Swimmers focus on their upper body for propulsion, but a strong kick gives you the edge in a race, and toned legs help your endurance in distance swims. Your leg muscles, such as the quadriceps and the hamstrings, are large and energy-hungry. Intense kicking in swimming tires you out quickly, and typically leaves beginning swimmers, too eager for speed, exhausted after one length of the pool.
Freestyle Drills
Freestyle requires you to cut through the water cleanly. You swim a portion of the stroke on your side and rotate your body to facilitate breathing. Flutter kick on your stomach while holding onto a kickboard to build up your endurance and leg strength. Use a snorkel when you flutter kick with your hands at your side and focus on keeping your hips high in the water. Kicking without a board, and using a snorkel, allows you to focus on working your legs while maintaining a balanced position in the water.
Breaststroke Drills
Breaststroke swimmers must have strong kicks and long glides to propel themselves fast and make the stroke as efficient as possible. The three-kicks-per-stroke drill makes you take one full stroke and then stretch your arms into a tight streamline position in front of you, as you take two additional kicks. The drill works out your kick while keeping you "tall" in the water.
Breaststroke kicking while on your back turns your thinking upside down and makes you analyze your kick from a new perspective. The "eggbeater" kick that water polo players use is a beneficial drill for breaststroke swimmers because it builds your strength and endurance. You kick each leg back one after the other, working your way forward across the pool. Kick fast for the best workout.
Backstroke
Practice proper body position, and build kick and core strength by performing the back flutter kick in a streamline and roller-coaster position. You keep your body stretched and narrow, hands clasped together and arms pressed against your ears in the streamline position. The roller-coaster position requires you to keep your arms straight and one parallel to the other, slightly raised above the surface of the water.
Practice the important dolphin kick motion you use after a flip turn with a vertical dolphin-kick drill. You position yourself with hands over your head in a tight streamline position. Minimize the swing back and forth of your legs, and repeat the motion quickly. Aim for 10 dolphin kicks in five seconds. Next, perform the kick horizontally, holding on to deck edge. Finally, perform a flip-turn and do the dolphin kicks off the wall, underwater and on your back.
Butterfly
You practice moving across the water with the undulating body and kick motion of butterfly with the body dolphin drill. Keep your hands parallel and outstretched in front of you while you press down with your chest and lift your hips to start the motion. Practice butterfly kick with a board to further develop your kick strength and technique. Focus on pressing upward, as well as downward, during the kick stroke cycle.
References
- USA Swimming: In-Water Training Videos: Upper St. Clair: Kicking With a Snorkel
- USA Swimming: In-Water Training Videos: Allegheny Mountain: Breastroke Drills Part Two
- USA Swimming: In-Water Training Videos: Berkely Aquatic Club: Backstroke Drills
- USA Swimming: In-Water Training Videos: Allegheny North Swim Club: Butterfly Drills
- USA Swimming: In-Water Training Videos: Backstroke Drills with David Marsh and Nick Thoman, Part One
- U.S. Masters Swimming: Modern Breastroke
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