Sinking legs while swimming

[BlueTrin]

I decided to learn to swim front crawl fairly recently and one of the drills that is often done during the class is either backstroke or kicking while on the back.

I have fairly lean legs and they seem to always sink. While the instructor keep telling me to raise them closer to the surface they don’t give practical steps.

There must be a lot of good swimmers on this board: does anyone have more practical steps on what someone can do to raise his legs while swimming whether it’s a matter of pushing your chest down or belly up?

Does not help that I can’t film myself and have no good feeling about whether my legs are close to the surface.

 

[Silt Life]

Kick faster?
Actually, for some, it is difficult to coordinate rhythmic kicking with arm movements. The only way to keep legs up is to keep kicking.....they're just not that buoyant.

 

[BlueTrin]

Kick faster?
Actually, for some, it is difficult to coordinate rhythmic kicking with arm movements. The only way to keep legs up is to keep kicking.....they're just not that buoyant.

I think you are right, I probably don’t kick enough. For some reason I get out of breath really fast when swimming freestyle: probably because I am still learning and don’t have the right body position.

On my front, I nearly come to a halt everytime I breathe.

 

[broncobowsher]

Take off the ankle monitor?

Some of it may be physiological, you want your head further out of the water than physics allow. So you are pitching head up, and that puts feet down. Try thinking about it while swimming and see if you can drive your head a little deeper in the water.

I've seen them listed, never tried them, only know of the existence. Buoyant shorts. Might work by adding some floaty down low.

 

[BlueTrin]

Take off the ankle monitor?

 

[Lorenzoid]

I think you are right, I probably don’t kick enough. For some reason I get out of breath really fast when swimming freestyle: probably because I am still learning and don’t have the right body position.

On my front, I nearly come to a halt everytime I breathe.

My feet sink, too. I suspect I don't kick rapidly enough because my mind is so used to a rhythmic scuba kick cadence. Rapid kicking just feels wrong--like I'm not conserving energy as I should be.

 

[BlueTrin]

My feet sink, too. I suspect I don't kick rapidly enough because my mind is so used to a rhythmic scuba kick cadence. Rapid kicking just feels wrong--like I'm not conserving energy as I should be.

Somehow I found that scuba improved my breaststroke.

 

[divad]

Flex yer butt.

 

[BlueTrin]

A friend suggested I use a leg float to do laps using my arms only. He said that it would help me to understand/feel what the correct position is.

So far have done only 3 sessions at the pool with a float but that helped greatly: doing laps with a float helps you to feel how your body should be while swimming so when you remove the float you can try to fix your position and get the same feeling.

 

[jonhall]

A friend suggested I use a leg float to do laps using my arms only. He said that it would help me to understand/feel what the correct position is.

If starting from the beginning, bracket yourself against the pool wall (1 hand holding onto the wall near the surface and 1 hand below the surface, palm against the wall pushing your body up to in line with the surface) and practice the kick. Think about letting your feet barely break the surface.

Now try a kick board only and do some laps. Again, let your feet barely break the surface. This will strengthen your kick.

My legs would sink if I were to just float or swim too slow. I'm not a great big kicker when I do the front crawl, but the arms are what give a swimmer the most propulsion. I don't think about it much anymore, but I probably am closer to a 2 beat kick per arm cycle than a higher beat kick.

I think you are right, I probably don’t kick enough. For some reason I get out of breath really fast when swimming freestyle: probably because I am still learning and don’t have the right body position.
On my front, I nearly come to a halt everytime I breathe.

It seems that if you can pull yourself through the water using leg floats (and you feel you're in the correct position) you should be able to pull yourself through the water without the floats and not have to almost come to a stop when taking a breath - do you do a rhythmic breathing, turning your head to the side to inhale with the exhalation underwater? As you continue to practice, you will improve your stamina and stroke.