Kick - Does it provide balance or acceleration

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Quoted message said:

Hello All,

I have been swimming positively for the last 4 days. I still have a
long way to go towards building a neat swimming style.

I know this question might have been asked in this group earlier in a
different perspective.

I would like to truly know -

1. Does a kick (flutter specifically) provide any significant
acceleration to the forward pace provide by the arms? If yes what % of
the total acceleration would the kick provide (any estimate?

2. Does a kick "decelerate" the pace generated by the arms in case
wrongly (not to an extreme degree) executed?

3. As a beginner who is making progress swimming, does one have to
hold the arms straight forward, head looking down to the pool, and
move ahead by just kicking? Is this extremely critical to learning
swimming (The problem is I'm remaining stationary without gaining much
pace purely by kicking).

4. What % of kicking is for balance and what % for generating pace
(from 1)?

Thanks,
Tyro

There are no universal answers to most of your questions. How much your
kick helps you in both balance and forward motion is specific to you,
including your build, your flexibility, your strength, your technique,
etc. It is certainly a worthwhile thing to learn to kick better, and
kick-only drills, what you ask about in question #3, are a good idea for
most people. I've found that many people who come to swimming with a
running background get absolutely nowhere with their kick - I was one of
these people a few years ago. Perseverance furthers, but do not think
it is just practice that's needed - get yourself some quality
instruction as well. My own path was to take a swimming class at the
local YMCA for a few years, which helped some, and then to switch to an
individual 1/2 hour lesson once a week with a former competitive
swimmer, which really took my swimming to the next level (and eventually
made a swimming instructor out of me). For many people whose kicks
don't move them forward in the water, ankle flexibility is the first
thing to work on.

One need not have a great kick to become a successful fitness swimmer,
but neither should one's kick be unable to provide forward propulsion
when necessary. In my own swimming, I find I don't get much, if any,
help out of my kick when swimming slowly, but the faster I go, the more
important my kick's contribution becomes. It is important to be _able_
to have your kick help you - at that point, what you do with it is up to
you.

Hope that helps you some.

-S-

Quoted message said:

Hello All,

I have been swimming positively for the last 4 days. I still have a
long way to go towards building a neat swimming style.

I know this question might have been asked in this group earlier in a
different perspective.

I would like to truly know -

1. Does a kick (flutter specifically) provide any significant
acceleration to the forward pace provide by the arms? If yes what % of
the total acceleration would the kick provide (any estimate?

If you are accelerating from being stopped, then a flutter kick should
definitely make you accelerate faster. But Doc Councilman did an
experiment years ago in which he built an apparatus that could tow
swimmers in a gliding position, either with or without a kick, thereby
letting him measure how the presence or absence of a kick affected the
tension on the line. He found that at speeds over 5 feet per second (=
30 seconds for 50 yards), the tension on the line did not go down at all
when they kicked, and in some cases it actually went up, indicating that
their kick was actually slowing them down.

A kick is still important, though, because it counterbalances the
rotation of your body which helps to drive your armstroke. Some elite
distance swimmers use what is called a two-beat kick, in which they do
one kick for each armstroke (i.e., one kick to counterbalance each
rotation of their core body).

Quoted message said:

2. Does a kick "decelerate" the pace generated by the arms in case
wrongly (not to an extreme degree) executed?

It can. I've seen swimmers who actually went backward when they kicked
without an armstroke. This is usually caused by inflexible ankles
and/or kicking from your knees rather than your hips, and seems to be
particularly common in people who have done a lot of running. Using
fins for awhile frequently helps to improve ankle flexibility.

Quoted message said:

3. As a beginner who is making progress swimming, does one have to
hold the arms straight forward, head looking down to the pool, and
move ahead by just kicking? Is this extremely critical to learning
swimming (The problem is I'm remaining stationary without gaining much
pace purely by kicking).

The bulk of your propulsion in front crawl swimming comes from your arms
rather than your legs. It's much more important that your kick be
narrow and streamlined than that it be powerful.

Quoted message said:

4. What % of kicking is for balance and what % for generating pace
(from 1)?

If your body position is correct, you shouldn't need much of a kick to
maintain balance.

Bob

Quoted message said:

Hello All,

I have been swimming positively for the last 4 days. I still have a
long way to go towards building a neat swimming style.

I know this question might have been asked in this group earlier in a
different perspective.

I would like to truly know -

1. Does a kick (flutter specifically) provide any significant
acceleration to the forward pace provide by the arms? If yes what % of
the total acceleration would the kick provide (any estimate?

2. Does a kick "decelerate" the pace generated by the arms in case
wrongly (not to an extreme degree) executed?

3. As a beginner who is making progress swimming, does one have to
hold the arms straight forward, head looking down to the pool, and
move ahead by just kicking? Is this extremely critical to learning
swimming (The problem is I'm remaining stationary without gaining much
pace purely by kicking).

4. What % of kicking is for balance and what % for generating pace
(from 1)?

Thanks,
Tyro

Bob mentions Councilman--you may be someone who would benefit from
reading his book(s).

The main problem I see for most swimmers, and that I was lucky to have
over-emphasized when I was learning to swim, is to kick from the hip
with slightly soft knees (knees not locked) but with the legs mostly
straight with little knee bend on each up and down. With this sort of
kick and very small, curvy feet I am still able to get forward momentum
by kicking alone. This is the same in back as in crawl.
Madelaine

In article <[email hidden]>,
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Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

2. Does a kick "decelerate" the pace generated by the
arms in case wrongly (not to an extreme degree)
executed?

Quoted message said:

It can. I've seen swimmers who actually went backward
when they kicked without an armstroke. This is usually
caused by inflexible ankles and/or kicking from your
knees rather than your hips, and seems to be
particularly common in people who have done a lot of
running. Using fins for awhile frequently helps to
improve ankle flexibility.

I don't think it's just those exteme cases of
backward-populsion kicks that slow you down. If you produce
a speed of 5 fps with arms alone, and 3 fps with feet alone,
you don't get 8 pfs combined. In fact, you probably get
less than 5.

If a boat is being towed at 5 knots, it will require more
power in the towing boat to maintain that speed if the prop
of the towed vessel is being "powered" at a rate that would
normally produce 3 knots of speed. The towed boat should
just let its prop turn freely rather than trying to help.

I guess it varies a good bit from person to person, but I've
always found that I go faster, with less effort, with a pull
buoy than without. And actually, I don't think I know
anyone for whom that isn't true. I've just always
interpreted that as the kick slowing you down even though
it's necessary to keep you in position.

The results you described from the Councilman study seem to
support this interpretation. The best kick appears to be
the one that just barely keeps you in position without
slowing you down too much. The less, the better.

Well, anyway, that seems to make sense to me.