I am a very talented female biker, and after years of work I am a good runner. I have not yet really gotten the whole swimming thing. I know that when people like me learn how to swim they tend to “muscle” through the water, using the same forceful techniques that running and biking require. Then, after much experience and coaching, they come to a eureka moment when they realize how the body can slide through the water without effort.
I have not gotten there yet.
The thing is, despite the fact that my kick is ugly–feet cocked back, eggbeater legs, knees kicking, it is a very fast kick. When I do the “correct” kick–which I can sort of do, because my hips are loose and my ankles are very flexible, I go literally nowhere. I understand that the kick is supposed to be your balance and not as much propulsion, but it really helps me to move through the water when I do it wrong. When I do it right, I become absurdly slow. In a olympic-distance triathlon setting, is it okay to keep this kick or do I have to keep plugging away at the correct kick, and improve my arm strength to make up for the loss of speed from my legs?
I am a very talented female biker, and after years of work I am a good runner. I have not yet really gotten the whole swimming thing. I know that when people like me learn how to swim they tend to “muscle” through the water, using the same forceful techniques that running and biking require. Then, after much experience and coaching, they come to a eureka moment when they realize how the body can slide through the water without effort.
I have not gotten there yet.
The thing is, despite the fact that my kick is ugly–feet cocked back, eggbeater legs, knees kicking, it is a very fast kick. When I do the “correct” kick–which I can sort of do, because my hips are loose and my ankles are very flexible, I go literally nowhere. I understand that the kick is supposed to be your balance and not as much propulsion, but it really helps me to move through the water when I do it wrong. When I do it right, I become absurdly slow. In a olympic-distance triathlon setting, is it okay to keep this kick or do I have to keep plugging away at the correct kick, and improve my arm strength to make up for the loss of speed from my legs?
I would find an instructor that can take a look at your stroke. If your major propulsion in swimming is coming from your legs, then you’re definitely doing something wrong. Also, the more you rely on your legs during the swim, the more you are hindering your talents (biking and/or running).
I don’t think it really matters how pretty your kick is as long as its fast. I’ve swam all my life and i know that i don’t have the best technique but its fast. Swimming is different for everyone its good to try to do a proper technique but if what you are doing works for you then i wouldn’t stop it
In any distance Tri, if you improve your swim technique you should be able to maintain the same speed with less energy used and therefore be faster on the bike/run. I doubt it’s as simple as targeting your arm strength, you should be using your core to drive your stroke with your entire body long, streamlined, and balanced.
There should be a way to calculate an estimate of how efficient you are on the swim. I’d be curious to explore something where you complete the bike + run with no swim and compare that to swim/bike/run on the same course. I’d bet that ratio can be established as within some predicted range for “efficient” swimmers and also for less efficient swimmers. Meaning that if your swim was perfectly efficient your bike+run after a swim would be no slower than coming off fully rested.
Just a thought from another ugly kicker. Is it possible that you’re using your kick to ‘lift’ your legs and hips in the water? My really ugly kick was actually a result of not being balanced and using my kick to prop myself up in the water. When I stopped kicking my hips would sink and I’d slow down. In reality, I wasn’t faster because I was getting propulsion from my kick, I was faster because I was using the downward thrust from my ugly kick to get my hips to ride higher in the water. When I worked on ‘pressing the buoy’ and being more balanced in the water I didn’t need downward thrust from a kick to get my hips up, and a ‘proper’ kick started working better for me.
