Kick Help Please

ankle flexibility is a key issue but the other is just Learning how to kick fast how to move your legs fast and push against the water for propulsion I think the biggest problem is swimmers take it easy on kick sets because they believe they are terrible kickers. their self talk is "I am a terrible kicker" swimmers have to develop a fast kick then use it when they are swimming Paul calls this integration. I believe ankle flexibility is the primary problem and can be fixed by some simple exercises. Roll-up a towel and place it under the toes, then sit on the heels (should be together along with your knees). It's simple but should help. Coach T.

I believe ankle flexibility is the primary problem and can be fixed by some simple exercises. Roll-up a towel and place it under the toes, then sit on the heels (should be together along with your knees). It's simple but should help. Coach T.

Bob, Since you can kick on your side, why not evaluate what works for you that way? You could be kicking too high (a lot of splashing does not equal good kicking) or too stiff legged. On your side, both of these issues will generate propulsion, where they will not on your front. You need to kick down, as if you were kicking a soccer ball, pointing the toes and with the toes of opposite feet pointed slightly toward each other (pigeontoed). Relax and bend your knees to generate a whipping motion as you kick down. On the recovery (feet and legs coming back toward the surface of the water), relax your ankles and let your feet come back to the surface without trying to create any propulsion. Once you feel your heels reach the surface of the water, repeat the kick. This is very basic instruction and will probably get jumped by a lot of people who mean well and have the latest version of great kicking memorized. But the thing is for you to find a way to get forward motion from you legs, and once you are comfortable doing that, you can tune your kick to suit your needs. Best of luck, and welcome to the DF!

Hi Robert, this issue comes up often in threads here I provided a solution in the "Help My Kick is Horrible" thread it's gotten results for swimmers who've applied it. Try my recommendation for a month and see how much you improve forums.usms.org/showthread.php I also address how to improve kicking speed in swim faster faster forums.usms.org/showthread.php I know that if you work on it you can kick way faster than you ever have before in recent years. the formula is simple: 1) Measure your kicking ability now for all out kicks with plenty of rest have someone time you with a stop watch start the watch when your feet leave the wall stop the watch when your hand touches the final wall get your times in the folling kicks: with a board from a push 25, 50, & 100 get your splits on the 50 & 100 write them down 2) consistently train to improve your kicking speed 3) repeat step 1 on the same day each week or every other week follow your progress Here's the key kicking speed issues: 1) Technique: leg motion, body position, & head position there's a term called "feel for the water" people usually associate this with hands and arms the same concept applies for legs and feet 2) Body: shape, size, weight, flexibility, conditioning, and strength foot and ankle flexibility are a big issue for kicking speed when you point your toes as far as you can "how good is your toe point on each foot" fast kickers tend to have big floppy feet ideally when you point your toes you want the top of your foot to move 180 degees from top of your shin Point Those Toes www.twirlmania.com/.../toepoint.gif but you want your foot to be relaxed and not straining to get there you can strain when you're stretchin to improve your toe point 3) Mental: belief, Ideal performance state, pain tolerance, goal setting, action taking, and fierce determination 4) Equipment: swim suit, fastskin type body suits are faster than baggy training suits because fastskins hide hair, hold very little water, and create a better surface for the body to the water kick board, 5) Pool some pools are faster than others 6) Other points that will affect your time are how you start how hard you push off the wall when you begin your kick I'm a 65 year old male just getting in Masters Swimming. My freestyle kick is probably the worst in the world and my 50 yd time 59 sec proves it. When I kick with a board I don't move at hardly at all and by 10 yds I'm beat. BTW I have used the Total Immersion Drill where you kick on your side with one hand extended and that way I can kick several laps, slow but at least I can move. If you can point me to a web site or book or give me some hints to improve my kick. Thanks, Bob