"Coach, I hate to kick"

Michael Phelps & Daniela Victoria                         Amy Van Dyken

Do you think these champions said this to their coach? I’ll bet they did, however I’ll bet they also said no matter how much I hate kicking, this is what I need to do if I ever want to be a champion! So kick they did, so you too must learn that kicking is  important to your training. I have found though, that when we kicking with flat shoulders, this flat position causes your legs to drag. It causes you to have poor body position.Kicking flat causes the kick to be inefficient. I would like to see you kicking on your side, you can start kicking on your side by using fins, this will help you get comfortable with being on your side. Try switching from one side to the other and as you switch take one arm pull. When you feel that you can handle the switch from side to side and you are holding good body position with one arm stretched out leading towards the other end of the pool and one arm at your side placed on your hip with your head resting on your shoulder of the stretched arm. Then when you switch take three arm pulls. From there you are ready to start swimming a normal stroke. Keep your body rotating side to side, keep your kick strong and steady. You can refer to the kick,kick,kick article I wrote in the stroke technique category of my blog