KICKING & STREAMLINE TECHNIQUE

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Kicking & Streamline Basics

Important Note About 3 Different Types of Streamlines:

1. Superman- Hands spread in front. No, just NO. No-one has a cape in the pool and it creates massive drag from your head/spread arms.
2. Racing Streamline- It’s what you need to be in after each breaststroke pull. Hands flat and index fingers/thumbs touching, arms straight from elbows. Head between or below the biceps, shoulders pulled up to ears, toes pointed back.
3. Hyper Streamline- Position you want to be in after every turn and start! Hands on top of each other and fingers/thumbs NOT spread… head tightly tucked between or below the straight arms. Toes pointed straight back. Shoulders extended up/forward as high as possible behind your ears (this makes your body narrower). Elbows (almost) touching as much as you can. It’s the most efficient body position to move through the water.

Here are some tips to help you out with the rest of it:

• In Streamline– It’s a mindset. Stay in streamline, not only during push-offs during turns and starts, but also aim to have your body in streamline as much as possible during swimming/stroking with arms. Meaning, creating the smallest amount of drag possible, or “going through the smallest tunnel possible with head, shoulders, hips and legs one after another”, while still generating meaningful propulsion, is priority number 1,2 and 3. Water is 830-something times more dense than air, so making your body go through as small of a hole as possible and therefore reducing drag, is extremely important. Drag usually trumps power in the world of swimming, so be in the best streamline you can and practice the mindset of keeping it… always! Only then go looking for ways to create more propulsion and find your own balance. Once again, hyper streamlines (hands on top of each other, head between or below biceps and shoulders extended forward from joints) for turns and starts. Racing streamline (same as hyper, except thumbs touching side by side) for end of breaststroke strike phase. No Supermans with arms spread, ever!

• Flat in the Water– Just to reiterate the last point. The more flat your body is in the water, the faster you will move. Period. Stay flat and keep those hips and legs up. Minimize swimming forward while body is vertical/diagonal during any point of the stroke cycle, otherwise it’s an exercise in frustration and slowness.

• Small(ish), Fast and Constant Kicks– Flutter kicks either on stomach, back or side (great swimmers spend most of the time in back and free on sides, not on belly or back as they rotate side to side), need to be small(ish) and fast, not big and lazy. If you kick too big (above 60-65 degree knee bend), your thighs/legs create excessive drag as they go down too much/become too vertical. Essentially your thighs can act as big breaks and stop you from moving forward. On the other hand, if you kick too small (below 50 degree knee bend), you will usually not move forward because there is not enough propulsion. The more flexible your ankles are, the less you can bend your knees to get propulsion. Just make sure to relax the ankles. Make sure the legs and feet rotate as the body rotates side to side, so you don’t scissor kick (ankles crossing during kick). And if you don’t have endurance to keep kicking constantly (at least enough to keep your body parallel top surface), your lower body simply sinks and your arms/shoulders have to do extra work dragging you in a diagonal angle through the water.

• Pigeon-Toes– Turning ankles slightly out and pointing toes in. On down kicks only for flutter and dolphin kicks (reverse for back obviously), so more of the surface of top of foot can be used to push water back. And feet straight and parallel during up kicks. Pro Tip: Point the toes backwards/bring them up as soon as the up-kick starts, don’t just let them hang towards the bottom. This ensures that you are actually moving the water back with the bottoms of your feet, not just kicking heels towards the sky.

• Hip Driven– For FREE, BACK and DOLPHIN kicks. No-one rides a bicycle or jumps over hurdles with both feet together by drawing their knees in and moving heels close to butt. Kick from your hips, you should feel the muscles working and ligaments stretching in front of your hips and upper thighs.

• Loose Feet– Just like a fishtail, feet push more water backwards the looser they are moving up and down. Relax them from ankles and also, importantly, from toes/balls of feet. That final flick with a loose tail moves a fish forward a great deal, although it doesn’t seem like it.

• No Criss-Crossing, No Spread Knees– You kick towards your belly and back, always, as the body rotates side to side in freestyle and backstroke. Criss-crossing happens when legs don’t rotate to side kicking as the upper body rotates sideways. Don’t let the knees drift too far apart in fly and breaststroke. In breaststroke the knees move at the shoulder line or narrower, in fly they stay together with only ankles rotating out slightly during down kicks. Criss-crossing and/or keeping knees wide are very common mistakes with young/inexperienced swimmers.

• Toes Out and Kicking Straight Back– For breaststroke, ideally knees shoulder width apart or very slightly closer as they move up and down. Toes pointed to sides as much as possible without letting knees drift much wider than shoulders and pushing water back with insteps of feet, instead of makinga huge arc- the right balance is achieved when the maximum surface of insteps is used to push water back, which includes not pointing toes backwards too early, but rather keeping them pointed out. Toes should only point back at the very end of the kick as legs get lifted parallel to surface. Lots of younger swimmers tend to push water back with their toes pointed straight back, instead of keeping them facing to the sides as long as possible.

• Whole Body Undulation– Dolphin Kick. 3 inches above and below the line of motion for hand movement range, chest undulating the same while the head moves in a relatively straight line. Hips undulating more then chest with bending of the lower back, rather than just lifting hips up with a straight back. Knees following this flow with even bigger undulations while mostly staying in the body slip stream- don’t drop the knees. And toes breaching the slipstream just a bit above and below to generate max amount of propulsion while minimizing drag… is pretty close to ideal kicking as one gets. Think of a whip- the handle moves a smaller and slower, the tip moves more and faster… as the whip gets thinner towards the tip. Energy created in the beginning (and also added to in the middle) is transferred from handle to tip in a sine wave that has less amplitude and speed on the start end and more of both at the finishing end. 15-30 degrees of hip flexion and 50-75 degrees of knee bend is mostly acceptable. Anything more than that and you create excessive drag with either your butt or thighs. Anything less and there’s not much propulsion. But it all depends a lot on individual swimmers’ lower back flexibility, ability to hyper-extend the knees and ankle flexibility. At the end, everyone has to find their own sweet spot. Either lots of trial and error by the swimmer (as it is hard for coaches to see the kick amplitude -hint: viewing side kicking from above helps a bit, but it’s still tricky because of the speed of kicks)… or a better option… filming the dolphin kick (or any kick, really) under the water from the side… which can help then determine if any part of the body (usually hips, thighs or calves) is sticking out too much from the ideal slipstream/line of motion and what can be done about it. Pro Tip: In order to stay in the body’s slipstream and to reduce drag, it is helpful to drop the knees a bit and really flex the lower back just as the hips are at the highest position- meaning, your thighs are more “hidden from the drag” behind your chest and you can bend your knees a bit more to get better propulsion from the tops of your feet while not letting thighs get on the way. At least that’s partly how Gretchen Walsh kicks.

• No Arching Shoulders/Upper Back- Especially during under water dolphin kicking. Some swimmers arch their upper backs and “plow” through the water with their hands much lower and pointing to the bottom at an angle, sometimes with their whole head/upper back.

• Underwater Dolphin Kick Off Turns and Starts-Small, fast kicks and start kicking right away after turns. Kick like a snapper, rather than a whale. Only elite athletes with incredible vertical jumps (and usually mediocre dolphin kicks) can take advantage of a really brief glide after push-off. A very short glide is beneficial after the start as the speed off the block is way greater than off the wall and that first lowering of knees for the down kick can put unnecessary brakes on from thighs moving out of the slipstream. Be careful not to lose the speed entirely though, by waiting too long. Aim for 0.5-0.75 second glide max as a rule of thumb for both dive and backstroke starts- easy number to remember. PS! During distance swims and for younger kids with weaker aerobic systems, it is sometimes beneficial not to kick, or kick only once or twice off the turns, as staying under water creates oxygen dept and is just not worth it.

• Flexible Ankles– Ankle/plantar flexibility is paramount, so you don’t compensate with too big of a knee bend for all kicks. These joints and ligaments can stretch well. Simple stretch to do every day is to sit on your ankles with knees together and toes pointed inwards and then lift your knees off the ground and/or lay back to add some hip flexibility as well. Do it every day- it pays fantastic dividends possibly with-in a few weeks. Breaststrokers can sit the same way, but with toes pointing out. Just be very careful/move very slowly with the toes pointing out as it puts an enormous amount of torque on your inner knees.

• Breaststroke Kick Speed and Thighs to Belly Angle– In order for the thighs not to get in the way of the pull too much, those kicks need to be as fast (and narrow) as possible. Aim for more than 60 kicks a minute when trying with just kicking in streamline with arms and back straight- FYI, some sprint breaststrokers have a cycle time of 60/minute when swimming full breaststroke. Way faster than you would think. Fast breaststrokers in general also never pull their thighs into a 90 degree angle when the knees are drawn up. It creates massive drag and adds to kick cycle time without much propulsion benefit as it is hard to kick back with power when knees are too bent. Think in what position you’d start a vertical jump from. And then really flex from the lower back as the knees get drawn forward during breaststroke, so the upper body can still elevate a bunch, yet the legs/feet are able to stay as high/horizontal as possible.

• Afterburners– Breaststroke. At the end of every kick the toes need to go into “ballerina” position and point straight back. Legs should be straightened and lifted to just under surface again, if they have dropped by the end of the kick. Idea is to get everything out of the way of the water flowing past/under you, as soon as possible. You are not allowed to dolphin kick during breaststroke, but some swimmers sure get a little spike in propulsion just by lifting legs legs and letting the bottoms of feet push the water backwards/upwards as they move to toes pointed back position from the toes pointed down position. Food for thought.

• Always Be UWDKing, Big or Small– Underwaters are important because it’s the fastest way to move through the water (especially when coming off the wall under water/jumping from blocks and trying to retain the speed from the push-off). There’s a reason why you have to officially come to surface after 15 meters while doing any specific stroke. There was a time when world records were broken by swimmers staying under water for almost the entire course. But it takes a toll on your lungs and requires lots and lots of leg/core power and flexibility. Practice using this kick every day by getting off every wall and block in a great streamline and using a powerful UWDK and your times will improve. TIP: Practice it on sides as well, there is some evidence that you can kick even faster on your side than you can on your stomach, and you have to be on your side for part of the push-off after turns anyways. PS! Worth Noting! Technically, dolphin kicks can be pretty big from the knees (up to about 85 degrees for some elite swimmers), but pulling it off requires very, very flexible ankles, hyper-extended knees and just crazy flexible hips and lower backs- the idea is to make the movement big, so it pushes maximum amount of water from the slip-stream behind you, but not creating drag by having your body parts out of that slipstream as much as possible. Being able to flex your butt up from the lower back while knees go down maintains the “slip-stream” behind your torso as you kick and it keeps you in a better line, rather than just having your knees down too much and making your thighs big brakes. So, if you can (meaning you have hyper-extended knees and very flexible ankles and back), do it, great. If not, then don’t create unnecessary drag if you don’t have the flexibility to push the water behind you in that way… and make the kicks as small as you have to to get maximum propulsion out of them while minimizing drag. Once again, find your own sweet spot.

• Hands One On Top of Each Other (And Head Under Them)– Ideal streamline position. Just reiterating the first point on this list. You have to get through the smallest “hole” possible in the water and being in this arm position naturally helps to keep your arms/elbows tight, making you “leaner” and hands not spreading apart as the water hits them. The reasoning is that you can elevate your shoulders higher and make yourself narrower by doing it, plus if the head is down, mostly below the biceps, it just takes the drag from your chest anyway vs. having some part of your head above your arms and creating additional drag. Don’t tilt your head down (like you want to look backwards, just pull the jaw back, face straight down and get snug.

• Word About Beat Count (More Advanced)– Flutter Kick. It can go from 0 to 8 kicks per full stroke cycle. 0 beats is pulling only (with pull buoy, so you don’t sink your bottom half). 2 beats means you move your arms and legs at the same time and is used for distance/warm-ups/cool-downs. 4 beat kick is mostly used to transition from 2 beat to 6 beat and is a bit weird to pull off by itself as it can throw off your balance. 6 beat kick is mostly used for anything less than 400 yard/meter events or going hard in practice, as it can be exhausting, but definitely gives you lots of propulsion. 8 beats is something that elite swimmers can pull off… sometimes… but you have to kick 4 times for every stroke and it’s even more exhausting than 6 beat kick, so you need to have power and speed of the leg muscles of a shot put thrower… on the other hand, your legs are going fast enough not to mess too much with your balance, unlike in a 4 beat kick. Just to reiterate, most swimmers below 400 events use 6 beat kick in competitions/hard work… meanwhile, if doing warm-ups, cool-downs or, going longer than 400 yards in a competition, you are probably best off with 2 beat kick (or alternating between 2-4 and 6-beat kicks as some do) as it is much less energy draining, especially if you don’t have a strong kick (but coupled with a strong upper body) to begin with- your leg and core muscles are big and it takes a lot of energy to move them. Also Note! Surge kicks (the one coupled with the hand entry) is usually done on the opposite side of the entering arm, but some do it on the same side. And some distance swimmers use a modified kick with one big surge kick on one side and a few smaller/faster kicks on the other side

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KICKING & STREAMLINE TECHNIQUE VIDEOS

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