A famous coach in AUS is shannon rollason, perhaps most well known for coaching alice mills and jodie henry before athens. He said over time he has found the best kick set is 1000 straight. He's obviously dealing with some decent kickers in his squad who can probably hold 145-2 per 100 without too much stress and said he does that once a day to finish. The fast kickers get out first and the slow kickers are motiviated to get better lol

Kicking makes a big difference in swimming. And specifically practicing kick is a tried and true way to improve.

Tim

I hope you send in a video of your 50 kick.

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

Bumping this thread. The 12/15 deadline is approaching.

I have zero chance of getting to the top of the time sheet on this, but a guy I swim with has thrown his hat into the ring, and I think he might have a shot!

Sounds good. Even if you don't have a chance to be the fastest, it's a good way to spur some improvement. I hope you change your mind and send in a video.

Has your buddy sent in a video yet?

Tim

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

He has submitted his time and video. The video is up on the YouTube channel.

Maybe I'll give it a go just to see what I can do. I'm guessing it's be about 1 min flat for 50scm.

That would be great. We are about to do the 2nd 50 this week after all the kicking we've done over the last month.

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

Thanks for posting this. Makes me realize how much my kick sucks. If I do a 25 yard kick session my thighs are burning and it takes me 40-45 seconds-for 25 yards!

Is there a trick to proper technique for kicking or do I just need to do more sets?

Like swimming, it is a combination of fitness and technique. You can’t separate the two out from each other.

Think about kicking from the hip, keep the knee soft and the toe pointed. Big toes should graze one another and don’t ignore the “upkick.”

If you have any other questions, let me know.

Tim

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

Is there benefit to kicking a lot with fins? I am awful at kicking and it takes me close to 60 seconds to do a 25.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

There’s benefit to kicking with fins, there’s benefit to kicking with, there’s benefit to kicking with fins and drag sox, there’s benefits to kicking with short fins and there’s benefit to vertical kicking. You want your brain to get as many different looks as possible at how to make the movement.

I hope this helps,

Tim

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

This is fascinating to me. Do you recommend any good videos showing what a strong/proper kick should look like? I'm an avg swimmer, ~28:00min for 1.9km (wetsuit). I struggle with keeping my hips up and regularly swim 5+sec/100 faster with a pull buoy than without at the same effort. When I try to kick with just a kickboard, I quite literally go nowhere - it will take me nearly 60s to go 25yds. I can kick "strongly" with fins, but presume that most can. Where do I start? Truly seems like I could drop minutes off of my times 1500m+ if I fix the kick.

I see it all the time with triathletes and it is exposing a serious inefficiency in your swimming. Always be aware that an efficient swim stroke is a full bodied, connected and coordinated movement. Not kicking in your swim stroke is the equivalent of running with your arms at your sides.

I've posted some of the videos from our kick challenge already. The fastest kick so far was Heat 8 at 35.xx.



I'll try to film the kick today and get something posted.

I hope this helps.

Tim

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

one of my favorite swimming moments was sometime in 2015ish. i was swimming at the mecklenburg county aquatic center, which was where swim mac elite swam on tuesday and thursday mornings since it was setup LCM. my set that day was fast 100s. i believe i was holding 1:20s +/-. anyway, about halfway through and the lane next to me lochte was leading. i realized they were doing kick 100s with a board. i finish my set of maybe 10 x 100 and watched a couple of their 100 kicks. lochte was holding (iirc) about 1:10/100 for his kick 100s long course.

Sounds about right. Little bit slower than a minute per 100 yards.

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

i wouldn't say it was humbling, because i *tried* not to have an ego with swimming since i was mediocre at it, but it was cool because it was an opportunity to be next to a guy who was literally one of the best in the world at what he did. doesn't happen all that often.

anyway, kicking is underrated by most triathlon coaches. so good for you. but also hateful.

It is always helpful to swim with athletes who are faster. They will push you to get better and way better than you could ever be swimming alone. The one thing you learn about swimming after a bunch of years is that it may be an individual sport, but you only really improve in a team environment.

Yes it is. Seems like they all read the same book that you should "save your legs" in the swim.

Tim

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

Thanks for the recommendation. I would love to see a video of underwater kicking explained with what it should feel like muscular wise. I feel like I flex my quads while kicking which impacts my bike and run. I clearly need to kick more but I also would love a breakdown of the leg "stroke" or function and a clear description.

Appreciate any help and video you can provide!

Will do. I'm heading over to the pool shortly. I'll see what type of video I can get.

Tim

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

Sadly, i'm with you. After a lifetime of playing soccer and middle distance running, I have horribly inflexible ankles. Add to that a couple of ACL reconstructions and my ability to stretch my ankles is limited. That said, this thread has inspired me to ramp up my efforts to improve my kick. I know I won't ever be a FOP swimmer, but just continuing to improve my times and overall efficiency is enough for me.

Thanks Snapping!

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In search of the righteous life... we all fall down