Default Breaststroke Leg Kick

I have a problem with the default breaststroke leg kick with some of my pupils. I'm a level 2 swim teacher with two boys, ages 8 and 10, who default to breaststroke legs with every stroke, especially in fly and when they don't totally focus on crawl leg technique, ie if taking a breath. I'm trying to alter their default. We have tried demos, watching themselves, realignment, swimming on sides, and visual techniques on their backs, to name a few. I haven't tried fins yet but am reluctant to do so as they are young and only casually swim. Thank you for your opinion.

Thanks for contacting me. It sounds like these two boys are putting you to the test!

From your question, it sounds like you have two different but similar problems: a breaststroke kick when swimming butterfly and a breaststroke kick when breathing for front crawl. If so, then these are both common.

I have experienced the same problems several times, and the cure is never a quick fix.

It sounds like you have tried all the obvious teaching methods, but here are a few things from my experience for you to consider...

Firstly fins are not a bad thing at all at this stage. They will assist in correcting the leg kick technique and add a sense of fun to the lesson. They don't have to be advanced or squad swimmers to get some benefits from fins. Fins will certainly help with breaststroke legs during fly, especially if they are well practiced in dolphin kick.

Breaststroke kicking during front crawl breathing can take some time to cure. One thing to keep in mind here is that they naturally kick breaststroke when they need to breathe, and this association with breathing could be causing the problem. This could also explain why demos, visuals, and watching themselves on their back do not fix the issue because there is no link with breathing.

I used a combination of 2 methods to cure this, one of which was fairly drastic! If you teach from in the water and can follow them as they swim (walking is easier, and you will have to do this with one boy at a time), grab their legs every time they breathe and go to kick to prevent the breaststroke kick.

This kind of physical intervention will immediately bring to their attention what they are doing wrong and when they are doing it, more so than visuals and demos.

Then get them to swim a length of front crawl and tell them you will be counting how many breaststroke kicks they do. At the end of the length, you will give them their score. Less than five breaststroke kicks are the bronze standard, less than three are silver, and zero kicks are the gold standard. (adjust the numbers however you want.) This type of scoring thing makes them think about what they are doing and adds a sense of competitiveness and fun to the lesson.

These are only ideas from my own experience, and sometimes plain old patience and perseverance are what is needed. I hope I have helped somehow.

Tips For Teaching Swimming

I would like some tips for teaching swimming. I have a pupil with really good breaststroke legs but try as I might, I cannot get him to flutter kick for front crawl, he is better with a float, and I don't have small enough fins. What other practices could I do for him? As it is quite a challenge now to correct the kick.

From the information you have given us, the problem could be coordination related.

Firstly you could try a backstroke kick exercise with a woggle under the arms. The kick is essentially the same but upside down. The point of the exercise is that your pupil can sit up slightly and actually watch his legs kicking.

If you then enforce the usual teaching points: 'kick with floppy feet',' make your feet like jelly', 'point your toes', 'make your legs really long' etc., encourage him to watch his legs as he performs the kick. This may help make the kick clear in his mind.

Then when you return to the prone position, encourage him to do the kick he was watching.

When performing the full stroke, keep in mind the coordination issue. Some swimmers, especially children, can perform simultaneous strokes (breaststroke) better than alternating strokes (front crawl, backstroke) and vice versa. Your pupil obviously can use both legs and arms simultaneously but struggles with kicking and using arms alternately.

Here are a few things to try:

Push and glide, adding leg kicks, followed by arm pulls but maintaining the leg kick speed. So the stroke is 'pieced' together from the glide in stages.

Kicking with a float and counting his kicks, counting every 4 or 6 kicks. Then introduce the arms but maintain the counting of leg kicks to maintain a flutter kick.

Front crawl catch-up, holding a float. Kicking with a steady speed and using one arm pull at a time, swapping hands on the float.
With all of the above exercises, remind your pupil of the leg kick he watched himself do.

You can download my eBook How To Be A Swimming Teacher. It is perfect for teaching swimming lessons and contains 82 separate exercises covering all four strokes, including the ones detailed above. You may find it very useful. Click below to download your copy.

How To Be A Swimming Teacher

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