I have a student in one of my classes that is a great swimmer. I asked him what was more important for swimming: faster turnover of the arms or pulling harder with the arms. His answer was “Neither – it’s kicking. My legs are really sore after races.”
For the past year I have been working on relaxing my kick. For one reason, the Total Immersion book talks about having an easy relaxed kick. Also, I was having IT band problems, which I sensed was partly due to over-kicking in my swimming. I was over-kicking to compensate for bad balance in my stroke. My strategy was to relax my kick and improve my balance by using my core body for balance rather than my kick.
I did a lot of swimming with my legs tied together with a large rubber band to immobilize them, and I just pulled with my arms. This idea did help to improve my balance, but better balance did nothing for my swimming speed.
So, after talking with student, I did a swim workout where I did alot of hard kicking. It did make me a bit swim faster. However, my IT band tightness came back. Grrrr! I need to find some middle place between kicking for faster swimming without causing IT band problems!
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Just found your fantastic website. And, I just bought the dolce elite! I am not a swimmer, but I run and have lots of trouble with my IT Band. A foam roller has eliminated all of my IT Band problems. My running coach told me about it, and it's been a life saver!
Remember that swimmers are just swimming - you've got to bike & run when you finish your swim, so I suggest taking it easy with the legs. The big muscles in your legs use a lot of energy, which you'll need later in the race. Form is the key for swimming - pull yourself through the smallest possible hole in the water. I used to kick hard - video analysis showed that all I was doing was moving my legs out of my stream-lined position, so each kick was just putting on the brakes.
I barely kick when I swim. Well, at least my legs feel like they're trailing in the water.
I time my kick to my arm pull, and I keep a straight leg, so that I'm kicking from the hip instead of from the knee. I only kick deep enough to maintain balance and body position. When I try to kick faster, I just end up thrashing around and expending energy that I'd rather save for the bike and the run. The slower cadence works for me. Your mileage may vary.
Happy trails!
LynD
carol -
would you mind posting what some of your swim workouts are? i am still in the early stages of training, and i havent done nearly the kind of research and effort you have done.
i would love to see what your swimming workout schedule is.
id love to do a trackback post from http://trirunwith.us