5 Things You're Not Doing To Improve Your Freestyle Swimming Kick

The kick is one of the most neglected aspects of the freestyle swim stroke. While the kick only generates a small proportion of your power in the water, optimising your kick can make you faster and more efficient in the opening leg of your triathlon. Here are 5 tips to perfect your kick.

0:00 - Intro
1:01 - What does a good kick look like?
2:27 - Kick with a Board
3:46 - Vertical Kick
4:39 - Ankle Flexibility
5:55 - Kicking on Your Side
6:52 - Kick Sprints

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How much effort do you put into your kicking technique? Let us know down below 👇

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[gtn]

How much effort do you put into your kicking technique?

[Taahav]

I was just thinking about ankle Like a good neighbor GTN is there!

[garyweiss]

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.

[desertmaestro]

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!

[adamisapotato]

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!

[robohippy]

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.

[jamiefuhrman]

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.

[notmyrealname]

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?

[hurricane]

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!

[bradleytaaibosch]

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

[nightsfalling]

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.

[michaelvozar]

Was recently looking for new goggles, but could never find the brand of the ones that you have! Where are they from?

[foophonic]

i know my kick is poor, as I am faster when I don't ( or hardly ) bother with it