Well, a couple of questions. One is you saying the kick helps with rotation. As near as I can tell, the rotation anchors on the pulling arm. I do use the flutter kick a bit to add to rotation when I do that roll over with back stroke to do the flip turn, but other than that, I can't see it contributing to rotation at all. The other question is you comment that flutter kicking on your back is harder when on your back than when on your tummy/freestyle. One of those "every body knows" things is that dolphin kick is faster on your back than on your tummy, but I have never heard any argument about why this is true that makes any sense to me. My flutter kick on my back is a lower count on my back than on my front by 4 to 6 kicks for the length of a 25 yard pool compared to freestyle. This has been consistent over the past 10 or so years. My theory on this is that the lower leg is more stream lined than your thigh, and the biggest difference I can see between flutter kick for freestyle or back stroke is that you need a bit more hip flex with freestyle than with back stroke to get your foot into optimal position for propulsion. If you try to use an identical kick for both strokes, when you go onto your back, your knees will be coming up out of the water. Comments???
No matter the tempo, kicking aids swimmers in faster body rotation on both freestyle and backstroke. When kicking on your back, your body is more streamline than kicking on your front with a kickboard.
Well, if you are using a kick board, then for sure your head is up so your feet/legs are down. Take away the kick board and you go into a more correct body position/posture. I quit using a kick board years ago and switched to using the snorkel. Body rotation does add power to the #1 kick, more of an action/reaction thing. The lower body is not physically capable of driving the rotation like with land based sports.
Thanks for the drill
I appreciate the muscle use descriptions.
very helpful
Well, a couple of questions. One is you saying the kick helps with rotation. As near as I can tell, the rotation anchors on the pulling arm. I do use the flutter kick a bit to add to rotation when I do that roll over with back stroke to do the flip turn, but other than that, I can't see it contributing to rotation at all.
The other question is you comment that flutter kicking on your back is harder when on your back than when on your tummy/freestyle. One of those "every body knows" things is that dolphin kick is faster on your back than on your tummy, but I have never heard any argument about why this is true that makes any sense to me. My flutter kick on my back is a lower count on my back than on my front by 4 to 6 kicks for the length of a 25 yard pool compared to freestyle. This has been consistent over the past 10 or so years. My theory on this is that the lower leg is more stream lined than your thigh, and the biggest difference I can see between flutter kick for freestyle or back stroke is that you need a bit more hip flex with freestyle than with back stroke to get your foot into optimal position for propulsion. If you try to use an identical kick for both strokes, when you go onto your back, your knees will be coming up out of the water. Comments???
No matter the tempo, kicking aids swimmers in faster body rotation on both freestyle and backstroke.
When kicking on your back, your body is more streamline than kicking on your front with a kickboard.
Well, if you are using a kick board, then for sure your head is up so your feet/legs are down. Take away the kick board and you go into a more correct body position/posture. I quit using a kick board years ago and switched to using the snorkel. Body rotation does add power to the #1 kick, more of an action/reaction thing. The lower body is not physically capable of driving the rotation like with land based sports.