Swimming - The kick

What does a kick do?

1. Helps the body stay on top of the water surface.
   1. Helps to decrease water resistance
2. Helps gain speed while swimming

The how

1. First, legs lift up to the water surface. Then, thighs start performing movement downwards. The legs may bend slightly at the knees. The things continue doing the kick with the shin as a little behind. At the end of the kick, the shin performs powerful movements to straighten the leg. When the kick is done, life the leg to the surface.
2. Correct kicking technique is not only the movement downwards - but also upwards. Wall exercises help greatly to practice this. The legs must to equal movements up and down.
3. Kick from the hips - not like playing football.
4. Kicks should be done in body streamline.
   1. Do not bend the legs at the knees too much while kicking.
   2. Imagine that the body has to go through a narrow tunnel in the water. The farther the limbs move out of the range of the tunnel, the more inefficient it is for the body.
   3. If the legs bend during the kick, they go too far away from the narrow position of the body. This will increase resistance from the water.
   4. The more straight the legs are during the kick, the better it is.
5. Kicks must be performed while in streamline position. This will allow us to have the least amount of water resistance.
6. The legs must not be tense during swimming. It is very inefficient. If you notice that your legs are getting tired too quickly, see if they are relaxed or not.

Kick timing

One of the things swimmers often struggle with is their kick timing. They either feel like the kick’s doing its own separate thing out the back or like their kick is non-existent out the back. Whether either one of those two things is happening for you, with your kick, the main thing is you time it correctly.

Kicking your feet randomly without any type of synchronization with the hands is not good.

If we time it right, it is enough to perform 2 kicks per 2 arm strokes. It helps with saving energy and swimming efficiently.

Coordinate your catch and your kick.

Coordinate your catch and your kick.

If you can learn to time your kick with your catch on the same side (e.g. catch and kick on the right side at the same time), that is going to help you swim so much faster and swim a whole lot easier.

Move through the catch at the same time that you have a downwards kick on that same side of the body. So, if you think of coordinating your catch and your kick on that same side of the body together, that’s going to be part of developing your rhythm.

The mechanics

1. The kick helps trigger body roll.
2. Each downbeat drives the opposite hip down and your opposite hand forward.
3. Don’t emphasize pushing back to your knee.

When we kick down on one side (e.g. right side), by the end of the kick, the right side of the body will rotate upwards in the water (and the left side of the body will be relatively lower in the rotation phase).

1. When you are getting ready to catch water with your right hand in front of the body, kick the right leg. Do not move the left leg. By the time the kick is finished, the right hand should be ready to come out of the water over the body.
2. When you are getting ready to catch water with your left hand in front of the body, kick the left leg. Do not move the right leg. By the time the kick is finished, the left hand should be ready to come out of the water over the body.

Bring it all together

1. Everything needs to work together and make your swimming feel so much easier.
2. Often, that is the missing link for many people - to get their kick timing together. If they do get their timing right, everything works well together and it doesn’t feel like you’ve got a separate front half of your body with back half your body.
3. It’s the thing that brings it all together.
4. Dorsiflexed kick is not good. Kick needs to be short and nice and narrow.

How to practice?

1. Do a few lapse of focused laps - focusing on the timing of the kicks with the movements of the hands.
2. Kick down at the same time you move through your catch.
3. Find the rhythm and bounce through your body.
4. The aim is to achieve nice rhythm and flow with the stroke.
5. It will take a little bit of experimentation to get it.
6. But it will help with getting cross connection through the body.

Keys to freestyle kicking

As you swim through this week’s workouts, focus on these three things that will help you improve your freestyle swim kick:

1. Start your kick from your core and hips.
   1. To maintain a steady kick, make sure you’re kicking from your core and hips—not your knees.
2. Kick narrowly with a slight knee bend.
   1. Keep your kick narrow to generate more propulsion while maintaining and balanced body position.
   2. As you kick, keep your knees slightly bent, your ankles relaxed, and your toes slightly pointed.
3. Kick near the surface with relaxed ankles.
   1. Try to kick close to the surface with loose ankles and your heels slightly breaking the surface.
   2. This will help you maintain great body alignment and reduce resistance.