I think in 20 years of going to gyms I’ve seen one other person dolphin kick on their back for a full lap. No one does it. But it has to be the most natural and specific way to make your hamstrings, lower back, and abdomen stronger, while also helping with shoulder mobility.
Do you dolphin kick? Do you practice it or do it in your swims with any regular basis? Why/why not? I was thinking the two reasons I don’t do it more are its hard (!) and I know that I “look” more like a poser than Phelps when I do it so I have this slight embarrassment. I should probably get over that!
I do dolphin kick on my back for 400 m/yd each workout, along with another 400 m/yd of regular back flutter kick. I really like doing the reverse dolphin kick b/c as you say almost no one else does it aside from current or former swimmers. I do all my back kicking with arms above my head in the streamline position.
I don’t do it because it’s hard and I don’t really enjoy kick. I would much prefer to swim a slow loosener than do some kicking.
I go long course and I find it mentally pretty hard to kick a 500m or so with a board. Takes me ages tbh and I don’t always take any gear to the pool, just a bottle
You got me thinking, I will incorporate 200m or so and start to take some notice.
Are you talking about underwater dolphin, or on top?? I hear you and of course something I definitely should do more of. Mine is limited to my backstroke turns, try and get in 3, but usually get gassed and it ends up just being two. I have had it in my head I need to do a lot more as I really dont have the feel or speed that I see others have. Hell, I might never get that speed faster than on top swimming, so it may be a lost cause. But certainly as you say, an overall fitness boost to your whole body, so I’m in…
As part of my learning process I do 5 dolphin kicks off wall underwater for most of my free sets, and I do a modified IM set which is 50 fly, 25 dolphin on back, 25 back, 25 dophin on back, 25 brest-50 free. So in that I get 50 fly, 50 dolphin on back, 25 back, 25 breast 50 free.
I also do one set which is 25 stroke 25 dolphin on back, 50 stroke, 25 dolpin on back, 75 stroke, 25 dolphin on back, 100 stroke, 25 dolphin on back, 75 stroke, 25 dolphin on back, 50 stroke, 25 dolphin on back, 25 stroke, 25 dolphin on back
The hardest version of that is with fly…it ends up being 400 stroke, 175 dolphin on back
After that I can barely sit up in the office.
Just for context, I had the Royal Military College of Canada sit up record in my youth. You spend 4 years of core work trying to break that record between age 18 and 22, so this type of torture is kind of ingrained and comes somewhat naturally from a mental interest angle. Its taking me a ton of time to learn all this (no fins in the above either, just size 10 feet)
Wave - If you kick on your back using fins in the beginning, you will gradually loosen up your ankles and be able to kick much better w/o fins. It has taken me a couple of years but my kick w/o fins is now decent.
We had a military fitness test that had chin ups, sit ups, standing broad jump, an agility run (course was weird) and 1.5 mile run. I got my chin ups to 20 (100% may have been 17 but I may not be remembering this properly). Sit ups, 100 points was 100 in two minutes and I got to 129 and that record stood from what I know from 1988 to 1993. For the 1.5 miles, I got my best time to 7:08…the pass mark was 10:15 (6:45 mile pace which I cannot do anymore). I don’t remember what 100 points was for the agility run, but I think it was around 16 seconds which I achieved. I don’t recall the standing broad jump, but overall it favoured tall light people which I am not (tall). I got to 91 points, so I maxed out at 491 points out of 500 (anything above 400 was considered good). Never got to 500 as the standing broad jump always killed me. The agility run and broad jump were pure fast twitch. The chin ups a mix of fast and slow twitch. The sit ups at 2 min duration is power endurance and the 1.5 miles pure endurance, so as it turns out I was best at the two events that were purely endurance
This is sort of similar to the navy seal challenge. Sit ups, pull up, 500 swim, 1.5 mile run
Anyhow, yeah, you didn’t explicitly say it but a dedicated block of dolphin kick incorporated into your swimming routine would absolutely make you better at all of that.