I have been working harder and harder to reduce my strokes per 25 yards (“SPL”) while increasing my speed and finally had a workout that showed a marked improvement. I have decreased my SPL from 19-20 down to 17 (still not stellar, but much better) and have been working on my body position in the water to help increase my speed as well. The most recent change appears to have resulted in the biggest improvement. Point my toes/feet. Seems simple enough, but I wasn’t doing it. Until today when during a 500 straight swim , I cut my per 100yard time from what has been a very consistent 1:30 to about 1:20 (while keeping at the 17 SPL). The swim workout, which are usually the hardest for me to get motivated for, was actually somewhat fun.
Well its seems like you answered your own question. From what little I know its not really pointing the toes that helps its having very flexible ankles. I think of it as bend ankles makes youslower, pointed toes doesn’t effect your speed, flexible ankles makes you faster.
Is that 17 times your right (or left) hand enters the water or do you count both hands (i.e. L-R-L-R = 1-2-3-4)?
I’ve seen people who don’t point their toes kick as hard as they can and go backwards. So, yes, pointing the toes helps streamline you. Point them back and slightly inward - that’s what I’ve been told.
But you can have flexible ankles and not be using that flexibility to your advantage in the water. Flexible or not, I wasn’t even thinking about my ankles/feet/toes until today. I was so focused on my entry and recovery and pull that I didn’t even address it until today.
OK, just wondering 'cause this new girl shows up this morning and I’m watching her swim. She has a really high turnover, but she’s also really moving. I counted the L-R-L-R way and she’s at 18. Maybe that sounds high, but I paced with her through a 100y and clocked a 1:02 - about my max. (could repeat those on the 2:00, but a pretty huge effort). I was at 21 strokes in the last length. She continued on into some 100 IM repeats while I proudly proclaimed I was in my taper for this weekend’s race and needed to stop.
That is hilarious. I haven’t checked myself yet when going full bore, but I imagine that my SPL would go up slightly from the 17 that I quoted earlier. I have been working so hard on efficiency that I haven’t had to many super hard workouts. FWIW, full bore 100 yards will bring me in around 1:10 maybe slightly faster depending on the rest interval and what I have done earlier in the workout.
Yes. Swimming with your feet flexed completely negates your kick and increases your drag. As someone else mentioned, kicking with flexed feet can actually be counterproductive as some people will physically go backward when they kick on a board.
I’d be careful about getting into the habit of pointing your toes: in o/w races, you may experience cramp in your legs (esp calves) due to the strain of the muscle recruited to keep your toes pointed - obviously this doesn’t help if you help if you have to bike-run afterwards!
Really what you are doing here (as stated above) is compensating for your own poor plantar flexion flexibility. I would address this first - this will give you a better kick for free, with zero extra energy: your feet will act more like flippers than they are now. Just 5mins every day can help, it doesn’t take much. If you have good flexibility and a good kick, your feet really do act like flippers, just watch Thorpe, van Hoogenband, Manadou et al!
If you were a race swimmer, you would toe-point in races for every extra second (if you had to), but in your case you may be risking fatigue later.
If you were a race swimmer, you would toe-point in races for every extra second (if you had to), but in your case you may be risking fatigue later.
Okay, this is just crazy talk. Don’t point your toes because it may tire out your legs?
For an international distance race, you’ve essentially got 15 x 100s. If he’s 10 seconds faster per 100 by pointing his toes (a reasonable number), then he’s gaining 2 1/2 minutes without expending much more effort, if any. If you’re actually cramping up from pointing your toes, then you need to work on your ankle flexibility.
If someone could tell me how to find that much time on the bike or run for the same effort, I’d be forever grateful.
Actually, I was about to write something similar. The people I know who actively point their toes when swimming get foot and calf cramps.
I suppose it’s all a matter of degrees, how hard are you pointing. So for a race, we should point our toes just enough that we go faster but don’t get cramps. That oughtta do it.
I’d be careful about getting into the habit of pointing your toes: in o/w races, you may experience cramp in your legs (esp calves) due to the strain of the muscle recruited to keep your toes pointed - obviously this doesn’t help if you help if you have to bike-run afterwards!
Really what you are doing here (as stated above) is compensating for your own poor plantar flexion flexibility. I would address this first - this will give you a better kick for free, with zero extra energy: your feet will act more like flippers than they are now. Just 5mins every day can help, it doesn’t take much. If you have good flexibility and a good kick, your feet really do act like flippers, just watch Thorpe, van Hoogenband, Manadou et al!
If you were a race swimmer, you would toe-point in races for every extra second (if you had to), but in your case you may be risking fatigue later.
I agree with this I had an Oly race a month ago and was having a stellar swim pointing the toes and just found some good rhythm, 10-20 yards from the exit my right calf cramped BAD! I lost 3 minutes floating on my back and crying like a little girl, then was paranoid the rest of the race thinking the cramp would creep back up. I normally don’t point the toes either I try to save the legs but things were going so well. It could have been an isolated instance but normally i don’t point when I race, this time I did and voolah.
I'm the incredibly inflexible guy that swam backwards when I first used a kickboard. Now I can make slow forward progress. Sometimes get arch/calf cramps during continuous swims. What I'd really like is a pill to increase my flexibility, since that is my limiter, and hey, everyone else has some pill that helps theirs! Orrrr, could someone give a couple of the most effective ankle flex stretches they've used, to NOT include sitting on heels (that seems to require serious stress through the knees).
Okay, this is just crazy talk. Don’t point your toes because it may tire out your legs?
i’m guessing that this is because for some people (including me) their toes don’t point that much naturally. to get that little extra bit of toe point, you wind up tensing your calf muscles. it’s not the toe-pointing that tires out your legs, its the clenching your calf in order to point your toes that tires out your legs.
i assume that people w/ankles flexible enough to point their toes w/out tensing their calf muscles don’t have this problem. for the rest of us it’s a trade off btwn hydrodynamics and not tiring out the calves.
The image that comes to mind for me with unpointed toes is an airplane going flaps up as it decelerates for landing.
I had one of those ‘fish are different than most people’ moment a while back when my husband and I were sitting on the same ottoman. He asked me why my feet “looked like that?” I looked up from my needlework, saw they were in their usual relaxed position at about 170 degrees from my shin and replied that it was just how my feet normally were after six years of gymnastics lessons and fifteen years of competitive swimming.
Fortunately, it’s easy to work on stretching to improve ankle flexibility at any time of the day when you can discretely kick your shoes off.
Lo siento. Apparently my years of swimming have warped me to the flexibility of others. Maybe a little less flexibility would allow me to run faster?
I’ll revise my earlier statement and suggest that one should have their feet pointed as much as is comfortable without straining the calves. That said, working on ankle flexibility definitely increases your ability to both get something out of your kick and avoid extra drag. It should be strongly encouraged for those whose feet naturally point toward the bottom. I still wouldn’t tell people to actively avoid pointing their toes though!
