Question about Kick Sets

 Mine used to make me go backwards. Then it was a slllloooowww crawl forward. Now it's a lot of effort but I can get to the other end in probably 2 or 3 times as long as it would take to swim. Course there's the girls in the next lane flutter kicking laps faster than I can swim, but whatever. Practice and work on ankle flexibility. Of course we don't need to work on kicks like a sprinter but having one that actually works and doesn't exhaust you or pull you back is handy.

I can't wait for the day I can swim faster without a pullbuoy than with.

I think the answer is yes it's normal and yes it's possible to do it wrong.

I'm by far the slowest at kick sets in my swim class.  My coach says it's all about ankle flexibility (I have none).  She says most runners have trouble learning to do kick sets well due to ankle inflexibility.

yeah...they're definitely going to be slower...but just keep doing them and eventually you are going to get faster and faster as your legs get stronger and your ankle flexabilty gets better....and be prepared for it to take a little while. There are many different types of kick sets that you can do also...varying in difficulty. You maywant to look into that also.

 happy training!!

Personally, I gave up kick drills.  I don't swim enough as it is so normal swimming is probably of more benefit to me than kick drills. 

Also, a study cited on Tritalk (episode 61) indicates that the improvements from kick drills only translate into increased speed on kick drills.  There was no improvement to swim times.