I’m not a swim guru, or even a great swimmer by fish standards (maybe good by triathlete standards:). But my favorite body position drill is kicking on the side, keeping the shoulder steady and dry at all times. If you can get to where you are doing that correctly on both sides, you’ve solved a lot of basic problems.
I’m not a swim guru, or even a great swimmer by fish standards (maybe good by triathlete standards:). But my favorite body position drill is kicking on the side, keeping the shoulder steady and dry at all times. If you can get to where you are doing that correctly on both sides, you’ve solved a lot of basic problems.
That IS an excellent drill. My coach makes us do that quite often. When I do it, i make sure my underwater ear is TIGHT to my outstretched underwater arm. And I make sure my opposite hip glides along the surface, and I use a rythmical kick.
OP: what does your ankle/foot look like when you kick? Is it pretty rigid with your foot somewhat flexed, pretty rigid with toes pointed, or somewhat flexible with toes pointed.
In general, I don’t have very floppy feet. A swimmer’s foot behaves as if it were attached to the leg by loose rubberbands; they shake it once and it flops all over the place. My foot behaves as if it were attached my metal rods; I shake it once and it moves precisely once, precisely in the direction of the shake. I’d guess pretty rigid w/ somewhat flexed foot…I do try to curl my feet on the upkick when I swim - I go faster that way.
Thanks, Cathy
I’m not a swim guru, or even a great swimmer by fish standards (maybe good by triathlete standards:). But my favorite body position drill is kicking on the side, keeping the shoulder steady and dry at all times. If you can get to where you are doing that correctly on both sides, you’ve solved a lot of basic problems.
Thanks, Quel. We do a lot of kicking on our side, rotating every 6 kicks (w/ 1-5 arm pulls) in Finding Freestyle. I used to drown with those, find them much easier now. So maybe there is hope 
I’ll throw in some w/o rotation, see how those go.
Yah, I’ve seen that in the free week 1 of FF. Personally, I find that rotating and stroking that often lets you cheat on it a bit. You add some extra forward momentum that gives you a bit of an “artificial” boost towards proper position on the drill. I go more slow and basic, just to make sure its right. I’ll do each side 25 or 50m at a time.
One of the biggest reasons most beginning swimmers have an ineffective kick is that their toes aren’t pointed. It’s definitely a start that you recognize the difference between most swimmers’ feet and your own, but you can do some things to make your ankles more flexible. Kicking with fins ought to help a bit, but you may need to do some ankles stretches too…
On the bright side, it’s a very fixable problem…