Freestyle kick question

I'm not an expert kicker by any stretch but it looks like you are over-kicking. What I mean is you are kicking more air than water. Perhaps the legs a bit closer to the water would be more effective. I'm not a sprinter so if I'm wrong maybe this response will stimulate a good discussion.

I'm not an expert kicker by any stretch but it looks like you are over-kicking. What I mean is you are kicking more air than water. Perhaps the legs a bit closer to the water would be more effective. I'm not a sprinter so if I'm wrong maybe this response will stimulate a good discussion. Being the guy who is always searching for the swimming holy grail and buys a lot of videos, I've learned that kicking air actually works well for some swimmers. I saw a Go Swim video with Roland Schoeman where he specifically gets his feet way out of water so he can not only get great foot speed going back into the water but he wants to carry air into the water with his foot. It was a lot like Geo's streamline kick. I would guess that it works well for the swimmer with great whipping action but might not work so well for the mere mortals among us. It's kind of like the Ian Thorpe stroke. If I had my head up like that and my body on an incline it would be disastrous for my speed. With his kick it works well. Geo, it was tough to comment on your kick with the stroke because you only took like 2 strokes. That said, it's not at all surprising why your feet and hips would drop a little. When you stroke with your arms there is a good chance you get some downward pressure with your arms at the beginning of the stroke. That lifts your torso and drops the hips. I'd have to see underwater footage, but I'll bet that's why. There's really nothing wrong with that, very few swimmers get nothing but backward pressure from the very beginning of the catch and pull. Those that do are olympian caliber. The other thing I would keep in mind is that the high kick may be a result of their speed rather than the cause of speed. These guys are going so fast and ride so high in the water. They are also very good at tilting their pelvis up. Anyhow, if I were you I wouldn't concentrate too hard on your kick technique (outside of making sure your foot is plantar flexed), just kick a lot to increase your strength and flexibility with minor tweaks here and there to see how it affects your speed. You will eventually find what works best for you.

@ taruky : Thanx for the response. yes, the first point you made about kicking out of the water is something I absolutely agree with you. I go lot faster when I kick out of the water maybe because of my very flexible ankles. heres a clip of me swimming : Swimming 25 at a higher than moderate speed. - YouTube The thing you said about Getting some downward pressure in the front of my stroke might be actually right but then again you can see in the above clip that my hips stay on the surface. It is just my legs that are down. You said that : "The other thing I would keep in mind is that the high kick may be a result of their speed rather than the cause of speed" It is something I find very very interesting but I don't agree with it. I believe That high and super fast kick is one of the most important things on achieving that kind of speed. But your comment was very interesting. Anyway I have a theory on my problem. I think when swimming I am focusing more and i mean much more on my downbeat rather then the whole kicking action. I should pay attention more on my Upbeat of the kick while swimming............................. What is your opinion about it ??????????? Could that be the cause????????????????? THANX AGAIN for the reply.

Hi Geo, I watched that video, but the strokes at the end are just too short to see anything - but remember, I'm blind in one eye and cannot see out of the other! :D I also think that you drop your kick in that video right at the end 'cause you're anticipating the wall. I watched your Easy freestyle swimming 25 meter vid. It looked really nice to me. I'm not really sure you have a problem there. You swam with what appears to be a 6 beat kick. Continue with the easy stroke and start throwing in slightly faster sets. Pay attention as you pick up the stroke rate that you are maintaining your kick. Work into sprints as your skills progress, but always come back and do the slow easy for stroke reinforcement. Another exercise might be freight train...It's an exercise where you start out with the easy pace and then accelerate trying to be at a full sprint at the end. This can be done accelerating over 25m, 50m, 100m or even 200m. Again, be aware of your stroke and try not to fall into bad habits as you accelerate. If you think you finish and have dropped your kick, then pull back the pace a little and finish at a medium fast instead of full sprint. Build stroke awareness and muscle memory. Rather than kicking face down as you did in the video, try a kick exercise on your side. Kick the length of the pool, left side down, left arm extended, right arm at your side - use rotational breathing. Return length on your right side. Maybe 100m, 30 sec rest, repeat. Set of 3 or so. A stroke exercise is a 6 kick switch. This can be done freestyle and backstroke. 1-arm full stroke while kicking 6 beats, good body rotation and pull the other arm. (keeping head stable - don't swing head side to side) This can also be combined with a full catch up arm stroke - though I don't do the full catch up arm stroke much. I find it harder on my shoulders and I'm a sprinter so I race with more of a kayak stroke and high stroke rate. Last, and certainly not least, find a team and a coach. Someone that is there that can watch and make suggestions and give compliments real time! Cheers, PT

Hey Popeye.Tom, glad you liked my easy swim. My legs really drop when I try to swim faster. heres another video of me doing a 80-85 percent intensity swimming : Swimming 25 at a higher than moderate speed. - YouTube Here you can't see my legs during the swim. My best time for a 25 m without board kick is just under 14 seconds and my best time for 50 freestyle LCM is 24.6 or maybe lower now but I think with a kick like that I should go a lot faster than 24.6. I just don't know how to combine my kick to the whole stroke. The drills you suggested seemed very interesting to me. I definitely will be doing them from my next sessions. Thank you for your suggestions dude.

If your feet are coming all the way out of the water , then you are pushing a lot of air bubbles back into the water, not the best way to propel you forward. I think you need to bring them close to the surface but not out of the water .

I'm no fluid dynamics expert, but I believe if you are trying to move through the water, kicking the air is no help, either above, or below the surface. You may be faster at this time using the big air kick, but I think (like others here) if you develop keeping your feet in the water more, you will find that you will get greater propulsion and less drag. I suspect that if you were to periodically put on a pair of fins, you would pick up on this faster.

I'm no fluid dynamics expert, but I believe if you are trying to move through the water, kicking the air is no help, either above, or below the surface. You may be faster at this time using the big air kick, but I think (like others here) if you develop keeping your feet in the water more, you will find that you will get greater propulsion and less drag. I suspect that if you were to periodically put on a pair of fins, you would pick up on this faster. This isn't necessarily true becuase perhaps the acceleration you can generate while in the air might lead to some momentum that can help you move quickly through the water...

This isn't necessarily true becuase perhaps the acceleration you can generate while in the air might lead to some momentum that can help you move quickly through the water... Not exactly...when you drag air down into the water and kick, you're not moving against the water, you're moving against the air, which won't give you as much propulsion. The same effect with the arm pulls. This is why you should try to "clean" your hands of air bubbles as quickly as possible.

Watch poor swimmers doing back stroke pull with lots of air bubbles. They move the hands quickly but, do not move the body quickly. This is the same as kicking air down instead of pushing water up & down with the foot.:2cents: