Which is the Best Strategy?
The 100 freestyle strategy depends a lot on each person and their capabilities.
I will give you an example of what I do; After a good dive and around 5 to 6 dolphin kicks, I go to a 90% effort. If I compete, the adrenaline might make me go a little higher without even noticing, so I have to be careful.
Then I focus on having the best flip turn possible and starting to increase the effort without going to 100% yet.
The last 25 is when I give it my all, trying to keep good technique and a powerful kick.
Tips That Will Help You
This is a list of things that I do correctly that help me swim a 54.99.
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Good dive angle – around 30 degrees.
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Clean entry – the whole body enters where the hands enter.
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Effective underwater dolphin kicks – using the kick when it’s going up and down.
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Fast breakout – I go from underwater dolphin kick to flutter kick quickly.
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Strong pull.
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Fire flip turns.
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Most importantly – I maintain a good kick the whole 100 meters
The Magic of the Kick
Now let’s focus on the kick, since I think it is the most important thing you can improve if you are close to breaking a minute.
The biggest difference between a swimmer who breaks the minute in a 100-meter freestyle and a swimmer who doesn’t is the kick.
My kicking time with a kickboard for a 25 is 17 seconds, and for a 50 is 40 seconds. To find out if your kick is strong or if it can get better, time yourself and compare the results.
If you have a strong kick, you will feel like a boat, as it lifts your upper body in the water and moves you forward quickly.
That is why I like to call this technique the “boat freestyle.”
To improve your kick throughout the whole 100 and feel like a boat, you can do two things:
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Improve your legs’ endurance
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Improve your kicking technique
How to Improve Your Kicking Technique
We will mainly focus on these three joints:
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The ankle joint is better used the more plantar flexion it has.
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The knees are better used by bending them around 35 degrees.
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And very importantly, the hips bend minimally — around 10 degrees.
If you are a runner, you’ll have a hard time keeping your hips straight.
Runners are used to using hip flexion to lift their legs to run faster.
Those angles I talked to you about are only half of the kick. The other half is when the legs are going up. Here, the three joints need to be straight.
Impediments
Here is a short list of common problems when trying to break the 1:00 in the 100:
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Weak jump
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Lack of powerful underwater kicks
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Wasting time breathing
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Slowing down before the turn
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And by far the most common – not enough fast effective kicks.
When you have a weak kick or you can’t sustain a strong kick through the whole 100, then your arms need to step up and try to pull more.
But they can only handle so much, and if you want to break a minute, you need to help your arms by doing a strong kick.
Exercises
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POOL EXERCISES
– Kick on your back holding a board – helps you kick both ways fast.
– Kick on your back – good if you want to breathe and keep your head in line while you kick.
– Kick, keeping your knees super straight – feel how to kick without a lot of knee bend.
– Kick fast, keeping your glutes tight – glutes play an important role while kicking; activate them with this exercise.
– Swim with overkick (fast kick, slow arms) – helps you feel the boat freestyle technique.
– Kick with one hand on the board – while swimming freestyle fast, you’ll need to rotate with every stroke. This helps your muscle memory kick from side to side.
– Kick wide – good to feel how bad technique feels; this wide kick is a very ineffective way to kick, and it’s good to know if you are doing it.
– Kick super narrow – this is harder to do wrong and is what we are looking for. Try to do the narrowest kick possible.
– Kick fast without a board, holding your breath – Hold your breath, keep your head in line, and kick as fast as possible.
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DRYLAND EXERCISES
– Toes to bar – excellent for the core, especially if done slowly.
– Hanging knee raise – if you can’t reach the bar yet, this is an excellent alternative.
– Bridges – great for the glutes and hamstrings, two muscle groups that are super important for kicking.
– Hollow rock kick – good to maintain fast kick tempo while working on your core.
– Deadlifts – don’t do these if you have back problems; otherwise, they work important back, glute, and leg muscles.
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MOBILITY EXERCISES
– Hip flexor stretch – very important to reach that 180-degree hip angle.
– Lizard – great stretch if you tend to sit for long hours.
– Sitting on ankles – you need flexible ankles if you want to swim faster.
– Touch your toes – stretching the lower back and hamstrings is also a good idea after workouts.
See how far you can go with these workouts, and tell us if they helped you break the 1:00 barrier!
Thank you!