This means your base level of fitness will increase more than it would with only bike and run training, and your legs will be more powerful and more efficient at using oxygen. The goal of this training is for your body to respond to the higher levels of stress you experience by swimming and kicking harder than the two-beat kick you use during a tri. Kicking is also something you can do every day without the wear and tear that comes with land exercise. Working on your kick is going to teach you how to relax your leg muscles and how to activate them only at the most productive moments of your stroke, making sure there’s zero energy wasted. Once this is achieved, the swim can become a warm-up for the rest of the race, instead of something that makes you feel like you’re about to enter an anxiety-inducing washing machine. The main goal should be to learn how to swim along the surface with style and economy of motion. Swimming isn’t a skill that improves by going harder and stronger-it’s exactly the opposite. However, if you overuse your legs-keeping them engaged and stiff as you try to overpower the kick-they’ll end up slowing you down. Why You Should Learn to KickĪs a triathlete, you might be tempted to resort to your strength when learning to swim-your strong and powerful legs. The goal of this article is to teach you that you must learn how to kick, so you know how not to. The benefits of swimming and learning to kick properly are not isolated to the swim-the improvements cross over to the bike and run as well. Not only is learning how to kick vital to your swimming performance, it’s one of the key ingredients in helping you improve your whole triathlon.Īlthough only about 10 to 15 percent of your entire triathlon is spent in the water, kicking is one of the things that can make time in the pool worth it. This is where the elite separate themselves from everyone else. You need to save your legs for the other 97 percent of the race.īut does that mean you shouldn’t learn how to kick? About 3 percent of the distance covered in an Olympic-distance triathlon is in the water. Is kicking harder than an easy two-beat kick during the swim leg of a tri a terrible idea? Yes, it’s a terrible idea. “Oh, brother, another swim coach who wants to convince me, a triathlete, to kick during the swim. If you’re a triathlete, you might think the title of this article is silly.
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