Improving Our Swim Lesson Program.

           The Basic Good Stuff – Kicking Skills.

By John Leonard

The simple fact is that no one, no matter how proficient the scientist, understands the exact physics of how the flutter kick propels us through the water. And for our the purpose of teaching, we don’t need to know. What we do need, is an understanding of what a good kick looks like, and feels like and how to teach it.

               Here are some principles of the teaching process.

1. The end product of the flutter kick (whether on the back or the side or the front) IS propulsion in a forward direction.
2. The process of each individual kick is a connection down the kinetic chain from the hips to the knees to the lower leg, go the flexible ankle to the toes...and a “summation of forces” from that kinetic chain.
3. The most effective kicks are typically relatively “narrow” (within the “shadow of the body” as it moves forward) and very fast. (small, fast kicks using the whole leg.)
4. Kicking on back, front and side will all contribute to the efficiency of the kick.
5. Most instructors eventually want to get children kicking “on their sides” with the lower arm extended forward and the  upper arm resting on the upper thigh. Top of the head pointing down the pool. But traditionally we start them kicking on their stomach and on a kickboard.
6. Avoid “kicking on the wall” as a way to learn. The wall won’t move. Very quickly, the child asked to hold the wall and kick will learn to bend their knees to avoid putting force into an immovable object. This is a “kick killer”.
7. Kicking on the back with arms streamlined behind the head is a very effective way to learn and may be preferable to being on the stomach or side to first learn as the child can breath easily and thus that anxiety is reduced.
8. The key to successful “side Kicking” is to line the head up correctly with the ear “inside” the armpit and shoulder of the extended arm. “ear inside the shoulder” is a good verbal cue. You will occasionally get a child who has poor body tone and poor core strength who cannot take the energy generated by the legs and have it transfer to the front of the body because the soft core absorbs the energy. When that happens some “dryland plank position” work will help a great deal and improvement will be rapid.

 

       Kicking, like many physical skills in the water, requires much practice and endless repetitions to build both leg strength and endurance.

         Good kicking will build great swimming.

All the Best, John Leonard