I've been teaching swimming for over 30 years and I built Swim Teach so that I can share all my knowledge, wisdom and experience from the thousands of swimming lessons I have had the pleasure of teaching. Take a look back through my previous newsletters and see what you missed.
Freestyle Leg Kick Letting You Down? Correct Leg Kick Technique and Lesson Plans For Teaching It
"If I kick harder then I will stay afloat and swim further." ...a common misconception among beginners learning to swim. Relaxed and smooth is the key to an effective and efficient front crawl leg kick.
Hi, Mark here. I hope all is well with you.
This week, we are looking at front crawl leg kick technique and a basic exercise to help practice and fine-tune it. If you're a teacher, I have lesson plans that will help beginners master the basics of the leg action (scroll to the link at the bottom for those).
Leg Kick Technique Using a Kickboard.
A great exercise to try out is kicking, holding a float or kickboard in both hands straight out in front. This basic drill isolates the legs, encourages correct body position and develops leg strength. Try to kick with a relaxed and fluid alternating action and avoid a stiff, 'robot-like' kicking action.
Key Actions
- Kick with pointed toes
- Make a small splash with your toes
- Kick with floppy feet
- Legs kick close together
Technical Focus
- Kick comes from the hip
- Kick is continuous and alternating.
- Legs are close together when they kick
- Ankles are relaxed and the toes are pointed.
- Kick should just break the water surface.
Common Faults
- Knees bend too much
- Kick is not relaxed - swimmer kicks too hard
- Feet come out of the water
- Kick comes from the knee
- Legs are too deep in the water
For a more detailed look at Front Crawl leg kick and exactly how it should be performed, click the link below
Show me MORE about Front Crawl Leg Kick Technique.
Need More Drills To Improve Front Crawl?
Download a full set of 22 basic drills to improve front crawl, covering body position, leg kick, arm pull, breathing and timing and coordination. 'How To Swim Front Crawl' will have you swimming with smoo th and efficient technique. Click here to discover my Freestyle eBook or click the image below for a preview.
Ready-Made Freestyle Lesson Plans
My library of swimming resources for teachers contains everything needed to teach effective freestyle, as well all the other swimming strokes. Adaptable lesson plans, assessment tools and all the basic drills covering all four basic swimming strokes.
Swimming teacher resources that save time by taking the hard work out of teaching swimming. Click the button below.
| Show me the Teaching Resources |
That's it for this week. Stay focused, stay in touch and stay safe.
Happy swimming!
Cheers
Mark
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Hi! I'm Mark, creator of Swim Teach
I've been teaching swimming for over 30 years and I built Swim Teach so that I can share all my knowledge, wisdom and experience from the thousands of swimming lessons I have had the pleasure of teaching. Take a look back through my previous newsletters and see what you missed.
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