Not Moving When Kicking With A Kick Board

I have never been able to move when kicking with a kick board. It’s got to be my leg kick. What can I do to correct this?

This is very common, and can be extremely frustrating. You hold your kickboard out in front and kick your legs up and down furiously in an attempt to move through the water.

It seems the harder you kick, the less you move and sometimes even travel backwards. You are thinking to yourself, surely if I kick with enough power and force it will generate enough propulsion to send me through the water like a torpedo? But alas, no.

For an in-depth look at Front Crawl technique, including some practical leg kicking exercises, download How To Swim Front Crawl.

How Exactly Should You Kick?

We need to take a look at the mechanics of the leg and foot as it kicks to see exactly what is happening here, and we will then be able to see why some kicking techniques result in zero distance covered through the water.

From the diagram below it can be seen that the part of the foot that applies the kick is the top (the laces if you were wearing shoes). That part of the foot is faced down and therefore provides propulsion from the downward beat of the kick.

For this downward kick to be effective, the kick must originate from the hip. In other words, the whole leg must perform the kick. If the kick comes from the knee, or even the ankle, the kick as a whole will only serve to provide an up and down movement, which will result in you going nowhere.

If the knee and ankle joints are relaxed and the kick action is smooth, it will then provide backward propulsion resulting in forward motion through the water.

Kick Like You Have Fins

In essence, the foot has to behave rather like a flipper or fin. Try kicking whilst wearing fins, as this can be excellent training for correcting your kicking technique. The fins will force the foot to be pointed backward and also force a more relaxed leg, knee, and ankle movement.

After practicing for some time with fins on, try kicking again without them. Try this time to get your feet to replicate the movement of fins as they kick downwards through the water.

A relaxed kicking technique is the key, combined with a flat streamlined body position of course.

Fine Tune All Parts Of Your Front Crawl

For specific leg kicking exercises containing diagrams and teaching points, as well as exercises covering all aspects of swimming front crawl, check out the book to download below.

Correct Front Crawl Kicking Technique?

I just started with the swimming lessons; in the second class, I had to practice kicking with the board, but I couldn’t go forward regardless of the fast and hard I kicked; I was wondering what the correct front crawl kicking technique is?

This is a very common problem in beginners learning to swim. Most beginners discover that ‘fast and hard’ gets you nowhere!

Front crawl leg kick technique must originate from the hip and not the knee so that the whole leg performs the kick in a very relaxed movement.

This is the crucial point: relax. If your leg kick is hard and fast, it will result in lots of splashing, lots of breathlessness and all for little distance gained.

The legs must be completely relaxed with a slight knee bend and a very loose ankle joint. The loose ankle allows the foot to act like a flipper, with the downward kick providing the propulsion to move through the water.front 

Keep your swimming stroke in perspective here, though. The leg kick is only one aspect of front crawl, and your body position, arm, and breathing techniques will help your leg kick and your overall swimming stroke.

Don’t get put off if your leg kick is not perfect. It will fall in line with the rest of your swimming stroke in time as you practice and improve.

My eBook How To Swim Front Crawl is available to download and contains 22 separate exercises to help all parts of your swimming stroke. You can instantly download it, print out the exercises and try them out at the pool. Click the link below for more information.

Faster Kicks For Front Crawl

I am wondering if I should be doing faster kicks for front crawl? I'm now 53 yrs old and have been swimming since I was 7 years old. I swim 1.25km most days and have gradually been increasing the distances I swim while doing the front crawl. Someone pointed out that I kick slowly, and now I am pretty conscious of this. I basically kick my left leg while doing my right arm stroke - one kick to one arm stroke. If I try to kick faster, my arm strokes go faster (and vice versa), and I am having real difficulty unlearning this rhythm. I really would like to have a faster kick but do not necessarily want a faster stroke as I am quite comfortable with the speed and breathing. I don't know whether I have always done this or whether I have learned this sometime when I have been improving my crawl distance, but I have settled into this rhythm, and it is now annoying me. HELP someone !!

This is a very common occurrence during front crawl; however, it is not necessarily incorrect.

If you have been a regular swimmer all of your life and have only just begun to increase your front crawl distance, then I am guessing that your most commonly used swimming stroke is breaststroke.

As breaststroke has a slow rhythmical one kick, one arm pull action, it is very common for one’s front crawl to follow the same pattern. This is determined largely by your coordination, and to unlearn this arm pull and leg kick takes some work and is not always necessary.

You have already said you are happy with your overall stroke speed and breathing. Introducing a faster leg kick will cause you to use more energy, and therefore you will become breathless sooner.

Therefore kicking faster may not make your overall swimming stroke faster.

The best long-distance front crawl swimmers in the world use a 1 beat cycle just like yours because it conserves energy. The legs are used more to balance the stroke rather than generate propulsion. Front crawl gets the majority of its propulsion from the arm action, and it sounds like you are doing just fine!

Just make sure your legs are kicking at or near the surface of the water and not dragging you down, and you kick from the hips with relatively straight legs, pointed toes and relaxed ankles. The speed of your leg kicks is the last thing to worry about, especially if you are happy with the rest of your technique.

Help With My Front Crawl Kicking

I need help with my front crawl kicking. I'm pretty new to the swimming thing, but I know I'm using my arms for swimming more than my legs and am prepared to work at it, so any tips would be great.

Swimming good front crawl is not just about kicking. Yes, the legs need to kick but not as much as you think.

Front crawl gets its power and momentum from the arm action, and it gets it efficiency from a flat, streamlined body position.

If you are new to swimming, then your key focus must be to relax and swim slower than you think you need to. It is easy when you first start to try almost too hard, pull and kick too hard and fast and then get completely out of breath.

If you relax into your stroke, focus on long arm pulls and making your body long and streamlined in the water, you can swim a fair distance with surprisingly little effort. But it is the combination of all components of front crawl (leg kicks, arm pulls, breathing and timing) that make this possible.

If you are determined to kick more, grab a kickboard and go for it. Keep your face submerged as much as possible to help keep your body position flat and kick with a relaxed and flowing leg kick. This is achieved by kicking from the hip with a slight knee bend and completely relaxed ankles and feet.

The speed of your leg kicks compared with your arm pulls can vary from 6 kicks to 1 arm cycle (2 arm pulls) to 4 kicks or even 1 kick to 1 arm cycle. It will usually depend on your coordination or your fitness. The faster your legs, the more energy you will use.

My ebook How To Swim Front Crawl contains over 20 separate swimming exercises to help all parts of front crawl, including the leg kick and the timing of the arms and legs. You can download it, print out the parts you need and take them to your pool to try out. Click the link below for more information.

The Simple Front Crawl Book