Of all the things hardest for beginner swimming students to comprehend, one of them is how to kick to generate propulsion using your feet.
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| Flippy Floppy Feet - Photo by Kevin Paes on Unsplash |
How To Kick in Swimming For Beginners
In effect, you can't get much movement in the water if any at all with stiff feet. The most effective form of kicking is with "flippy floppy feet". By this, I mean that if your feet remain rigid during the kicking process, then you are going to struggle to get any movement in the water from your kick. Your feet need to remain relaxed and free to move in the water and with the pressure of the water. In other words, "flippy floppy feet".
It is not unusual for students to actually go backwards whilst kicking with rigid feet. Mostly because they are concentrating so much on getting straight legs. It is quite a knack to relax your feet whilst keeping your legs straight.
Of course, in reality, you don't want stiff legs either. You only want your knees to have a minimum bend to utilise your upper leg muscles. Most learners use their lower leg muscles, but they are just not strong enough for the power needed for an effective kick.
Whilst not unique to adults, some struggle with it the most. Probably because of a less supple body in the first place, but perhaps more because of the fear they have developed for swimming over the years of not swimming.
You can't quite see the young student in this video using flippy floppy feet. But if you look closely at the instructor as she demonstrates to the student, you can clearly see beautiful "flippy floppy Feet" just as she describes them.
Richard
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