#1 Kick Backwards!

When you think of flutter kicks, some of you might be thinking of kicking the water downwards as fast as you can, to propel yourselves forwards. BUT, hold on. You should actually be kicking the water backwards!

Think about it for a second, by kicking water backwards, you’re actually pushing yourself ahead even more efficiently which increases your speed! Of course, your knees should not be bent to achieve the perfect kick. For that, you’ll actually have to rely on your ankles being flexible enough which brings us to the next point….

#2 Improving Ankle Strength

#3 Improving Ankle Mobility

Strength and mobility come hand in hand, if you don’t believe it just ask any powerlifter you may know. A lack of mobility can actually reduce the amount of load they’ll be able to shift. It can also lead to some serious injuries!

The same applies to swimmers and nailing your freestyle kick! If you’re experiencing calf cramps frequently, an inflexible ankle might just be at the root of it. This lack of ankle mobility also leads to your hips and knees stepping up to cover up for it, which leads to putting unnecessary stress on your body and not to mention, compromising on the efficiency of your kicks as well. 

With a flexible ankle comes the ability to catch more water with your foot, achieve an early vertical ankle and push more water backwards as mentioned in the first point. Here’s a way you can work on it!

Exercise: Ankle Flex with Resistance

Image Credit : Triathlete

While seated on the floor, spread your legs straight out in front of you and wrap a resistance band around your foot and place a towel or anything soft under your ankle as seen in the picture. Starting with your toes pointed away from you, apply tension to the band and move your foot back toward you, as far as possible. Your toes should at least be pointing up. Do repetitions of 10 for 2 to 3 sets! Remember to take your time with it.

#4 Vertical Kicks

Image Credit : instanthealthylife

This drill had Michael Phelps swearing by its efficiency in improving your kicks to a whole new level. At the deep end of the pool, not too far from the wall, perform vertical kicks and try to keep your mouth and nose above the surface at all times. It definitely can get more tiring than swimming regular freestyle kicks, so for your safety, do ensure you’re close enough to the wall of the swimming pool just in case! 

Start by allowing slight hand movements, sculling, while getting into the momentum of kicking and keeping your head above water. Once you’re a little more confident, completely eliminate any movement of your arms by placing it tightly on your body. Split up your practice session into sets of 30 seconds and aim for more of your body to rise above the water level each time!

If this is too easy for you, you can hold onto a heavy object to make your legs work harder as well.

#5 Single-leg Free Kicking

When you’ve only one leg helping you move forward, you’ll be forced to focus on both the down AND the up motion of the kick. Usually, with both legs in the picture, you might be able to get away with the lack of effort put into the up-kick. Hence, with single-leg free kicking, you’ll be forced to work on your shortfalls and achieve a stronger kick!

P.S. You’ll also get an incredible core workout in the meantime, since you’ll be forced to engage your core to swim in a straight line and keep the non-working leg up!

#6 Practice HARD

Yes, you saw this coming, practice makes perfect! Mark Spitz didn’t become a 9-time Olympic champion by simply hoping, he always turned up and put in hours of serious work.

This can mean adding an extra 15 to 20 minutes after your regular sessions to practice flutter kicking with your kickboard. This completely takes your arm out of the picture so that you can focus on the movement of your legs and your kicks!

Conclusion

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a solid freestyle kick. Since the pools are still opened (yay!), don’t forget to book your slot to the public pool nearest to you and get your laps in! Bring your sunscreen lotion along!

If you are interesting in making your strokes more efficient, Join us at condo swimming lesson to find out more ! 

Hello everyone! I'm a gym enthusiast who gets very excited at the sight of dogs. Drinking teh tarik is my form of relaxation. I hope you share my passion for anything fitness-related through my writing!