Swim Kick Drill
An isolated freestyle flutter kick drill that builds propulsion and body position without using the arms.
How to do it
- Push off into a streamlined position on your front with the body long and the head neutral.
- Hold your hands extended ahead of you, or on a board, so the arms take no part in propulsion.
- Point the toes and keep the ankles loose so the feet can whip through the water.
- Start each down-kick from the hip, letting the knee bend follow and the ankle finish the movement.
- Bring the leg back up with almost no knee bend, keeping the feet just under the surface.
- Kick at a quick rate over a small range for the length of the drill, then reset and repeat.
Key technique cue
Kick from the hip, soft knee, feet stay under the surface.
Common mistakes
- ✕ Starting the kick from the knee, which turns it into a bicycle motion and kills the whip action.
- ✕ Kicking too big, which creates far more drag than the extra propulsion is worth.
- ✕ Bringing the feet above the surface, where they move air instead of water and produce nothing.
- ✕ Kicking with rigid ankles, which stops the foot acting as a surface and wastes the down-kick.
Benefits
- ✓ Isolates the legs so kick timing and amplitude can be corrected without the arms compensating.
- ✓ Trains the body position that keeps the hips high and reduces drag during full stroke swimming.
- ✓ Loads the hip extensors and flexors continuously with no impact through the joints.
Progression: from easier to harder
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Step 1 You are here - Swim Kick Drill
- Swim Pull Drill
About the exercise
A kick drill strips freestyle back to the legs. The flutter kick is an alternating action with relatively straight legs that starts at the hip and travels outward: the hip moves first, then the knee, then the ankle, so the leg whips rather than pedals. The downbeat is driven by the quadriceps and hip flexors, the upbeat by the hamstrings and glutes. Amplitude matters as much as effort. The kick works at a high rate over a small range, because a big kick creates more drag than propulsion.
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