With kitten-like speed and grace

[fivemack]

At least, I think kittens are proverbially slow and graceless swimmers.

Managed a kilometre this evening - 40 lengths of Parkside, changing stroke every six lengths to ward off some of the boredom. It took just under ninety minutes; I found that two consecutive lengths of brisk front crawl (where 'brisk' means 40 seconds for the 25 metres) raised my heart rate to 180, one minute's rest got it down to 120 and another minute got it to 100. For comparison it goes up to about 150 on the stair-climbing machine and stays there, and tended not to get even that high on the treadmill (when the treadmill was working).

What would be wonderful is to try swimming with someone who not only can swim but can tell me what I'm doing wrong; I find I can't get any speed at all from my legs, it takes over two minutes for me to do a length holding a float in both arms and getting my propulsion from swimming furiously.

Weird weather this evening; low-contrast clouds and haze enough to cloud one side of Parker's Piece as seen from the other, the sun setting as a visible disc rather than an actinic blare. Rather reminiscent of Bangkok.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The front-crawl flutter kick is almost certainly more efficient at higher speeds---you're generating lift from the top and bottom of your foot and the front and back of your ankle, and the faster the water flow along the leg the more lift is available. (Simple Newtonian reasoning: under conservation of momentum it is better to move a lot of water a small way than a small amount of water a long way with each stroke, and a faster flow helps). If you're not using your arms then thrashing hard with the legs will stall the flow completely. Try a slower motion with the float and see what's most efficient. Or with your arms providing extra speed your kick will work better anyway. The drive should be from the quads and hams, with the lower leg just following like a flexible flipper.

For breaststroke the drive phase with the arms is as you bring them towards you; with the legs it is as you shoot them away. Ideally you alternate power phases, which means alternating frog and needle positions. Breath out as you kick and breathe in as you pull with the hands.

HTFB