Help the noob, please

girlwithcurls2

Hi swimmers- I hope you can help me out. I started lap swimming about 6 weeks ago due to a foot injury. I know the basic mechanics of swimming, but I'm pretty sure I'm not as efficient as I could (should) be. I'm working on slowing down and getting my form right for now, but I'm struggling with my legs. I am getting better at getting them up closer to the surface of the water, but sometimes I feel like I am kicking too much. With freestyle, how much kicking is there? I use the board to get the feel of having my "tail tucked" and work on muscle memory, but when I get out there and get the arms and breathing in, sometimes I feel great, and sometimes I feel like I don't know what my legs are doing. A swimmer next to me was telling me that freestyle is almost entirely arms and core, so how much kicking should there be?

I'm going to keep at it because as hard as it is, I am enjoying it as well as the results. Can anybody help me out?

Thanks,
~Curly

NoelFigart1

Okay, since the real swimmers haven't answered, I will.

Swimming is more technical that you're realizing, for one. It takes quite literally years to develop a really great stroke, and even the pros are constantly working on it. It's like ballet or martial arts, really.

How much one needs to kick is hotly debated, and a lot of it has to do with what sort of swimming you do. Marathon swimmers often gravitate to that two-beat kick you mentioned. (Lynne Cox is a swimming great that calls herself a lazy kicker, to give you an idea).

Triathletes, who are great all-around athletes, though I wouldn't necessarily call many of them great swimmers, also tend not to blow out their leg power on the swimming part of the tri. That would be foolish in that sort of competition.

However, if you're training for short distances or sprints, yes, yes, YES you want a stronger kick.

I (and I am NOT by any definition a great swimmer) tend to take most of my power from my arms as well. I tend to use my arms in 4/4 time and kick in 4/8 time (if you're a musician) that is a fairly gentle flutter. This is mostly to do with my age and when and how I learned to swim (swim team for a couple of years as a child).

I notice my speed coming considerably more from good balance in the water (when doing the crawl, imagine you've got a weight between your shoulderblades and press your head down further than you think you should. That forces a good roll on the breath that also creates torque and power in the stroke.

I don't breathe as often as many swimmers. Instead of breathing on every stroke or every third stroke, I do it every fifth. This FORCES me to relax in the water, as I'd run out of air if I didn't, and that seems to have an excellent effect on my speed. (Though I am still painfully slow).

AquaticQuests

Ditto Noel's comments.
I'm no expert but I doubt that you can kick too much!
My problem is usually that I don't put in enough power in the legs, and overemphasize the upper body somewhat!
Here is an interesting post by a former Olympian: http://www.theraceclub.com/aqua-notes/swimming-kick-speed-determines-baseline-swim-speed/
Personally, I feel my kick is the weakest part of my swim and I need to work on that!

girlwithcurls2

Oh believe me, it didn't take me long to figure out how technical swimming is, lol... It's a very humbling thing to take up something like this in middle age and find out that even though one CAN swim, one isn't swimming WELL. And because of that, it's even harder than expected or needs to be. I guess I'm asking questions because while there are way too many things for me to focus on at one time, I am enjoying the small successes--the times when it feels good, and I know that my hips were high (for however short a time), or my head was low, or my elbows are high, or my feet feel high, or the breathing felt rhythmic. I had not thought in terms of the number of years it takes to get really good. I suppose I'm hoping to just keep improving. Lately, I feel like I'm backsliding (literally and metaphorically!), so I'm after some tips or mental phrases to use to remind myself while I swim.

Thanks again, Noel, for jumping in with advice. I had a traumatic experience as a kid (age 10) of being pushed into a pool. I was terrified of water before that, but after that, it was pretty much nailed that I was never going in a pool if I could help it. This makes the breathing part really difficult for me. I suspect it is more mental than anything. I HAVE to breath with every stroke, but I'd prefer to slow it down so that I can swim longer and focus on something other than staying alive. GoSwim has some videos on YouTube that I have been watching. They suggest different drills. Maybe what I need is to just start with some of those. That's what I'm basically doing when I'm using a board-working on getting a feel for correct form without having to tie in all of the mechanics at one time.

I'll be back...
Thanks,
~Curly

AquaticQuests

Great!
Macstraw has some great lines to keep in kind when you swim!

With breathing the thing is to remember not to hold your breath under water and instead breathe out so when you come up for air you're not breathing out and in - just in!
The constant improvement on mechanics and efficiency and lower times as a result is what keeps things interesting!
There is a lot of info out there online and youtube - sometimes contradictory but by and large useful!

I'm thinking now of getting a tick timer so that I can keep my stroke rate up and target a higher stroke rate - always something to work on and tweak to get better and faster and stronger!

Noel I like the music time signature analogy as a musician as well

Macstraw

Curly, you've gotten some great advice here - there are a lot of great people in this group!!!!

Let me start off by saying that I LOVE a lot of what I'm reading from you - that you're aware that it's going to take time, that you're not looking to learn everything there is in 1 shot, etc. That's the kind of thinking that will keep you improving....

A couple of quick things come to mind (I'm gonna stick to freestyle):

First, breathing. As odd as it might sound at first, think about slowing down the breathing process. One of the biggest things I see with new swimmers is the thought that they need to completely fill their lungs to the absolute maximum capacity with each breath & then get it all blown out as fast as possible. All you'll accomplish with this is feeling like you're going to hyperventilate yourself & you'll wear yourself out physically in a hurry. Instead, control your breathing - take in enough to last you however many strokes you're going to take until the next breath & expel it at a comfortable, steady rate. You will quickly learn what rate of expulsion works best for you. If you've ever been a runner you'll realize what I mean about how important it is to control your breathing. As for the mechanics of breathing - turn your head to the side without lifting it (it should rotate on the neck as though a pole goes down through the top of your head & through your body) turning the chin to your shoulder. You don't need to turn your head so that you're looking up at the sky (or ceiling), think of keeping 1 goggle in the water. You can keep your head turned plenty long, more than long enough to get a comfortable breath, without turning too far...

Second is kicking - as pointed out, how much & how hard you kick depends on whether you're going for distance or speed over a shorter distance. If you're going for distance, a nice steady kick will work better because kicking fast over a long period of time will get you winded. The 2 beat kick is a good way to go, but a steady pace will do you just as nicely. For a sprint you should be kicking much faster to create the propulsion you need for speed. Either way, the kick is important not only for propulsion but for efficiency. It helps keep your lower half up at the surface so that it's not dragging. Your leg muscles are the biggest & strongest you have, you can choose to let them drag behind you so that you're hauling them through the water with your arms or you can put them to use helping you out. While arms, shoulders & core ARE important to swimming, the legs are very important too....

Third is body position in the water. Your body should be at the surface, not sinking below. You should be looking straight down at the bottom of the pool so that the water passes over the top of your head. If your head is lifted, even just a little, it creates a wall that causes resistance in the water which slows you down. think about Superman flying over Metropolis - he doesn't have his head lifted up, he looks straight down at the city & has his body laid out nice & flat. Remember, if you lift your head up your lower half will sink & you'll find it harder to kick, as well as having to haul it through the water with the arms....

Don't worry about getting it all at once, concentrate on 1 or 2 things at a time until they become natural & you won't have to think about them anymore & then you can pick the next 1 or 2 things to concentrate on. There are swimmers here from all different backgrounds who do all kinds of swimming, so throw any questions you have out there & I bet somebody can give you the answer. Good luck & welcome to the pool!!!!!