Just keep swimming...

Oh man,

My coach had us doing kicking drills last night. 1500 meters of kicking. It is tiring work just kicking. She had us going hard and fast on timed intervals.

I understand what you mean by being able to pull yourself along without kicking. I think that's why she had us doing kick drills.

My only advice for the flutter kick is to make sure you aren't bending your knees too much. She corrected a lady doing exactly that, the lady wasn't going anywhere until she was corrected and it made an improvement.

You ARE thinking about it too much - you're cluttering your mind with so much information it gets difficult to concentrate on 1 thing, & you try to fix it all at once. By working with a float - do you mean a kickboard?

Let's hit the butterfly kick first because the fix for the legs coming apart is simple. They make a monofin, which is essentially a big kicking fin that both feet go into together. Barring the expense of that, you can use a simple tool that my brother (who was my team's coach at the time) did with me - tie a shoelace around your ankles. You don't need to make it too tight, just tight enough to keep your feet & legs together. Then just swim your butterfly - you will get more comfortable keeping your legs together & it will become natural to do it that way.....

For the front crawl kick - think kicking "fast" instead of kicking "big". The biggest thing I see in the other swimmers when I'm working out is that they take these great, big kicks - they look like they're walking while laying face down in the water, like they're walking toward the bottom of the pool. Your kick should come from the hip with the leg pretty well straight, but not locked completely straight. Your toes should be pointed back toward the wall you left & your feet should "flutter" at the ends of your legs. The faster the flutter, the more the kick will help propel you. You don't want to be kicking from the knees, where you are bending the knees to get more movement from the feet. Instead it's almost similar to the feeling that you get if you stick your leg out a little & shake your foot at the end of your leg. It's really no more complicated than that, to the point that the simplicity seems to make it feel like you're not doing enough. You really will be & you'll feel the difference. As for working with the kickboard, I would do only a couple of laps, then either swim the full stroke or do a pull set, then go back to it until you build stamina in your legs because kick sets are VERY taxing. If you try to do too much at once, your legs will hurt & it will affect your form. Don't worry about speed or how long it takes to do a lap, just concentrate n the form until you feel comfortable with it The speed & strength will come in time.....

Hope this helps, & I hope I made it understandable. If anything is not clear or if any questions crop up as you work on it please feel free to ask & I'll do my best to help. If you know any coaches or swimmers that you work with, please ask them about what I said & if they think it would help you - I by no means know all there is to know or would say that my way is the only way....

I want to swim laps, but it has been years. I am in Water aerobics right now. Building my muscles back up. In hopes to be back to swimming. The crawl is hard for me as both shoulders have had extensive surgeries. The other day we had two young men who do laps everyday, come over and try our class! They quit half way through. Said it was very hard and tiring. LOL! They went back to laps! I wish you luck on your endeavors!

Thank you Macstraw, I really find things like this difficult (it's the same learning to drive), but I love swimming.

About simplicity, breaststoke was the same. For months I struggled and couldn't do it and then one day I suddenly could and very effortlessly and I wondered what I'd been doing before.

I thought being knackered after trying to propel myself along with a kickboard in front of me was just me!

Unfortunately, I haven't done much swimming since the winter because our city indoor pool is just so darn crowded! But I'm in the pool three times a week for water aerobics. These next two Saturdays our class is canceled so I will get some laps in on Sunday instead. I'm kinda excited! I got some new Aquashere goggles I haven't had the chance to use much yet! When I swim, I tend to do mostly backstroke, quite honestly. That was my stroke on high school swim team and since my body is still getting in shape, I like to be able to breaaathe when I need to without drowning. I try to count laps but I enevitably lose count so I just swim for 45 minitues to an hour.

I do, and I run/cycle, do zumba, do the elliptical/treadmill/rowing machine, I love swimming and water jogging so much, ideally I would swim 3 -5 times a week, and do whatever else I wanted 2 -4 times a week.

I want to start swimming as a part of my weight loss fitness routine. I can swim, as in fun in the pool without drowning - but I don't know any technical strokes. Do I need to find a way to learn the specific strokes for it to be beneficial or can I jump in and go with my own "stroke"? My gym does not offer a swim coach and I don't know anyone who knows technical swimming.

Actually...all of this. haha

Thank you Macstraw, I really find things like this difficult (it's the same learning to drive), but I love swimming.

About simplicity, breaststoke was the same. For months I struggled and couldn't do it and then one day I suddenly could and very effortlessly and I wondered what I'd been doing before.

I thought being knackered after trying to propel myself along with a kickboard in front of me was just me!

Oh no, the kickboard will wipe anybody out quickly.....

You just kept at your breaststroke kick & your body naturally fine-tuned it until it felt right. The same thing will happen with the other kicks, just keep working at it. Just pick 1 thing to work on at a time & don't clutter your mind. For example, work solely on pointing the toes back toward the wall you left until it feels natural. Once that happens concentrate on the kick coming from the hip. Once that happens concentrate on the fluttering of the feet. It doesn't matter what order, just work 1 at a time until it feels right.....

I swam competitively in high school, but in college I just make it to the pool once a week. I used to only swim a mile (all freestyle) but I've been upping it in recent weeks ... now at 1.75 miles in 53 minutes.

Bumping for reference.

I love swimming (got up to bronze star when I was younger) but haven't gone for years... but now I work right next to the pool so there's no excuse anymore