Almost every day, we get a customer coming into one of our stores asking what they can do to improve their kick. Sure we have kickboards of all shapes and sizes, fins and even pull buoys (which is a bit of reverse engineering!), however with the right help from some experts in the field, we can go a bit further...

Our friend Andrew Mackay over at Boost Coaching has a number of awesome techniques he uses with his clients. Luckily he has some gems of wisdom available for free on his website too. Read below:

FREESTYLE SIDE TO SIDE DRILL

You may want to use fins to do this drill if your kicking isn't so strong. I also quite like doing this drill with a snorkel and then you just need to focus on the kick technique to work alongside the body rotation. By doing this you also learn the importance of the importance of rotation around a stable head position.

KEY POINTS TO THIS DRILL

1. Hands at your side (so you use your core to drive your body rotation and hold your posture not your shoulders)
2. Keep your core and gluts switched on try not to arch your back
3. Keep rotation around 45-60 deg apart from when you are breathing where you may open up to 90+ deg
4. Keep your shoulders inline with your hips
5. Keep your head stable
6. Kick to a central point
   • If your thigh opens up to the side too much you'll end up with over rotation and struggle to kick yourself back to the other side without incorrect kick technique.

AS YOU DEVELOP THIS FURTHER INTO YOUR SWIMMING THEN

1. Kick to a central point.
2. Try not to break the surface of the water with the top of your foot
3. Keep your hammy (that's your Hamstring, for those not up with the 'lingo') long (feel like it is toward the surface of that water)

KICKING USING A BOARD

When you are using a kick board to practice your kick remember to keep your

1. Toes Pointed
2. Hips Up
3. Kick that is no wider than you hips
4. Upper body relaxed
5. Hand flat on the board
6. Elbows out and relaxed (when you lift your head to breathe you may need to kick a little harder – try not to lose body position ie. SINK)

Have a look at this helpful video about kick technique.

So there it is, a useful couple of tips to help you get those legs kicking stronger!

Check out our range of snorkels, fins and kickboards in our Training Aids category on our website, or if you're at the Mount or in Takapuna - come in and see us!