CCSB 3212

SWIMMING SKILL II

ASSIGNMENT

TITLED: HOW TO IMPROVE KICKING IN FREESTYLE

SWIMMING?

AMIR FAUZI BIN SUJARI 1418845

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List of Tables i

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List of Figures ii

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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background

Swimming kicks help propel your movement through the water. Without
proper technique and execution of kicking, your career as a competitive swimmer
will be short. The flutter kick used in freestyle and backstroke, the dolphin kick
performed when swimming butterfly and the breaststroke kick, also know as frog
kick, must be learned, practiced and interwoven with the rest of your swim stroke
for you to become an accomplished swimmer.

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1.2 Problem Statement

As a beginner you face many challenges in learning freestyle. There's getting

accustomed with the water, learning the actions of the stroke, learning how to
breathe and very possibly overcoming fear of the water. Don't worry, that's
normal!

As swimming coaches they teach the basics of freestyle to novice swimmers every
day. Overcoming those challenges is never easy but with a little determination and
with our knowledge and methods you're going to crack it for sure.

The relationship between swimming power and swimming performance has been
established. Therefore, with this relationship, in becomes necessary to study and
search the most efficient means to increase power. This can be done by
performing specific swimming exercise in land, which is through strength training
and through plyometric training. It is believed that plyometric training and weight
training can benefit the swimming performance of male competitive swimmers.
This is predicting to occur due to the noticeable increase in muscular strength and

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 power. The increase in power should improve the reaction time and improvements
in stabilization that can directly enhance the swimming performance.

1.3 Objective

In 2-beat, you kick twice for every cycle (a cycle is 2 arms strokes counting both
arms). This is a slow kick speed that many distance swimmers and skilled
triathletes use. A 6-beat kick is 6 kicks per cycle. This is a traditional flutter kick
technique that most swimmers use.

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The kick plays a huge role in overall speed because it provides four important

functions:

1. Depending on the strength and fitness level of the legs and the ankle flexibility,

it creates propulsion.

2. Because the kick is not symmetrical, it creates liftthe downward phase of the

kick is more powerful than the upward.

3. Since the most powerful of the down kicks coincides with the end of the

underwater pull, it helps stabilize the counter-rotation of the body.

4. In a six-beat kick, there is virtually no recovery time, generating a steadier

propulsive force. (Only use a two-beat kick if you do not choose to focus on your

legs to improve your swim time.)

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 Note: Even though a wetsuit handles one of the primary functions (creating lift)

during a triathlon, a good kicker can still benefit from the other three functions.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Freestyle is the fastest of the four competitive swimming strokes, and is probably
the stroke that most people are familiar with. The athlete swims freestyle in the
prone (face down) position, propelling himself with the arms, which pull in an
alternating pattern, accompanied by a flutter kick. (Riewald 2003).Athletes and
coaches have a strong desire to be the best in competitive swimming. Over the
years, researchers have been recruited to study, examine and research training
methods that will lead to enhancement in swimming performance. Not
surprisingly, various area of swimming and many considerations had been
examined. Those studies are in energy system, technical proficiency and training
volume.

In swimming, technique is of utmost importance to performance. Efficiency in the

process of movement, whether stroking through the water, lifting weights or
swinging a club relates to the improvement in performance and a decrease in
chance of injury. However, to swim faster, swimmer cannot simply focus on the
time they want to swim. Instead, swimmer need to work on improving the
technique and physiological capacity (Riewald 2003)

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3. METHODOLOGY

Flutter Kick

Step 1

Extend your legs out as long as possible when beginning your flutter kick. Photo

Credit Jupiter images/Comstock/Getty Images.

Position yourself 1 foot from the wall of the pool. Grasp the wall with

both hands while allowing your body to float to the surface.

Step 2
Extend your legs behind you with your toes pointed.

Step 3

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 Kick with your legs straight and knees relaxed. Keep the strokes short and fast with
your legs just barely under the surface of the water. According to Swim Magazine,
you should flex your feet forward as much as possible as you kick the water so that
your propulsion will be more pronounced.

Step 4
Move away from the wall and begin your freestyle stroke. Concentrate on an even
kicking rhythm that is roughly twice as fast as your arm strokes.

Step 5
Rotate your body slightly from side to side as you use your upper legs to keep your
kick going.

Step 6
Practice your flutter kick lying on your back. Your backstroke kick should be almost
the same as your freestyle kick with the difference being you are propelling yourself
backward through the water as opposed to forward.

3. CAUSE ANALYSIS / PROBLEM SOLVING / METHOD /

TRAINING / PRACTICE / DISCUSSION

Common Mistakes
There are a few common mistakes in the flutter kick that decrease its efficiency
and hence should be avoided:

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 Large kick: to keep drag to a minimum, the kick should stay within the hole
opened in the water by the head and trunk while moving forward. Ideally, the kick
should neither break the water surface nor move below the line of the body.
Bicycle kick: during the downbeat, the kick is initiated by slightly flexing the hip
and then the knee follows suit, also only bending a little bit. If you do bend the
knee too much, the back of your lower leg will in fact move forward rather than
upward. Water will then be pushed forward and slow you down.
Putting too much force in the kick during the upbeat: in the freestyle stroke, the
upbeat phase of the kick isnt propulsive. So ideally you should relax your leg
during the upbeat to save energy.

Bending your knee and pointing your toes during the upbeat: these two
mistakes are closely related to the previous one. If you put too much force into the
kick during the upbeat, youll also have the tendency to bend your knee and point
your toes, which wastes energy and increases drag. Ideally you should relax your
leg so that the water pressure will extend it during the upbeat.

Flutter Kick Roles

The first role of the flutter kick is to provide propulsion. It is a fact that world
class swimmers have a powerful kick. So it is clear that the kick has its
importance in fast swimming. However, it might be less than you think. In fact,
studies have shown that the amount of propulsion provided by the kick in elite
swimmers is only about 10%. The rest of propulsion is provided by the arm
stroke.

The second role of the flutter kick is to stabilize the body. In fact, the start of the
propulsive phase of the arm stroke always coincides with a downward motion of
the leg on the same side.

Swimming Technique

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Lets now cover the flutter kick technique in more detail. The legs are kept parallel
at all times and execute opposite movements: while one leg kicks downward the
other one moves upward, and vice versa.

During the first half of the downbeat, the downward movement is initiated by
slightly flexing the leg at the hip. Shortly after, the knee also bends a little bit.

The foot goes in plantar flexion (toes pointed), both by muscle contraction and by
the pressure of the water against the foot as it moves downward. During that
phase, the top of the foot is oriented downward and a little bit backward. Because
of this, while the foot moves down some water is in fact pushed back. Thats how
propulsion is generated in the flutter kick.

During the second half of the downbeat, the hip is locked in place while the knee
is extended. The toes are still pointed. This phase isnt propulsive but prepares the
leg for its upward movement.

The upbeat movement of the leg starts while the knee is still extending. In fact,
while the leg moves upward, the pressure of the water against the lower leg will
extend it. The pressure of the water against the bottom of the foot will also move
it in an intermediary neutral position. This phase of the flutter kick isnt
propulsive either.

There are two popular kicking rhythms in the freestyle stroke, the two-beat kick
and the six-beat kick.

Two-Beat Kick

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 In the two-beat kick you kick once with each leg per stroke cycle. The downbeat
of the right leg occurs during the propulsive phase of the right arm stroke (in
sweep and upsweep to be precise).

The two-beat rhythm is used by lots of middle and long distance swimmers
because it uses less energy than the six-beat kick.

Six-Beat Kick

In the six-beat kick, each leg kicks three times per stroke cycle. Lets consider the
movements of the right arm and the right leg. The first downbeat of the leg occurs
during the forward extension of the arm. The second downbeat of the leg occurs
during the upsweep of the arm. The third downbeat of the leg occurs during the
recovery of the arm. The left leg moves in opposition to the right leg.

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4. CONCLUSION

4 top tips to develop an effective kick technique

1. Stretch Your Ankles

If you feel you have stiff ankles, you can perform some gentle ankle stretches to
improve your flexibility. Do not force these. Do them little and often and
gradually your flexibility will increase.

Perhaps the best way to stretch your ankles is to use fins (flippers) regularly. They
force you into using a plantar flexed (pointed toes) position and provide some
stretching force to your ankles. Over a period of time they will develop and
maintain your ankle flexibility.

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 You can use fins for kick sets, drills and the occasional fast swimming set. You
don't want to use them too much but wearing them little and often will improve
your kick by stretching your ankles.

If you are buying fins, we recommend you get something mid-length and floppy,
like these Finis Floating Fins.

2. Point your toes whilst you swim

Simple really, focus on holding your foot gently pointed whilst you swim. This should
be a gentle hold, your foot and calf should be mostly relaxed or you risk cramp and
muscle ache.

3. Kick from your hips

A good way to think about kicking from your hips is to squeeze your bum when you
kick. It's a bit crude, but imagine you have a large coin between your butt cheeks and
you're trying to hold it there whilst you swim. Keep your knees relaxed and drive the
kick from the hips.

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 4. Use the Kick Off The Wall Drill

Use the kick off the wall drill to develop your kick technique.

Use this technique to re-program your kicking action:

Simply perform a torpedo push off from the wall but keep your arms out in front of
you and your face in the water, kicking vigorously for about 15m or until you run out
of air. Then stop and swim gently back to the wall.

When you are kicking off the wall you need to focus on the following things:

1) Point your toes as in tip 2.

2) Kick from the hip as in tip 3. Focus on your imaginary coin and keep your knees
relaxed.

3) Point your toes slightly inwards so that your big toes almost brush together.

Perform this drill 3 or 4 times in a row, kicking vigorously off the wall focusing on
those three things. Then try a lap of steady freestyle swimming not thinking too
much about your kicking technique except just tapping your big toes lightly together.
You should find that the kicking action you've just tried sticks for a while. Remember,
you're not looking to feel extra propulsion, you're looking to feel higher in the water
with less drag a sensation of slipping through the water with less effort. If you're
used to kicking hard this will feel very easy.

What can be concluded here is that every novice swimmer has to enhance the kicking
technique while freestyling to improve the efficiency of the heartbeat stroke, the
freestyle cycle stroke, the speed and the most crucial thing is to efficiently using energy.

5. REFERENCES
1. http://www.swimsmooth.com/kick.html
2. http://www.enjoy-swimming.com/flutter-kick.html
3. http://www.swim-west.com/correct-kicking-freestyle/

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