kick boards

I am not an expert - in fact I am really bad at swimming!! However in my quest to be a better swimmer I have been reading the links to everything swimming off this site. The advice there has been no to kickboards yes to short fins and drills to improve your kick. I am not savvy enough to put the live links in this message but just follow the links through from the BT front page. However in closing most swimmers I know that are pros use the kickboard for warmup and cool down but they already have great kicks. Me, I don't move forward unless I have fins on as well Deidre

I usually use a kick board as part of my warm up, 50-100m. can't really tell if it helps much, since I don't seem to kick much any ways when I swim. It does give my legs quite a work out though, so if it's not helping my swimming, maybe it'll help my running and biking

Chris

Dont know about the kickboards but I know if you're not kicking you're losing a whole bunch of your swim. You should generate a lot of the propulsion you need from your legs and hips otherwise you're just wasting energy.

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I use kickboards for a 50 sometimes as an active recovery after I've totally winded myself. Otherwise, if I want to practice my kick, I do a drill where you kick on your side, lower arm in streamline, upper next to body. Kick 4-8 times like that (whatever makes you happy, but keep it consistent) and then do one stroke and repeat on the other side.

Thanks for all the input. It makes perfect sense that using a kickboard may actually make your stroke worse in the long run. I'll give the swim fins a try.

I'll work on my kick, but I'll rollover and do it while on my back. When I get tired, instead of doing the breaststroke, I do the backstroke. I'm much better at it and it is quite relaxing. Someone said that kicking is important component of propulsion. This isn't true, especially for triathletes (even moreso for traithletes in wetsuits). The purpose of the kick is rotation and to reduce drag. The wetsuit takes care of the drag part and if you are in the salt water of the ocean, you're even more buoyent.

I am not a fan of flutter boards because your movement is not the same as when you are swimming. I figure the kicking will come the more training I do in the pool - well I hope it will.

Edited by FatMan 2004-08-18 1:49 PM

I'm a little late in posting...

I use a kickboard. Religiously. Every practice I do a kick-set.

I've found that most newbie swimmers tend to drag their legs in the pool while swimming. While there is some truth that a kickboard doesn't exactly replicate your form...it does force you to kick. Using a kickboard enforces how important kicking is...and gets one to THINK about kicking. Thus people will be less inclined to drag feet...

I'm not big on fins. They give me sore ankles, and a false sense of ability.

I thought in a triathlon, you're supposed to kick very little, in order to save your legs for the bike and run?

What good are your legs if you're exhausted from dragging two worthless limbs across the water? Lots of energy to be saved in kicking.

I'm not saying that your feet should constantly be producing "whitewater" when you swim. But. If you want to be a faster swimmer - and place higher in the swim - than practice kicking.

Yes, most of your power in the swim comes from your upper body...but if you have no kick to speak of...then you are wasting oodles of energy because of poor technique. And wouldn't you like to be able to conserve that energy for the bike and run?

Yep, same here. I do at least one set of kicks with a kickboard every workout. I also don't use fins for the same reasons you listed.

Most swimming power does come from the upper body, but a good kick can make a big difference too.

Kelly

I think if you check out Total Immersion you would quickly discover that all of your power and propulsion SHOULD NOT come from your upper body contrary to popular belief but rather from your hips. I personally have not begun TI and wont until the offseason so for now I'm churning my arms but Im through to the drills in chapter 8 and am somewhat surprised by what I have read.

I don't kick very much when I swim. I heard somewhere (probably a triathlon urban legend) that kicking gives you like 5% more speed, with 30% more energy used. I'm not exactly sure the correct %'s but I would think that it is close to that.
Now with that said, I just bought and used my first set of zoomers. I used them on my kick sets and during my swim sets I can feel that my kick became more efficient. I would suggest zoomers.
My two cents

I don't know about total immersion, but these are the descriptions of the types of the traditional kicks that I was taught.

http://www.goswim.tv/text/dotw/1002kick.html

I started competitive swimming when I was five, and started total immersion when I was thirty five. My stroke has improved remarkably, I am more relaxed while swimming, more refreshed when done, my back no longer hurts from hyperextension because I am balanced better, my legs get a BETTER workout because my body is aligned and balanced. If i want a better workout, I swim longer or faster, but not harder (make sense?)

I agree that ALL the power comes from your hips and torso, just like tiger woods. Wouldn't he look silly if his torso stayed still, and just his arms moved?

I practice kicking either on my back, or sidelying, with underwater arm streched in front, and above water arm relaxed at my side. I concentrate on different speeds and amplitudes of kicking and get a great workout that way. By not using a kickboard, I can continue to concentrate on good balance in the water, keeping legs and hips near the surface thus reducing drag. Holding onto a kickboard pulls your upperbody to the surface, causing some other body part to sink...not what you want while swimming.

I'm not saying I'm fast or anything, but swimming is more fun now.