1. Kicking for Speed
A powerful kick is a major part of swimming strokes and can make the difference in speed. This goes doubly for the freestyle stroke since the kick is a major part of the force that is generated by the freestyle stroke. Working up your kick to one that will give you the most power and speed is important. You need to pay special attention to coordination of your kick and working on building up the force that you can create with the kick. This means working on developing the muscles in your legs as well as how you kick.
2. The Right Kick
Learning how to kick correctly is an important step to kicking while swimming. Kicking properly will help with how easy the kick is and help you move through the water. For freestyle and backstroke you need a quick, small flutter kick that is still powerful. Having a big kick may seem like a good idea but will actually hurt you since the kick will be slow and hard to do. For butterfly you need to focus on keep you legs together so that they work together to make the kick and how to bend your legs to get the most of our your kick. Breaststroke is different because how you feet are orientated and learning to snap your legs from the position at the sides to a streamline position.
3. Flexible Ankles
It may seem like a minor detail but your ankles need to be flexible in order to help you kick. Your feet move in the water and generate a extra force. It's important to maximize this flexibility in your feet. One of the best ways to increase flexibility is with stretches. An easy stretch to work on your ankles is to sit with your legs folded underneath you and sit on your heels. Lean backwards toward your toes and allow you legs to lift up.
4. Add on Fins
Using fins while you swim is a great way to practice a kick. It helps with building up muscle because the extra length of the fin extends how much water you have to push in order to move your legs. It also helps with ankle flexibility since the pressure on your ankle with a single kick increased and helps you stretch your ankle. Fins will also show you how much faster you can swim just by maximizing your kick.
5. Just the Kick
Kick drills are a great way to practice you kick. They allow you to focus on just the kick and slow down your kick so you can learn the motion and work on speed. The best kick drill is just to kick using the exact kick you are going to use for the stroke. So practice your kick on your side or by using several kicks to one arm stroke. This basically leads to losing the kickboard. It changes the way that you are orientated in the water, limits your hip flexibility, and drastically changes the way that you do the kick. For beginners, it is a great tool but if you know how to swim and how to kick then it will impede you more than help.
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