SIMON GRIFFITHS
In this penultimate part of our winter freestyle refresher course, we’re looking at how to use your legs. In Part 1 we looked at how to achieve an optimum body position, Part 2 was about efficient breathing and Part 3 covered mastering your catch and getting the most out of each arm stroke.
In Part 5, next month, we will look at the importance of interconnectedness in swimming and putting it all together. Our aim throughout is to give you tools and tips to improve your own technique. While we believe a good coach, combined with video analysis, is the most effective means of improving your swimming technique, we appreciate not everyone has access to it.
While we refer to the leg action in swimming as ‘kick’, the movement doesn’t resemble how you might kick a football or kick down a door. It’s more akin to the way you swing your legs while walking, but that isn’t quite right either.