Look how flexible Klete Keller's ankles are. Kick sets make them that way.Eddie Reese said in his DVD; (Eddie Reese on Freestyle, which I highly recommend), that when he got back from the 2000 Sydney Olympics he realized "...My whole team has to become better flutter kickers." He went to say that in a close race the best kickers win even in a 50 SCY sprint. He also mentioned that he saw Larsen Jensen kick a 50 LCM on 28.6 an insisted if you want to have a big-time freestyle you have to have a good kick..
In the DVD, Swimming Faster Freestyle, Coach David Marsh, says don't use kick-boards they stress the shoulders and do not offer you the correct or natural body position. Plus, they are only good for socializing.
Here is an article written by Clay Evans on why kick sets are good for your overall swimming:
For a few months I have been putting hard kick sets at the front of workouts just after my standard warm up. Before that I left kicking to the end of the workout and it was part of the warm down. Basically not many swimmers worked these end of workout kick sets. Facing some criticism from some of my swimmers, I switched and put it at the front and I am now convinced that this is better.
First of all kicking is important. Hard kicking that is. Kicking is important in the conditioning of the passive lap swimmer, the competitive triathlete and the serious Master workout swimmer. You need regular doses of isolated legwork no matter who you are or what your goals.
It might be hard to convince the distance swimmer, the poor kicker and the triathlete, but all of you need kicking. In longer swims your legs do withdraw from the percentage of effort and oxygen that is exerted but good conditioned legs are the support you need to keep up a steady vigorous pace in a race. And for a triathlete, what an advantage it will be to getting out of the water, running to your bike, biking, and then off on your run.
Regular kicking also helps keep the ankles flexible, the legs supple and that is essential to good swimming. Flexible ankles move water backward and you forward. Stiff ankles push water down rendering leg kicking less efficient to moving forward. I have not added tons of kicking with my coached workouts, maybe 300-500, but I have made it HARD kicking. You can start kicking hard much earlier in a warm up than you can with the arms and full swimming. And this kicking now gets you even more warmed up, what a great use of a warm up.
So be ready to kick!
Here are some images and a Flash movie at GoSwim.com that illustrate a very graceful flutter kick: [link]
No comments:
Post a Comment