My kick is awful. We did a bit of an experiment at tri club a few weeks ago kicking 1 leg at a time. Slight propulsion forward from my right leg, with my left leg, I stop going forward and turn to my left. I swim faster with a pull bouy. Also too much leg work seems to give me cramp. I always take on electrolytes, can you suggest anything else?
Thanks Mark. I struggle with an effective kick so I liked your drills and tips. I also enjoy seeing your freestyle stroke that appears so free and easy, almost elegant. Again, thanks as always for your videos.
Get out of my head! The fact you did a video on kicking after I had a conversation with my swim coach this week about my kick is 🤯. As always, thanks for the tips!
A couple of points not covered. One, and this made a huge difference for me, is going pigeon toed (pronation?). This should be about 30 to maybe 45 degrees max. What this does is give those of us with stiff ankles, an extra 10 to 20 degrees of toe point. It also has the side benefit of letting us use the entire side of our foot for propulsion rather than just the toes. Another point, and I know the rest of the world doesn't think like me, is the use of the frog feet fins. Our feet are 3 dimensional, not flat like a frog or duck. So why are most of the fins like that? Best variation I have seen are the Positive Drive fins from Finis. Wide to the little toe side, and narrow to the big toe side. Another variation are the 'surf rescue' fins, and no clue as to who makes them.... They actually push you into a pigeon toed position. If you try that with the standard frog feet fins, they fight you all the way. The Aqua Sphere fins came close as in nice idea, but poor execution. I couldn't get my feet into them, even when I ordered the next size up from the one that should have fit me, even with enlarging the foot hole. Also, every one tries to put them on up side down, with the ribs on top, which makes more sense to most of us. I do prefer the shorter fins. One thing I have noticed, and this is pretty much with all swimmers in the pool, is that with the longer fins, most start the front side kick with the ankle in 'runner's foot' position, which to me is ankle flexed at about 30 degrees rather than straight or hyper flexed. Another thing I notice, is that so many will have ankles flexed in the wrong direction when swimming freestyle, but not in back stroke. Also, there is a point about 'relaxed ankles'. It can be too relaxed. What happens if the ankle is too floppy is that when you stop your front side stroke and switch to the back side stroke, mostly in freestyle, the ankle follows through to the point where it causes negative thrust. Those little bubble plumes will show this, more noticeable in slow motion.
Gerry Rodriguez and Tower26 provide some excellent resources for improving all aspects of your stroke. I would also note that while the kick is important, you want to be careful not to overdo it in light of saving your legs for the other two disciplines.
I used to do ballet for several years before getting serious about the tri sports. I am unlearning some "pretty" (a.k.a. bad for running) movement patterns and hypermobilility, but at least never have had problems with stiff ankles!
Kicking is the bane of my life. I simply cannot get it right. I think my legs are quite strong hopefully from other two sports but one length with kick and I’m dying whereas with pull buoy I can go for ages. I’ve tried every drill I’ve been given in lessons but am getting so frustrated that it isn’t getting better. Could this be from very tight or weak hip flexors?
As long as your kick isn't working against your arms and slowing you down because your legs and hips are sinking why not just priortize it less for now and look to make improvements in other parts of your stroke. I've been swimming for 3 months and have increased my pace by almost a minute and a half and I've done 0 kicksets. I've practiced different kick patterns but thats it (2bk ftw). If this is something you really want to hammer down now though try kicking using a snorkel. Its much more comfortable than using a board and perhaps you'll be able to have a higher output with less fatigue.
@@KratosMayhem thanks that’s helpful. I can swim with fins or a pull buoy but when I kick normally I just get burning quads. I’ve tried not kicking (legs sink) I’ve tried kicking slowly but just start panicking and it speeds up. Can’t work out if it’s too deep or too bent at the knee or both. Ankles are flexible so it’s not that. Hips very stiff j think but I just cannot control it. I end up just doing drills for other things/arms/everything g else that’s wrong but the minute I bring any kick back I just die after a length with HR v high. I could try a snorkel. I do have one. I don’t really know what I’m doing wrong though in any given moment so it’s hard to fix it! Anyway thanks a lot. :-)
@@BIMLounge I actually sorted it out but I’m not even sure how. I think a lot of work on the front end eg, exhaling properly and head position helped make sure balance wasn’t being affected by those things and weirdly lots of time floating on my tummy imagining I was a seesaw and feeling what tiny things affected my tipping in the water. This all helped to raises my legs in the water and massively reduce drag. I practise kicking but only on my back and have worked loads on my streamline position. Then I just kind of made my kick smaller and smaller. I’m not sure my legs are doing g much more than balance me but they’re no longer slowing me down. Last thing was that occasionally I was losing control at the front and over rotating on one side because my right arm was dropping too soon and slightly under me and this resulted in one giant scissor kick to try to stop rolling over sort of (unintentional) that was hard to recover from. I don’t know of ANY of that makes sense but it worked for me! Good luck. It’s so frustrating.
Maybe this can be answered on a #askgtn video, when I increase my distance and try to point my feet I get cramps in the arches of my feet. How can I avoid that? They seem to go away when I stop pointing them.
I have the exact same problem. My swimming coach advised me not to force my ankles too much into a fairly horizontal position. Just keep your ankles relaxed while you kick, do not try to stretch them flat too much.
How much effort do you put into your kicking technique?
Too much, but now I realize what I'm doing wrong, thx
My kick is awful. We did a bit of an experiment at tri club a few weeks ago kicking 1 leg at a time. Slight propulsion forward from my right leg, with my left leg, I stop going forward and turn to my left. I swim faster with a pull bouy. Also too much leg work seems to give me cramp. I always take on electrolytes, can you suggest anything else?
I was just thinking about ankle flexibility..... Like a good neighbor GTN is there!
Hope you found the video helpful!
Swim cap worthy 😂
Thanks Mark. I struggle with an effective kick so I liked your drills and tips. I also enjoy seeing your freestyle stroke that appears so free and easy, almost elegant. Again, thanks as always for your videos.
Get out of my head! The fact you did a video on kicking after I had a conversation with my swim coach this week about my kick is 🤯. As always, thanks for the tips!
Very well explained. Thanks
Awesome advice again🎉
If only I could get my kick to push me forward as well as it currently pulls me backwards… lots to work on. Thanks for the video GTN!
Hope you found it helpful!
Do vertical kicking.
A couple of points not covered. One, and this made a huge difference for me, is going pigeon toed (pronation?). This should be about 30 to maybe 45 degrees max. What this does is give those of us with stiff ankles, an extra 10 to 20 degrees of toe point. It also has the side benefit of letting us use the entire side of our foot for propulsion rather than just the toes.
Another point, and I know the rest of the world doesn't think like me, is the use of the frog feet fins. Our feet are 3 dimensional, not flat like a frog or duck. So why are most of the fins like that? Best variation I have seen are the Positive Drive fins from Finis. Wide to the little toe side, and narrow to the big toe side. Another variation are the 'surf rescue' fins, and no clue as to who makes them.... They actually push you into a pigeon toed position. If you try that with the standard frog feet fins, they fight you all the way. The Aqua Sphere fins came close as in nice idea, but poor execution. I couldn't get my feet into them, even when I ordered the next size up from the one that should have fit me, even with enlarging the foot hole. Also, every one tries to put them on up side down, with the ribs on top, which makes more sense to most of us. I do prefer the shorter fins. One thing I have noticed, and this is pretty much with all swimmers in the pool, is that with the longer fins, most start the front side kick with the ankle in 'runner's foot' position, which to me is ankle flexed at about 30 degrees rather than straight or hyper flexed.
Another thing I notice, is that so many will have ankles flexed in the wrong direction when swimming freestyle, but not in back stroke.
Also, there is a point about 'relaxed ankles'. It can be too relaxed. What happens if the ankle is too floppy is that when you stop your front side stroke and switch to the back side stroke, mostly in freestyle, the ankle follows through to the point where it causes negative thrust. Those little bubble plumes will show this, more noticeable in slow motion.
Gerry Rodriguez and Tower26 provide some excellent resources for improving all aspects of your stroke. I would also note that while the kick is important, you want to be careful not to overdo it in light of saving your legs for the other two disciplines.
Thanks
I used to do ballet for several years before getting serious about the tri sports. I am unlearning some "pretty" (a.k.a. bad for running) movement patterns and hypermobilility, but at least never have had problems with stiff ankles!
Whenever you transition to a new sport, it's always a little bit surprising how many transferable skills carry over!
Kicking is the bane of my life. I simply cannot get it right. I think my legs are quite strong hopefully from other two sports but one length with kick and I’m dying whereas with pull buoy I can go for ages. I’ve tried every drill I’ve been given in lessons but am getting so frustrated that it isn’t getting better. Could this be from very tight or weak hip flexors?
Watch their video on sinking legs
As long as your kick isn't working against your arms and slowing you down because your legs and hips are sinking why not just priortize it less for now and look to make improvements in other parts of your stroke. I've been swimming for 3 months and have increased my pace by almost a minute and a half and I've done 0 kicksets. I've practiced different kick patterns but thats it (2bk ftw). If this is something you really want to hammer down now though try kicking using a snorkel. Its much more comfortable than using a board and perhaps you'll be able to have a higher output with less fatigue.
@@KratosMayhem thanks that’s helpful. I can swim with fins or a pull buoy but when I kick normally I just get burning quads. I’ve tried not kicking (legs sink) I’ve tried kicking slowly but just start panicking and it speeds up. Can’t work out if it’s too deep or too bent at the knee or both. Ankles are flexible so it’s not that. Hips very stiff j think but I just cannot control it. I end up just doing drills for other things/arms/everything g else that’s wrong but the minute I bring any kick back I just die after a length with HR v high. I could try a snorkel. I do have one. I don’t really know what I’m doing wrong though in any given moment so it’s hard to fix it! Anyway thanks a lot. :-)
@@notmyrealname6272having very similar issues. Did you figure it out? Is it just practice until you get it right?
@@BIMLounge I actually sorted it out but I’m not even sure how. I think a lot of work on the front end eg, exhaling properly and head position helped make sure balance wasn’t being affected by those things and weirdly lots of time floating on my tummy imagining I was a seesaw and feeling what tiny things affected my tipping in the water. This all helped to raises my legs in the water and massively reduce drag. I practise kicking but only on my back and have worked loads on my streamline position. Then I just kind of made my kick smaller and smaller. I’m not sure my legs are doing g much more than balance me but they’re no longer slowing me down.
Last thing was that occasionally I was losing control at the front and over rotating on one side because my right arm was dropping too soon and slightly under me and this resulted in one giant scissor kick to try to stop rolling over sort of (unintentional) that was hard to recover from.
I don’t know of ANY of that makes sense but it worked for me! Good luck. It’s so frustrating.
I realize my knees are bending 2 much nd end up with a scissor kick 😢pls help me give tips how to get it right
Maybe this can be answered on a #askgtn video, when I increase my distance and try to point my feet I get cramps in the arches of my feet. How can I avoid that? They seem to go away when I stop pointing them.
Hey there - we will try and look into this on an upcoming episode of #gtncoachescorner 🙂
I have the exact same problem. My swimming coach advised me not to force my ankles too much into a fairly horizontal position. Just keep your ankles relaxed while you kick, do not try to stretch them flat too much.
Was recently looking for new goggles, but could never find the brand of the ones that you have! Where are they from?
We use Magic 5 goggles!
i know my kick is poor, as I am faster when I don't ( or hardly ) bother with it