I have been trying to learn how to do a decent front crawl. With the help of many Forum users I have made some progress improving the arm pull, kick and breathing - as separate elements of the total motion. I am having trouble synchronizing the kicks with the pulls. Right now I think I am just kicking at a fast, steady rate (probably too fast), whatever the arms are doing. It doesn't feel natural. At what points in the arm pull do the kicks occur?
Thanks, as ever, for your help.
BTW, I looked into the class that they have at my facility, but everybody is waaay too advanced (they work on diving in and flip turns - ack! - I'd probably drown).
Parents
Former Member
The correct timing of the kick is to kick down AS the hand is moving from the entry to the catch. This is when the entry hand is reaching forward underwater and extending into the catch. The other hand is just finishing its push phase.
This is the critical time when the acceleration provided by the kick is most needed as there is a drop off in forward propulsion provided by the arms as you wait for the entry hand to move into the 'catch'.
I teach this as "the alternate foot kicks the hand forward into the catch". Waiting to kick until the hand has started its pull, as suggested in one of these posts, is kicking too late.
The easiest way to learn this is by an exagerated two beat kick done slowly while wearing fins. Once this is mastered then you can move onto the 6 beat kick.
I do get my swimmers to count their kicks, 1, 2, 3, for each arm stroke. They find it is not easy and we have to do it at slow speed.
The correct timing of the kick is to kick down AS the hand is moving from the entry to the catch. This is when the entry hand is reaching forward underwater and extending into the catch. The other hand is just finishing its push phase.
This is the critical time when the acceleration provided by the kick is most needed as there is a drop off in forward propulsion provided by the arms as you wait for the entry hand to move into the 'catch'.
I teach this as "the alternate foot kicks the hand forward into the catch". Waiting to kick until the hand has started its pull, as suggested in one of these posts, is kicking too late.
The easiest way to learn this is by an exagerated two beat kick done slowly while wearing fins. Once this is mastered then you can move onto the 6 beat kick.
I do get my swimmers to count their kicks, 1, 2, 3, for each arm stroke. They find it is not easy and we have to do it at slow speed.
