Core Power and the 2 Beat Kick: Chicken or Egg?

By PETER SCOTT

I'd been away from swimming while recovering from the flu and went to the pool this morning eager to get back into things. It seemed like a good opportunity to practice the 2-beat kick (2BK) and experiment with synchronizing it with the whole stroke.

We've seen a lot of Discussion Forum posts about the 2BK and the necessity of core rotation. I had several experiences this morning that really helped my sense of swimming with the core. In particular, I realized that while it’s important to focus on 2BK, hip rotation, spearing, patient hand and holding the water individually until each skill works well, they need to become a unified "chunk" of skill to produce that feeling of effortless power and propulsion we call “perpetual motion swimming.” Here’s how I went about it:

Warmup I swam relaxed and checked in on what my legs were doing. They were doing a sloppy 2BK with ongoing mini-flutter between beats. My bottom leg would often bend excessively before a beat and occasionally, I'd skip a beat altogether.

Focus 1: Balance. When I gave attention to being balanced from head-to-toe and stable from side-to-side it was much easier to do a clean 2BK without mini-flutters. This also made me aware that bending my knee wasn’t the optimal way to produce real thrust from the 2BK. I concentrated on holding my legs closer together and keeping them relatively straight throughout the "compression" (which is what it feels like to me). And I learned that if my attention wavered for a moment my legs would return to their instinctively-uncontrolled ways.

While working on mastering this kind of motion-control, you also need to find the right degree of muscle engagement. Your legs should remain relaxed as you swim so you don’t use excess energy holding them near the surface or in line with your intended vector of propulsion. You can do this with proper balance. I explored the spectrum of engagement and relaxation by letting my legs go limp for four to five seconds then resuming the kick. If they sank quickly and I resorted to mini-flutter, I knew I wasn't balanced.

Focus 2: Hip Rotation. I was curious to revisit core rotation, where it originates, and what makes it hard or easy. I tried rotating my hips without the 2BK or any sort of kick at all and I found this caused me to rotate too far, and it didn’t help my stroke at all. Furthermore, it was difficult to synchronize rotation with my Mail Slot entry. My mini-flutters also surfaced again.

I concluded that you can't really experience core power without the 2BK. Moving the hips in the various drills is better than not doing it and
it sets one up for learning the 2BK, but I learned you can't separate one
from the other. When I focused on doing 2BK and hip rotation, things felt wonderful. But still...

Focus 3 Arm recovery and skate position I did 16 X 50m repeats of well-tuned 2BK and hip/core rotation-awareness, feeling much better. But something wasn't quite clicking. I swam a couple of 25m lengths, trying to deepen awareness of the relation of upper torso to core rotation and the 2BK. I felt my arm lagging slightly behind the bracing compression of my legs. As I drove down my “high side” it seemed my shoulder was slightly higher than my hip and I sensed it would increase drag and decrease propulsive power.

I also grasped what Terry means when he talks of maintaining "tone" throughout the body so that core power is delivered where it counts. I concentrated on rotating with my shoulder and hip connected as if by a carbon fiber rod (strong but flexible). Then I concentrated on dropping my hand into the Mail Slot in synch with my shoulder and hip drive. With this the individual components of spearing arm, rotation and 2BK came together as a “chunk.”

My goal this year is use the foundation of efficient movement I’ve cultivated for several years to swim faster. Terry has emphasized that speed comes from developing the coordination to maintain those movements at higher stroke rates and heart rates. And since drag increases dramatically with speed, power must be far greater as well. The best way to produce that power is better coordination and integration of stroking movements with the core. Without strong core muscle, “things will just start falling off...”

My concentrated hour of 2BK thus produced two critical benefits: Not only was my coordination and awareness noticeably improved, but post-practice, I could feel my inner thighs and core stabilizer muscles had gotten quite a workout as well. If you’ve hit a plateau in speed, it could be because your neuromuscular system is processing the inputs from your drills and mindful practice. But it’s also possible that your core isn't yet strong enough to maintain your mechanics at higher speeds. It’s nice to know we can work on both at the same time.


Peter Scott first picked up the original TI
book in 1995 and pursued fishlike swimming
ever since. After competing in the Freediving World Championships for Canada in 2001, he
has continued his exploration of the ocean through writing, art, photography, freediving, swimming, and travel. Visit his website at www.holdyourbreath.ca. Peter is now writing books on freediving and other underwater pursuits and preparing to coach TI swimming in Vancouver, BC.

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