I am a newbie and trying to get the dolphin kick right.Alas - I still did not figure it out.Do you have to move your entire body a certain way to be able to perform a good dolphin kick?And generally what are the basics on the technique of the kick?
Thanks.
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Former Member
One of the frustrations of talking about butterfly kick is lack of a clear consistant terminology for the two kicks. The only clear way I can think of to differentiate the two kicks is the one that occurs approximately as the hands are entering the water and the one that occurs approximate as the hands leave the water. I'll call these the hand entry kick and the hand exit kick. Talking about big kicks and small kicks can be problematic because in the hand entry kick the kick completes with the body in a piked position while at the end of the hand exit kick the body is in a straight line. If you watch Phelps the two kicks are pretty much equal although the hand entry kick appears larger because of the piked body position. The kick that flows out of the body undulation is the hand exit kick which is the kick that single kick butterfliers do not do (in reality they do a sort of half kick).
Here are images of Phelps as he finishes the hand entry and hand exit kicks, note that the depth of the kick is the same in both cases.
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Former Member
One of the frustrations of talking about butterfly kick is lack of a clear consistant terminology for the two kicks. The only clear way I can think of to differentiate the two kicks is the one that occurs approximately as the hands are entering the water and the one that occurs approximate as the hands leave the water. I'll call these the hand entry kick and the hand exit kick. Talking about big kicks and small kicks can be problematic because in the hand entry kick the kick completes with the body in a piked position while at the end of the hand exit kick the body is in a straight line. If you watch Phelps the two kicks are pretty much equal although the hand entry kick appears larger because of the piked body position. The kick that flows out of the body undulation is the hand exit kick which is the kick that single kick butterfliers do not do (in reality they do a sort of half kick).
Here are images of Phelps as he finishes the hand entry and hand exit kicks, note that the depth of the kick is the same in both cases.
