Am I doing something wrong..?

Question

well I've noticed that when i swim (front crawl/freestyle) my arms are doing most of the work, i can move kinda "fast" by using my arms only.

my legs are really weak, because when i dont use my arms and i'm just going forward by kicking i'm only able to do about 1 length before i'm COMPLETELY out of breath.

so... how do i make my legs stronger?

if i did would i be able to go faster.?

or is this completely normal?

good advice is helpful :)

thanks.

Answer 1

Use a kick board to strengthen the muscles in your legs. If its new to you then you probably will feel really tired, but you need to practise and then you will get fitter and hopefully your legs will get stronger

hope this helped x

Answer 2

I agree with everyone that says using a "Kick board" It really does strengthen your muscles in your legs if your holding on to the kick board with both of your arms and letting your legs do most of the work it helps so much! Just keeping doing that intil you feel your legs have built enough muscle! Good luck I hope I helped! =]

Answer 3

I'd say this is pretty normal, you could try kicking using fins (small flippers intended for use in training) to strengthen your legs and you won't get as tired as fast. But in swimming arm power is far greater than leg power so don't worry yourself about it. I have been swimming competitively for most of my life and I find that when we do lengths of kicking at my club I am still normally at the back. Just keep up the good work =D

Answer 4

Kick board and weight traning. I do most of my swiming with my arms too. like doing long dist. but when I need to realy go for it my kick is powerful. you can get your body to plain in the water with a good kick. also practice taking as many strokes as possable befor you breath. good luck swimming is fun

Answer 5

Kick with a board head up at first then face in. add in single arm with head up and then head in alternating arms. full stoke breathing every 3 arm pulls. Also do some weights in the gym to strengthen the leg muscles

Answer 6

k in practice you wanna use kickboards and on land maybe run or do squats

but getting out of breath is normal, your legs use way more oxygen than your arms,

my coach proved this to us by making us kick a 25 rlly hard no breathing.. it was rlly hard

if you just barely use your legs in the 25 and pull most of the way its not that hard

i would just focus on your legs during practice, maybe go to the gym and do some leg presses or something

Answer 7

When swimming the front crawl your arms are most of your forward motions.like 75%. your legs do act as a bit of a rudder with some forward motion. In swimming your arms are always where you will derive the most forward motion. That is why the classic swimmers body is such strong shoulders and back and the legs are streamline. Grab a kick board and work on your kick make sure your using your whole body don't just kick from your knees down. you should have a slight log roll.the kick should go down your body. keep your abs tight. good luck and feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.