By not kicking you are forcing yourself to work a lot harder than necessary. You don't need to kick hard - try to work on a 2 or 3 beat kick (# of kicks per arm pull). This should not require much effort but will allow you to maintain you body position better. You will use a little bit of your legs up but I think that the savings in general energy and effort will be repaid ten times over later in the race

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"which is like watching one of your buddies announce that he's quitting booze and cigarettes, switching to a Vegan diet and training for triathalons ... but he's going to keep snorting heroin." Bill Simmons, ESPN

Your always going to kick hard the first minute or two as the field spreads out and you gain your position on the swim. Then you kind of fall into a smoother pace. Since your wearing a wetsuit half the battle of keeping your legs closer to the surface so you are level with the water which decreasing the drag your legs cause. It's really a matter of what you'e comfortable with. Increasing your stroke rate compared to increasing your kick rate will cause you to swim faster. My guess is because you were kicking more your arms were moving faster which felt like you were moving faster.

I used to be a sprinter and train with some pretty nippy guys. The majority of sprinters work off a six to eight beat kick and will produce a 50m time (kicking) only twenty to thirty percent slower than their time with arms. Therefore, you can see that kicking can provide a huge boost. However, as it was only a short effort you'd be ill advised to kick at this rating. I'll maintain a slack four beat or two beat depending on the water conditions and back off the legs totally for 50m into TI (Oly distance only - I'm no ironman).

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"Language most shows a man: Speak, that I may see thee. It springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parents of it, the mind. No glass so mirrors a man's form or likeness so true as his speech." - Ben Jonson, Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter.

I am amazed how ineffecient my kick is at forward movement. I recently bought the Total Immersion DVD and in one of the first drills it shows you how to find balance on your back. When I float and my back and kick I move BACKWARD (toward my feet). I don't care if kick slow,fast, small amplitude, large amplitude, toes pointed etc the end result is always the same, backward movement. The DVD is great and has already helped me become more efficient at my terrible swim. But for this slow swimmer I am afraid my kick just keeps my legs in the slipstream but provides no forward propulsion and may be actually be putting me in reverse. I'll just keep trying.

David

kick from the hip and start with a push off the wall to get yourself moving in the right direction.

Synchro could be an option with the ability to move in the way you described though...

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"Language most shows a man: Speak, that I may see thee. It springs out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the parents of it, the mind. No glass so mirrors a man's form or likeness so true as his speech." - Ben Jonson, Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter.

relax your ankles and kick from the hip.

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"which is like watching one of your buddies announce that he's quitting booze and cigarettes, switching to a Vegan diet and training for triathalons ... but he's going to keep snorting heroin." Bill Simmons, ESPN

I think Laughlin mentions backwards kicking with people who run a lot, so it can't be too unusual, at least it made me feel better. I was doing the same thing, then I started kicking with some larger fins as a way to work on ankle flexibility and that helped tremendously. I still suck at kicking, but at least I don't go backwards any more. So try some kick sets with some bigger fins occasionally.

In the 100m I did kick I put a good 20-25m on my training partner that swims at the same pace I do. He was the one that really noticed how much faster I was. He said I took off and kept increasing my gap. I just noticed that I was a bit farther down the pool than normal.

I will work on easy kicking during my training.

Thank you all,

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Reverend Dr. Jay
Lake of the Pines Triathlon fastest bike course record holder - Golden State Super Sprint fastest tri course record holder - Wildflower Long Course slowest run course record holder (4:46:32)

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"If you have a body, you are an athlete." -Bill Bowerman

bikerdude you have no ankle flexibility. stretch the tiblias anteriors. As a former swim coach i could always tell the difference between most of the triathletes compared to the former swimmers. Swimmers had more ankle flexibility and could switch from a 2 to a 4 to a 6 to an 8 beat kick depending upon the set, triathletes not so much.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

jay,

the kick is an important part of, not only propulsion, but also maintaining fluidity. when you don't kick, your feet are just being dragged around, and, for many people (especially people who haven't been swimmers for years), wag around behind them. but as triathletes, we need to save our legs for the rest of the race. kicking like mad during the swim will give you a great swim split, but you'd be giving up a lot on the bike and run. try maintaining an even, but small, 6 beat kick. this gives you 3 kicks per arm stroke (6 per arm cycle). i know that swimming technique is tough for non-swimmers, so this will probably take some attention in your training to get used to.

the kick should be small for a few reasons. #1, let your upper body be your main source of power for the swim and save the legs. the kick should be more of a stabilizer rather than propulsion. #1, you're probably wearing a wetsuit with buoyant rubber all the way down to the ankles. you're fighting the buoyancy of the rubber if you try to kick deep. (this is why dan, in his wetsuit articles, has said that some swimmers are faster with suits that have really short legs (which aren't on the market, but dan apparently tested them). these are swimmers who rely a lot on their kick and they were fighting the legs of the wetsuit to use their full kicks)

and, like others have said, ankle flexibility is extremely important. zoomers (short training fins, you can find them online or at swimming shops) are good for increasing ankle flexibility.

I found another way to stretch the front of your shins. It only requires changing the sheets on your bed. Put the new ones on rather snug. Point your toes as you slide into bed. Pull the sheets up nice and tight and presto you have a shin stretcher. Stretching and clean sheets a winning combo.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Too funny! My wife when she started swim with masters group managed to go backwards while kicking with a kick board. The coach was speechless! My dear wife has improved a great deal since then!!

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Simple Simon
Where's the Fried Chicken??