I think it must be my kick that is holding me back.

no doubt that the right 'mechanics' of a kick is important - but you do not need to  kick MORE to go faster!  Right now I am learning the 'two beat kick' from my TI lessons - you kick once per arm stroke - felt very weird at first as I was a 'flutter kicker' before...

I tested it out at our long pool (Kits Pool - it is 137m long) last week - there is only about a 4 sec difference between lengths where I flutter kick or two-beat kick - with the two-beat kick being faster! (and I am only just learning this technique!).  It is such a graceful,relaxing way to swim - uses waaay less energy too!

just my 2cents....

I have the exact same problem.  When we do kicks with the kick board, i don't go anywhere and everyone laps me.  BUT I am a much faster swimmer than any of the people who have good kicks.  I can swim around 32 min 1.2 mile swim in the pool and i pretty much just drag my legs behind me.  I do the slow one-two kick sometimes, but usually just try to keep the form and use my arms.  You defentially don't need a kick to get fast.

Maybe to move up into that elite group of swimmers, but like i said i can swim a 32 min HIM swim in the pool pretty easily and i don't kick at all.

Lots of good comments.  I had a kick that was working against me - I was kicking with my legs apart, which is like dragging a "V" behind you.  My coach made me use a pull buoy most of the time for a couple weeks and, believe it or not, my kick improved.

Folks,

I appreciate the comments. I tried this again this AM with somewhat better results. I was not going backwards and did manage some forward progress, but had no endurance for this today. My legs were burning hard. Since I am planning a 80 mile bike ride Saturday I decided not to push this. I will spend a little time after each swim session practicing my form.

I think I should keep my toes pointed and kick from the hips. Is this correct?

chevy57 

Although kicking during triathlons is not critical to propulsion, an inneffective kick can sure slow you down. It did for me, not having good flexibility in your ankles will act like a hook, and when flutter kicking will assist in pulling you backwards along with draging your lower body. My flexibility is getting better from wearing fins and stretching, not fun! As an experiment put some fins on and swim a few laps without kicking(just drag your legs), you should feel an immediate change that is a result of hips bieng higher and no hook!

A wetsuit will also assist with this, another reason why kicking is not critical during triathlons, in the pool is a whole different thing.

I'm a rank beginner, but I have to say x2 to this.  A few weeks ago I realized that my kick was not merely unproductive (which is fine by me at this point), but counterproductive (like OP, generating 'negative propulsion', and this is not fine by me).  I'm a runner and definitely had, and to some extent still have, 'runner's kick'.  I did two things:  (1) very consciously pointed my toes while swimming; and (2) some side kicking drills.  These have helped a lot.  I don't kick any harder than I did before -- in fact, I barely kick at all.  But these two things have definitely improved my swimming a little tiny bit.  In 10 more years, maybe I'll have this swimming thing down...

 I completely agree with your description of use of kick in swimming. I do dissagree with the conclusion. 

Most recently, elite swimmers have found that working MORE on their kicks yields incredible results. The reason is that the muscles used for kicking (not being the same as for running or biking) are completely inefficient in regards to creating speed. Like you said, flexibility of the ankle is most important to a good kick. However, working HARD on kicking, and working it often, can make those muscles more efficient and make kicking more worthwhile. I imagine that elite swimmers still only get 30% of forward motion while using 60% of oxygen with the kicks, but most of us probably get even worse figures. That means that we should work MORE on kicking so at least even it out... especially since kicking in swimming is totally different muscles than biking or running. 

 Now, come race day, the need to kick isn't that great (especially with a wetsuit). However, having kicked A LOT in practice will yield lots of divedends since what kicking you do will be efficient, effective, and good kicking will help activate the core, and will make you used to good body position in the water. 

 This is a problem I have tried to address too! Inflexible ankles.

I like to watch this video of Michael Phelps. The part where he dolphin kicks off the wall (55secs)shows amazing flexibility in his ankles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax77_hHq9Dc

This morning I did a mile swim averaging 1:52/100 yards.  That's nothing to write home about but it's a reasonable time for the distance.

I kick about once per 3-4 arm strokes, just enough to keep my feet from starting to sink.  Even then it's "kick-kick, rest...rest...rest"

As others have written, you do not need to kick for distance swims.  When you get to about 200-300M from the end point, then start in with the 2 kicks per stroke slow kick.

 To practice that kick, pretend you have fins on and put your power into the DOWN part of the kick, not the up.

 To work on your ankles, put the balls of your feet on a stair and do ankle-ups bending your feet as far up as possible then going to tip-toe and repeat 10-ish times.  Do that two/three times a day and you'll feel a difference in your run too.

Folks,

Thanks for all the great input. Today I focused on simply pointing my toes and kicking from the hips. This made a huge difference in raising my lower extremeties. I could feel water flowing on the tops of my feet. I trimmed 1m 58s off my 25 lap time and actually felt my feet break the surface of the water. In the past my feet would sometimes drag the bottom of the pool (shallow end). I agree with all of the statements about not wasting energy during the tri, but I need to get my big a$$ higher in the water. A couple observations:

There was a guy in the lane next to me that was using a kickboard and he would pass me while I was swimming freestyle. I have some work to do.

Even trying to point my toes I would guess that there is not more than 15 degrees of movement. I need to get more flexibility. 

chevy57