again - even passing him! Of course, it wore me out almost immediately. I need to train myself to be able to sustain the big kick. I still can't maintain it for long, and don't know if I want to, but it comes in quite handy when I want to catch up to someone or sprint ahead to win an even match. In the latter case, I don't apply it until I'm nearing the finish. That's when I open up the afterburners, kick deep and fly ahead. Try it and see for yourself. You might start winning more than you ever expected.

Adult Swim - Startup

OK, if you've spent any time on this blog, you know I have written an inordinate amount about streamline swimming. Today, during my lap swimming, a regular two lanes away from me was standing in her lane trying to teach an adult woman how to swim. I kept periodic watch as I swam past time after time. The teacher had her student stand out in the middle of the lane, about 10 meters from the wall, bend over and begin kicking and stroking with the goal of getting to the wall. I was thinking how it seemed odd. Here, this student was having to start from zero, float, start up and progress forward. Sounds right, but reflecting on what I hate most when I swim, it's when I miss the wall (infrequently, thank you very much) on my flip turn and must start from the same place as that student - at zero. The teacher was making it harder for the student than it needed to be. She needed to have the student stand at the wall and push off - to get her started moving - and only then to begin her stroke. This way she doesn't have to fight the water to swim up to speed. Following the teacher's method, the student would be fatigued before she even had planed the water. Even the best of us can find that tiring!