What power should be generated by legs in the swim of a tri?
ironkav
Posts: 259
in General Chat
Hey guys,
I had a swim lesson on Saturday.. A lot of possitives, stroke is ok, rotation is ok, breathing is ok..
She said I have a lot of room for improvement, but that Im in a good pos for tri. However the big negative was that I dont use my legs at all.. She said they should be working a lot harder. I was under the assumpion that we keep out legs for the bike and run. Any way she made me do a lot of leg exercises in the water and i was wrecked after it..
My question is. What power should be generated by legs in the swim of a tri? I dont want to be climbing on the bike (my strongest section) wih dead legs.
IK
I had a swim lesson on Saturday.. A lot of possitives, stroke is ok, rotation is ok, breathing is ok..
She said I have a lot of room for improvement, but that Im in a good pos for tri. However the big negative was that I dont use my legs at all.. She said they should be working a lot harder. I was under the assumpion that we keep out legs for the bike and run. Any way she made me do a lot of leg exercises in the water and i was wrecked after it..
My question is. What power should be generated by legs in the swim of a tri? I dont want to be climbing on the bike (my strongest section) wih dead legs.
IK
0
Comments
The swim coach at the technique session my tri club runs tells us that your legs only generate 10% of your power in front crawl. The advice was therefore not to do too much leg work because (a) there is not too much scope for improvement and (b) you want your legs to be fresh for the bike and run.
The above seems logical to me, but clearly contradicts what your coach has said, so doesn't help much, sorry!
I have been thinking about the swim (at sprint level) in a slightly different way of late. It goes something like this. If i put in an extra 50 hours training i may reduce my time by 30-60, and frankly thats pretty unlikely. But if i put the same time in on the turbo, or running, i think the time benefits would be far greater.
As it sounds like your stroke, breathing and position are all good anyway, why not (at this stage anyway) just get the swim done in a half reasonable time and then make the difference out on the road.
well done on your tri great results..
I agree with the logic there.. extra bike and run workouts will benefit me more. The bike is my strongest discipline..
Thanks
IK
If you stick a pull buoy between your legs you my find you go faster as the extra buoyancy gives you a better position in the water,if you don't kick your legs sink (unless your core strength is good enough) creating an increase in drag.
It is beneficial in practicing leg work for as you reach the end of the swim leg in the race you should work the legs to increase the blood flow and prepare your body from moving from a horizontal position to a vertical on,and might help prevent that light headed feeling as you stand up.
Was told to kick from the arse using your glutes and makes a big difference. Don't use much of a kick at all now, just use my legs for balance really.
We all had problems with our kick, but one of the main things I took away was that frantic kicking is so much wasted energy for very little return. Our coach reckoned 5 or maybe 10%, and only then when you need to sprint. As distance athletes, he said, the kick should be all about balance and streamlining. Watch any of the olympic distance swim replays and you'll see how little the kick comes into it.
[ol][*]just kick lightly to keep legs up high (keeping horizontal body) and to reduce the drag.
[*]Kick from the Hip not the knee,
[*]and not to bother with kicking hard as the gain in speed in not worth the gain in fatigue this keeping legs fresh for bike and run.[/ol]Sounds good.
IK
Yep - and also (according to the expert coaches)
1. Dont make the kick too deep i.e. only about 6" from the top of the kick to the bottom. This keeps the feet tucked behind the body and doesn't add extra drag. Again, from watching the film in the endless pool, I could see that as soon as I started kicking deeper (moving the legs further up & down), the legs started to sink due to the extra drag
2. yep, and keep the ankles loose
3. yep
Another good tip I picked up is to wear swim fins for training drills. It's basically impossible to kick to fast with these, plus, you can feel when you are making the kick too deep.