Skip to main content

How to kick freestyle faster- My top 5 tips for a fast and efficient kick.

 Hello everyone! Today, I will be giving several tips and tricks for how to kick faster and more efficient. 

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a professional swimmer, nor am I a certified coach. These tips I have learned through personal experience, internet forums, and through my own coaches. By trying these drills, you are accepting full responsibility for any risks, injuries, and damages that may occur. 

Tip #1. Keep your legs straight! A.K.A Don't kick from the knees!

wrong way 

VS

right way

There is nothing that slows down a kick like kicking from the knees The reason this is harmful is because it creates more drag, as well as an inefficient kick. You are not utilizing some of your strongest muscles in your thighs when you kick only from the knees. When kicking, try and focus on keeping your legs as straight and your toes slightly pointed. Keep in mind that everyone is different and you do NOT need to preform any activity which causes pain or discomfort. You do not need to lock your legs out in order to keep them straight, or point your toes like a gymnast! The goal here is to have a balanced, efficient kick, it is not necessary to take these tips to the extreme. Remember: Balance! 

Tip #2. Narrow, streamlined kick

 Instead of kicking your legs super wide (meaning one leg is WAY above the other leg at any given moment), focus on keeping your legs narrower and kicking from your hips. This is somewhat difficult to explain, but picture yourself swimming with fins. With fins, you do not have to kick very hard or use very much energy in order to propel yourself forward. When kicking without fins, the same logic occurs. It is like the propeller on the back of a speedboat, it does not need to make huge movements in order to propel the boat through the water, unlike a huge paddle boat. Even though the paddleboat appears to be moving more water, it is large and inefficient. The speedboat moves at a much faster rate because it can move the water faster and more efficiently. 

VS



Tip #3. Sprint sets are your bff

Short distance sprint freestyle sets are going to be your friend when targeting your kick because they allow you to kick as fast as possible for short intervals with rest in between. I find the best distances to work on kick to be 50's - 75's because you have enough time to get your strong kick going, but not long enough to get too tired. I have a sprint set here that would be excellent for working on your kick.

Tip #4. Don't skip leg day!

In order to actually kick faster, you need to build up your leg muscles! In my personal experience, the best workouts for building leg muscles is running. Now I know all you swimmers are gonna come for me, but hear me out. It targets your hamstrings, quads, calves, glutes, and hip flexors, which are all muscles that are used in kicking. Running builds muscles you do not typically use as a swimmer. It also increases bone density! Another benefit of running is that it does not require any special equipment, and it can be done sporadically. 

Tip #5. Consistency is key

I know you have defiantly heard it before, but in order for your kick to improve, you need to put the work in. It will be hard and it might take a long time to really see progress, but I assure you that if you work on it consistently, you will see improvements. 





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HOT OR NOT: Sporti Adult Kickboard

 Hello everyone, today I will be reviewing the Sporti Adult Kickboard. You can find it on Swimoutlet.com (or by clicking  here .) Please note this post is not sponsored in any way, shape, or form and is simply me stating my opinion.  This is the Kickboard itself from the Swimoutlet website, as you can see it is very vibrant colored. It comes in a variety of colors, and I believe there is also a smaller version of this kickboard- perfect for young swimmers! It is more flexible material than some of the other kickboard brands (such as speedo), but it does not affect the performance of the board. It is pretty affordable for a kickboard, and again I love that it comes in a wide variety of colors. My only complaint is that the Sporti logo on my kickboard has smudged and doesn't look as good as it did when I originally bought it, however this kickboard has been well loved (2 years!) In my opinion, this kickboard is defiantly HOT ! I rate it ★★★★★
Post a Comment
Read more

Speedo Powerplus Prime Tech Suit hot or not

  Hello everyone! Today, I will be reviewing the  Speedo Powerplus Prime Kneeskin Tech suit . This review is unsponsored and is simply my own personal opinion on the suit.  This suit was my first tech suit. I purchased it last February when I was preparing for a qualifying meet, it cost around $170 which is fairly inexpensive for a kneeskin. I had been doing a lot of research to find a suit that would fit my specific needs, which were... 1. Hydrophobic fabric in order to repel water and reduce drag 2.  Compression 3. Fairley high necked In all honesty, I am not that fast of a swimmer, so I did not need a super advanced and expensive tech suit because it would not make that much of a difference in my performance. The swimmer makes the suit, not the other way around. As far as sizing goes, I sized down 1 size and bought a 30. My typical Jolyn size is a 32, and I possibly should have sized down to a 28, but you live and you learn. For reference, I am 5'5, about 142 lbs....
Post a Comment
Read more

Swim set for the first day back after break

Swim set for the first day back after a break WARMUP 400 EZ with fins Take it easy! Don't sprint the first 50  100 Pull  100 Kick 2 x 100 IM drill MAIN SET 4 x 50's Freestyle sprint  :10 sec rest, feel free to take more if needed 4 x 50's Pull Focus on form! 4 x 50's stroke sprint  10-15 sec rest 4 x 50's Kick  Fast, these are sprints! 8 x 25's underwaters w/ fins, breakout sprint to wall 10 sec rest Alt free/back, if really want to can do fly 400 Freestyle build Long and strong  WARMDOWN 200 EZ Extra things to think about/work on If you have a snorkel, you can use it during the warmup, pull, and 400 in order to help you focus more on your stroke and less on your breathing. It will also get you in the habit of keeping your head down.  You may want to take sporadic breaks throughout practice because you will get extremely out of breath- this is 100% okay! Just try and work on something such as kicking breastroke so that your muscles do not cool dow...
Post a Comment
Read more