3 tips on freestyle kick to help you swim faster

To help you swim faster freestyle we will go over 3 small details of freestyle kick that can make a big difference.

The first is the form.
The second is tempo.
The third is the transition.

The form of your freestyle kick will determine how fast you can move. To have a very effective kick you need to have amazing ankle flexibility. The more you have the less drag you will create. And the opposite is true, just look how I don’t move with my ankles like this. Also the knees need to be a little bent while going down and straight while going up. To do this you need to relax your hamstrings and activate your quads while the leg goes down and while it is going up activate your glutes, hamstrings, and calves.

After you learn to have a good form when kicking you need to perfect the tempo of your kick. This can vary depending on the distance you are swimming but the most common tempo is 6 kicks for every 2 strokes. That is 3 kicks with one leg while one arm does one stroke cycle. The timing of the kicks is very important too. Because of the rotation and the movement of the muscles in your core, it is better if the right leg goes down when the left arm enters the water. while it is gliding you do another kick and use that momentum to start the pull while the leg comes down again.

When you swim freestyle, the most effective thing you can do after the turn is to do several butterfly or dolphin underwater kicks. This carries the speed of your push. but the problem most people have is they lose that speed in the transition from uw kicks to freestyle kicks. The first few freestyle kicks are extremely important. They need to be fast and they need to start before the arms start moving. This also relates to the breakout video we did a while ago. check it out here in the info card.

If you want to continue improving and not miss any of our videos make sure to subscribe and have the bell icon checked. Check out our webpage where you can find more swimming content, from swim caps to workouts and inspiration.

Comment of the week is from S Jan who asks “is there a training guide for those able to swim but start training for the first time?” The answer is yes, but not yet. We will come up with training programs for everyone soon. Stay tuned.

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Thanks for watching!
Swim fast!

[flueberly]

Your dolphin kicks are so good, i want to cry.

[jasonjackson]

Love your videos, I learn a lot from them. I want to echo S. Jon’s request for a training guide & specific exercises or routines to practice to improve myself.

[berisf]

Yes, that's good! Just been coaching this at swimming- thanks so much- you're amazing!

[Pascalwb]

Everybody writes to not bend knees then they actually bend them on videos. Good that I found video where somebody actually said to bend them slightly when going down. IT looks easy, but I have hard time with this.

[annan]

Thank you so much I a national swimmer but I need more technique when swimming

[jackx]

Correct me if I’m wrong but from what I observe, Caeleb Dressel starts his breakout pull very early and does about two underwater kicks while his arm is going back. He also has one of the best breakouts in the world. I’ve tried it and it’s very effective when done right

[matthewcole]

The most helpful thing for me was syncing my kicks with my arms. This is the only video I've found that actually gives this as advice. It took a week because retraining muscle memory isn't fun but it took around .5 seconds off my 50 free. In my opinion it's worth making a video on. My coach and I had to make up drills ourselves to help me learn it.

[sarangtamirisa]

2:09 my favorite part of the video starts
It's damn funny and awesome how you guys fuck around in the pool with such ease

[edwardhaughney]

Very impressive presentation.  Right to the point.  Stellar.

[robertandyjustus]

The end of this vid is nuts!..the rest is very informative.

[sieraueda]

Thanks for this video coz I couldn’t do it and now I can!

[dlmldmc]

Спасибо за труды. Короткое и очень важное видео 👍

[Cihuateotl]

Thank you so much for your videos, I really like them I find very helpful! Do you have any kick exercises to improve the three skills?

[MRfisheri]

Great video. Maybe can make another separate in depth videos for the different kicks tempo including that 6 kick tempo. Maybe there are drills for them?

[runningmanjanowski]

Thank you for all these tips.
Even I still can't sync the hand and kick in same step, but I can perform better form of kicking that lead me to faster pace.
I trained for arrow freestyle as your video taugh. But it is not suited to me for open-water as my first triathlon. Maybe slow kicking results in my leg sunk.

[lillydreher]

I’m always the slow freestyle kicker 😔 this vid helped me a lot thanks!! 😁😁

[theindianmillionaire]

I have a large 65m pool I know this trick thnx very good

[studyplus]

It's a good inspire able video for everyone

[taksiobs]

Nice vid! so if lead arm is on, the oppoist leg should kick-down?
- while a leg is going down, knees should be slightly bent.
- while going up, knees should be straight.

[alexisamtosta]

I have a very bad kick but a good arm stroke. Thats why I love swimming with the pool boey.