The 'proper' way to flutter kick

natalie coughlin has some excerpts from her itrain freestyle training videos. In one of them she does a flutter kick drill where she keeps her arms at her sides and alternate breathes. She uses her flutter kick to rotate from side to side. It's a very difficult drill actually, and requires coordination and good body position. I'm not sure if it suits all freestylers, certainly not 2-beat kickers, but for those with a steady 6-beat kick on their free and back it might be better than training the kick with a kickboard.

Anyone else find it easier to kick this way? Not me - my feet are way out of the water, but people can be fast either way. Also, people usually kick a little different with board in a kick set vs regular swimming. For what it's worth though - I have never seen anybody kick Free faster than me with their feet staying in the water. Best kicker I have ever seen was Larsen Jensen ... holding repeat 100s in the low teens long course, although I heard he was not the best kicker on the Mission Viejo team - his feet were way out of the water. I think the feet out of the water works for some people, because you come down into the water with tremendous speed - if you can translate that into propulsion, you will move fast. Also - there are a lot of variations to compare kick times - size of the board, flip turn or regular, how many free pulls before the turn,

Two questions. Bend your knees when? What does tap mean? I thought I knew, and now I am pretty sure I was wrong. I thought tapping was a kick drill where you keep your feet up and come down to tap the water. A lot of splash a lot of leg speed, but very little propulsion. Before answering your questions, could you tell me how fast you can get kicking with a board over let's say 50m sprint? Can you go under 50s (close to or even under 45s)?

Bend your knees to kick faster and tap on the water!!! Two questions. Bend your knees when? What does tap mean? I thought I knew, and now I am pretty sure I was wrong. I thought tapping was a kick drill where you keep your feet up and come down to tap the water. A lot of splash a lot of leg speed, but very little propulsion.

I believe the best way to kick is the way that allows you to kick the fastest times. what are your kicking times for 15, 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, & 200? Find out what they are then work to improve them. If you want to experiment with technique, do this set: 20 x 50 kick odds: FAST for time on :45 experimenting with splash, foot speed, & amplitude evens: EASY on 1:45 recover & prepare for your next FAST one Things you can experiment with are: + Splash: none, some, lots, + Amplitude: small medium large, + Frequency: Foot Speed: fast, faster fastest, + Intensity: how much effort What works best for me is: Some to lot's of splash, medium amplitude, & fastest foot speed, plus being warmed up & ready, getting psyched, hard push offs & fast turns. Other factors that affect kicking speed are: + leg conditioning + hard push offs + fast turns + what suit the kicker wears + how the kicker starts + whether the kicker is fresh or fatigued + the kickers body shape & weight + foot & ankle flexibility + being warmed up & ready & + mental factors: like self image, what the swimmer expects to kick, and how psyched they DEVELOP A FAST KICK THEN INTEGRATE IT WITH YOUR STROKE, USE IT WHEN YOU SWIM. It takes years of training to maximize your kick potential Learn how hard you can kick for each distance you race. OK, I was kicking it in the pool with the seniors and I noticed a recurring theme among all of them. Everyone was having thier foot exit the water by at least 2 inches. By this I mean the part of the foot from just below the ankle all the way to the toes. I also used to (until about 3 months ago) kick this exact same way until I started focusing on having just my heel break the surface of the water. This has helped me immensely on getting a better 'bite' with my foot and to hold more water. Am I just crazy or do most swimmers not know the correct way to kick? Heck, I didn't, that's for sure (unless I'm completely off my rocker). Anyone else find it easier to kick this way?

I believe the best way to kick is the way that allows you to kick the fastest times. Brilliant quote that is

Two questions. Bend your knees when? What does tap mean? I thought I knew, and now I am pretty sure I was wrong. I thought tapping was a kick drill where you keep your feet up and come down to tap the water. A lot of splash a lot of leg speed, but very little propulsion. Here gbrain, The clip referred to below is probably one of the best swimming lesson I've seen on the Internet so far. A real Free Style specialist that can modulate her stroke according to the event duration. During her 6beat kick execution, she taps on the water pretty much the way it should be done. She later explains how all this works, putting emphasis on ankle flexibility. She also explains how she bends the knee. She makes sure that some inheritance takes place from bottom of the leg (glutes and tights) down to lower portion of the leg (using the knee as a transmission, the extra wip that bending the knee allows for adds some power to the lower leg, hence the importance to bend 'em) and finally, if ankles are flexible they're also used as a transmission to finish the movement with a powerful wip, on the water. Now why on the water. Knowing that some bubbles will get created, making the water less solid if you may. Because what makes the kick propulsive is the angle of attack of the feet relative to the surface. That's the first reason. Then also if you look carefully on the clip, she ends the kick very shallow. The leg doesn't at all go deep, since by doing so it would present some frontal drag. So a lot of swimmers and coaches find that taping on the surface of the water is a fair compromise that allows for aggressive angle of attack and a compact kick. As a bonus, you get a great (one of the bests I've seen) 2beat kick demonstration, with emphasis put on the real deal, that is overall body balance that must be perfect so that the body stays at the surface despite minimal contribution from the kick. that clip was referred to in an other thread btw. It's a great one. YouTube - Swim Fast - Freestyle with Lindsay Benko

I was kicking with too straight a leg....I just brought in more flick by bending the knee. Speed is about the same but I don't get tired out and can kick longer distances now. I think I had to work through a very straight leg kick period to where I am now. I know it strengthened my core by kicking virtually straight.

it's a bad idea to kick with stiff legs, it's slow & weak when you flutter kick correctly begin with there's a slight knee bend then you move your calf & foot down with toes pointed as soon as your leg goes a bit past neutral you reverse & pop it up with toes pointed also concentrate on "catching" water with your shins, calves & feet on your up kick & down kick How fast can you kick 15, 25, 50, 75, 100, 150 & 200? time yourself, work on improving I was kicking with too straight a leg....I just brought in more flick by bending the knee. Speed is about the same but I don't get tired out and can't kick longer distances now. I think I had to work through a very straight leg kick period to where I am now. I know it strengthened my core by kicking virtually straight.

I did 5 x 200K, 200 P, 200 Swim today. All kick without fins which would not have happened a few weeks ago. :applaud: :applaud: :applaud: VERY nice!!!