Kicking Down and Getting Booted
Dec
13Kicking Down and Getting Booted
Posted by Kevin Doak on Saturday at: 6:42am (December 13th, 2008)
I had a brief practice this evening after some weights, I was unaware that they were closing the pool to setup for a meet this weekend. I got the boot 30 minutes into my practice and only accomplished about 2,000 yards. What I did accomplish was my first practice in which I trained underwater "kicking down". For me, I've never had the time or interest to learn how to utilize the 2nd half of my butterfly kick. I know I'm not the only person to widely overlook this hidden kicking style. This explanation will be from the backstroke perspective (facing up).
I've always kicked upward, it's easy to do. You bend your legs at your knees and extend your legs to push water backward and toward the surface (power stroke). I've always just done what I've needed to to return to the bent leg position to start the process over again (recovery stroke). What I've always been missing is the other half. I've often considered developing a more powerful underwater kick but it's never held my interest until now. I feel that I'm at the point in my training where I could really benefit from it.
The other half of the kick which has been missing from my swimming my entire life is the "down" kick. It takes (seemingly) twice the effort for moderate gains in speed. I think the speed gains are from using the wasted time I spend returning to the power stroke of my legs. I think it of going from "power/recovery" type leg stroke to "power/power".
For me, it's difficult and tiring. I'll be interested to see any time drops if I can perfect it.
I've always kicked upward, it's easy to do. You bend your legs at your knees and extend your legs to push water backward and toward the surface (power stroke). I've always just done what I've needed to to return to the bent leg position to start the process over again (recovery stroke). What I've always been missing is the other half. I've often considered developing a more powerful underwater kick but it's never held my interest until now. I feel that I'm at the point in my training where I could really benefit from it.
The other half of the kick which has been missing from my swimming my entire life is the "down" kick. It takes (seemingly) twice the effort for moderate gains in speed. I think the speed gains are from using the wasted time I spend returning to the power stroke of my legs. I think it of going from "power/recovery" type leg stroke to "power/power".
For me, it's difficult and tiring. I'll be interested to see any time drops if I can perfect it.