Originally Posted by
lovestoride
i have also been swimming all my life and have an impressive swimming career, and at tri's im normally the 1st-5th person out of the water. when i said dont kick i mean keep you legs crossed at the ankles, and keep them strait, boom there you go hydrodynamic. really i cant believe people cant keep up with at least the end of the pack of a tri. most people cant even swim, so theres no point to waste alot of energy trying to leave them in the dust. in all seriousness, i swim sub 25 second 50 frees with little to no kicking, and swim 1/4 miles in around 6-5 mins without kicking and that then allows me to ride sub 32 min 12 mile bike portions, then run sub 21 min 5ks
For fast swimmers like us, crossing your ankles can keep them at the surface, because the water is pressing up on them, but for most tri swimmers who will be going quite a bit slower than the speed that is necessary for that, their legs WILL sink. That is why I think kicking is even more important for slower swimmers.
Really they don't have to waste a lot of energy either, just a little, just enough to keep the legs up and keep them going.
BTW I will attribute some of my sub 30min 20k bike times to having warmed up legs.