Work the legs. My brother-in-law made the Olympic Team in the 200 breast stroke one year after bilateral shoulder surgery. He trained by kicking only...and swam the best times of his life. The legs are under-appreciated for their value and contribution to swimming speed.
A six beat kick means that within a cycle (hand entry to hand entry) there are three down kicks with the right foot and three down kicks with the left foot. There are two arm strokes (right and left) that occur in each cycle. If one were to include the upkicks as well, there are really 12 propulsive efforts with the legs/feet during one stroke cycle, using a six beat kick. That is why the legs need to be in such great shape.
Very few swimmers work their legs hard enough to get them in shape. A great kick demands pushing the leg in both directions and at a very high rate of speed. It also demands extreme flexibility in the ankle and hyperextension of the knee joint...not naturally occurring situations. If you want to kick faster, work a lot more on kicking, ankle flexibility drills and the 'foot fibrillation' dryland drill. Our Race Club videos contain most of these drills to help you. Gary Sr.
No. The knees should bend during the kick...but the right amount. Without bending the knees, one cannot generate enough power at the foot (where most of the force comes from) during the kick. Bend the knee too much and the frontal drag increases greatly, causing a significant slowing of the body.
Yes...if you tend to overkick, the band is good to help keep the kick tight and narrow. Keep the pressure or force on the water in both directions at all times while kicking to get fast. coach gary sr.
These past few day's, I was practicing swimming because I didn't know how to swim, But ever since I saw this video It gave me a demonstration on how I must swim.
Well, still learning to kick... One transition problem I have with the 2 beat kick, to the 3 beat kick is the count.... raspberry for right foot, lemonade for left foot. (Chloe Sutton says strawberry/blueberry). What I am trying to figure out, while swimming with the kick board, is how to get that 30 or so degree rotation in my hips, rather than the typical minimal wiggle in the hips, but very little actual rotation. What the little wiggle seems to do is that most of the kicking action is straight up and down. When doing the full stroke, the first kick may be straight down, but the other two are at an angle so you can raise the heel higher without it coming out of the water, so you actually get a little more range of kick, and a bit more power... Especially after learning about pronating my feet, my 50 yard lap time for flutter kick went from under 2 minutes to 1:30.... That going pigeon toed really helps swimmers like me who don't have the ankle hyperflexion that the elite swimmers have...
You need both legs and arms working with the core to swim fast...but the legs require more conditioning than the arms. The legs usually die first in a race.
If you use a 6 beat kick for a longer period of time that a sprint, one must learn to soften the intensity of the kick. No one can sustain an intense 6 beat kick for more than about 400 meters...but get your legs in shape to keep the 6 beat. It is worth it.
Cheers for the Video! Apologies for butting in, I would appreciate your initial thoughts. Have you thought about - Dinanlinson Crazy Tactic Approach (just google it)? It is an awesome one off product for discovering how to use short burst interval training to get that beach body minus the normal expense. Ive heard some awesome things about it and my mate at last got amazing results with it.
Thanks for watching! It's not easy to improve your leg strength and will take a lot of hard work... keep at it and you'll start to see the results... good luck
this video was a very good demonstration of just how important it is to have lower leg strength. I can swim freestyle fairly well, but my kicks definitely need improvement. I'm glad this video shows a person how to improve their kicking technique.
I can't thank you enough for doing these videos Gary. I just keep thinking that knowing the information in these videos is the difference between being a swimmer and being a really fast active drowning victim. Thanks again.
Sir Gary,your flick of ankle drill is awsome now i know why it is your favorate one. my swimming is improving fast owing to your great swimming phillosopy and insightfulness.
I never appreciated how important it is to work on the kick alot and alot and then even some more. Atleast until las summer when I had a shoulder injury and was forced to just kick for 3weeks or so and swam faster than ever before within a week when returning to normal swimming!
Its funny that say the legs need to be in shape. I have strong legs ( I look like a front row forward rugby union) and yet I have trouble getting my legs going. I will have to try your kick sets. Thanks
i have a 300 yard swim on the 13th. my biggest issue is gasing out at 150 yards. watching these videos, im possitive, will help me out tremendously! i have 12 minutes to swim the 300 yards. Form is everything and these videos help!
Gary, How in the world did I swim 20 yrs thru Jr.High, HighSch, US Navy, College, Masters... and no one ever told me the kick is both down and UP?!?! It totally makes sense, I could never understand why my kick was so weak as a motive force.... good for stabilization and high legs, but no velocity whatsoever. I'm now open water swimming, I'll experiment with this tomorrow... gonna feel awkward.
The main reason is that many (most) swimming coaches don't even recognize that the upkick can generate propulsion. It most definitely can and will....if you work it.
@@theraceclub : For 5 days now I've been working at incorporating the up-kick.It was very awkward at first but took only a few hours to find a consistent rhythm and balance. It's very fatiguing activating an entire new set of muscles into my overall effort, and doubling (or more) the effort going into my kick. It will be awhile before I start measuring any time differences, but I suspect it will make a difference... I can feel it.
@ xxxChriChrixxx That's the difference between hip driven and shoulder driven freestyle...When you want to sprint...50 or 100m you choose shoulder driven (legs nearly don't rotate) when you want to be fast and efficient...100 m and above, you should choose hip driven (legs rotate with the rest of the body). This is the standard...You got to find what works for you.
Great tip! I think this is what I'm looking for. Leg kicking is perhaps my biggest weakness. I always try to improve it by exercising with machines in the gym and dry land techniques however when performed in water, they improve very little and also lack of persistence... I'll apply this tip to tomorrow's practice.
You need to work on both flexibility of the ankle and leg fitness. Check out our latest DVD, Life is Worth Swimming to help you understand how to improve in both areas. You can find it on the Race Club website.
6 beat kick means that you are essentially kicking all of the time..in both directions. Two beat kick the hard down kick occurs after the opposite hand enters the water.
An extremely interesting video... and boy a practical one we can do at the pool. My kicks are my weak spot and I am always looking for new drills because I hate kicking at the pool, it's way boring. Thanks for the tips again! :)
@Theshofumiah1 Sounds like you need to practice more. You can use a bike for improving leg endurance, but inpool is best. Your technique might be wrong since you’re not getting enough air.
thanksfor this video and ı started to swimming 4 month ago and ı need some experience from someone ı know it but ım living ın turkey how can ı joın you ? thanks
This is great. I want to improve my leg strength for the next swim season at my high school. One of my problems was my leg strength. This will really help me. Thank You
All the practice you've shown in the clip are all great! I can't wait to try them out in the pool! Just, can I actually use one of those pilate bands as a substitute for the stretch band that was used in the video? It's a blue stretchy pilate band that I have.
why is it when I don't put my head high in the water when using a kickboard, my legs tend to come to the surface and I slow down alot more compared with when I do put my head high in the water? it's like my legs naturally floats and I tend to kick the surface of the water a lot.
When you are buoyed up with a kick board you will kick faster. The problem is that you will never swim that way with your back arched so much. Kick in the position you will swim in.
Yeah but doing these repeatedly puts a lot of strain on your ankles tendon. Not flexing them at all means the tendon is under severe tension thus resulting in injury..... like myself.
Plantar flexibility of the ankle is very achievable with the right stretching...but one has to start slowly and then develop the more extreme exercises for this.
what's the difference between flutter kicking with a board and with a snorkel? is it faster kicking with a board than with a snorkel? my friend can kick very fast with a board, but she can not kick without a board.
+Peter Kensington The legs (with a good to great kicker) will actually contribute more to the total speed of the swimmer than the arms do. The legs really determine the baseline speed of the swimmer before we add the arms and body rotation.
The 100 is not a sprint...so build a good aerobic system as a base. Then work on your power and speed...which you need. The kick is very important in both fly and free in the 100 also.
Young Yu Sun Yang is not really using a two beat kick. He uses a 6 beat but barely kicks with the left hand entry. He then gives three pretty hard kicks after the right hand enters when his head is underwater and his body is in the lowest drag position. That is when he surges. He revs up the kick on the final 100 meters to a massive 6 beat kick. Most swimmers today use a 6 beat kick. If you use a 2 beat kick, you need to have a really fast stroke rate and a strong pull.
how can I get my kick sorted? I'm swimming two years coming on well holding 135s per 100m but I'm still kicking shit anytime I do anything with a kick board I come to a stop after the push of the wall runs out lol. I would rather do a full triahtlon than 50m kickboard. help
Great video!!! For how long do you recommend swimming in one training with legs only? ( I have now a problem with my shoulders, so I swim for three month only with my legs - different style including shoulder up. )
Hi, and what do you think about swimming in triathlon? There are opinions saying that we shouldn't care so much about legs ("save them") during swimming because we gonna use them anyway in next two disciplines: cycling and running.
No easy answer to this question. It depends on each swimmer and the technique being used. With any freestyle technique, a better kick will make the swimmer faster, but one must be committed to develop the kick. It is not a quick fix. Using the legs more in the swim does not necessarily take away from the run or the bike, so long as they are fit for all three.
It is more efficient to keep a car's speed constant than it is to start it and stop it repeatedly. If you do what you suggest, you won't win any races. In water, you will come to a stop very soon.
