Swimming is a full-body movement, and efficiency comes from developing coordination between your upper and lower body. The kick provides stability, improved body position and propulsion, all components necessary for a more efficient freestyle. In the water, over distance it is our arms that generate most movement providing approximately 85% of forward drive and the legs merely serve to 'balance' our position, preventing the body from rotating to far around and stopping our legs from sinking heavily “behind” us.
Notice in the left hand images below how the legs are creating drag by being outside the streamlined profile of the body. With stroke correction drills to work and isolate the legs we can correct this over time and create a more streamlined body position as in the right hand images. Perfect your freestyle/front crawl kick and improve your streamlined position. The kick should be generated from your hips, with the power transferring from your hips, through your knee and flex your ankle as your foot flicks down.
Contact Linda at GoodSwim if you want to perfect your stroke and swim more efficiently and effectively.
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We love to hear about our clients swimming journeys with GoodSwim... What was your swim ability before you started swimming with GoodSwim? I could only swim the normal breaststroke but wasn’t able to do a good chest crawl. How did you feel after your first few sessions? After the very first lesson I already felt so much improvement and was sure I was able to learn it in a relatively short period. How did GoodSwim help you on your swim journey? Linda is such a fun, lovely woman who has a lot of patience and she has so many good tips. That helped me a lot. What was a breakthrough/stand out moment for you? That I felt that I was a much faster swimmer and it cost me less effort than a normal breaststroke. Do you have a goal or personal achievement you are working for in 2020? I have not yet set a goal for 2020 as my reason for taking the swimming lessons was mainly to gain skills and use it to improve my paddling for surfing. When there’s no surf I can always decide now to swim instead! Coaches notes: Flo came to GoodSwim looking to learn freestlye and gain knowledge of how to breathe efficiently and effectively. Flo progressed from the basics of learning how to breath, into a relaxed and smooth freestyle swimmer after just 4 x 30 minute swimming lessons. From swimming 5 metres with her head out of the water to swimming multiple 50 metre laps of the pool comfortably was both amazing and a privilege to a part of her journey. EPIC FLO! Flo also applied the skills to her surfing and became more confident in the ocean. It improved her paddle strength, technique and also for ability to control her breathing in conditions and situations outside of her comfort zone. As surfers we need to be sure of our own ability to be in the ocean and being able to swim is both essential and potentially life saving! |
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