Triathlon - My kick is worthless!

Hey all, I have been working on my swimming for a few months now and I have a real problem. My kick (seriously) makes me go backwards. I've got two junk ankles from HS football and I think my extreme lack of ankle flexibility is the cause. Can I overcome this? Or do I even need to? My position is not too bad in the water and I seem to balance ok with a 1 beat (or so) kick that is essentially to keep my hips up in the water- but I get no propulsion from it. I am a pretty slow swimmer now, but can I get better without really developing a kick?

Thanks in advance...

You can be plenty fast without kicking at all. Generally you want to kick as little as possible when swimming for a triathlon with the idea that you want to save your legs for the bike and run. You only want to kick to keep your body level in the water.

Try using a pull/pool bouy and holding it between your legs then let your upper body do all the work. You'll become effecient soon enough.

I think swimming is more about bouyancy, if you float ok, odds are you have the potential to swim good.

Kicking seems to be something your born with. Sure you can improve it through ankle stretches, but your never gonna be giving Phelps a lesson in a 100m kick TT.

Kicking backwards while trying to kick fowards though... sorry but that's just ****ing awesome! I'd pay to see that haha. Probably a bad case of runner's kick, im assuming you ran alot when you played football? and that you can hold your own on the track?

Mark.

Francis,

This thread is morphing with one above. See my response to the open water swim question.

Tyson

Most people who are looking to just get the swim over with have the same kicking problem you do. In general your kick is probably hurting more than helping and you should focus on relaxing in the water and doing the bare minimum of kicking to keep a nice hydrodynamic line. A good drill is to spoon your feet one on top of the other after your one or two beat kick and try to hold that position as long as possible before the next kick. This keeps your legs in line with your body and reduces the drag that a bad kick creates. Good luck!

Thanks all, it's good to hear that I am not a completely lost cause. And yes, I am certainly one of those trying to just get the swim over with. I don't think my swim endurance is too terrible for only swimming for a couple of months now, but my speed sure isn't going to get me out of the water in front of too many people.



Kicking backwards while trying to kick fowards though... sorry but that's just ****ing awesome! I'd pay to see that haha. Probably a bad case of runner's kick, im assuming you ran alot when you played football? and that you can hold your own on the track?

Well, I am not the fastest thing going, but it should be my strongest leg of the race if I am fit. But yeah, it probably is funny to see. When a friend of mine (she swam in college) gave me my first few lessons and told me to kick with a board, I just kicked and flailed and literally went no where. I learned to cheat a little and sort of do a "treading-water" type kick, but it's pretty tiring to do sets like that. I think I'll just take everyone's advice (and read all that I can) and sort of scrap the kicking thing and work on my form and balance.

thanks again. :)

Just remember that the primairy function of kicking is rotating the torso, not propulsion.

I'm working on this one. I have a tendancy to kick far too violently. I gain a minimal speed increase and accumulate an oxygen defecit. My legs are more powerful than the majority of swimmers I see and it takes alot of discipline to hold back.

i swam my fastest 800m ever yesterday by making a conscious effort to kick minimally. like kirk said, kicking heavily during the swim will mainly just tire you out. on a sprint of 50-100 meters i can gain a lot of speed with my kick, but the necessary energy to gain any real speed with a kick will tire you out quickly on a longer swim.

I noticed you mentioned a treading-water type kick. You really shouldn't kick so much from your knees. In fact, I would guess that's what pulls you backwards!

kicking uses a LOT of energy and will wear you out very quickly. I wouldnt recommend using a float bouy. Put your head a little more in the water and look straight down instead of looking ahead in the water(you cant see in most openwater swims anyways). Also, think of leaning on your chest. As in, you are putting your weight on the chest and using your head as a counter-weight for the legs. This will help you float during your stroke. Try it out.