I am a beginning swimmer. My flutter kick does not propel meforward at all . How do I remedy that?
370343
Although kicking does help you move forward, the flutter kick is used mainly to keep your body level and hydrodynamic so that you can move more efficiently in the water. The flatter your body the better you will move in the water. Your arms are responsible for moving you forward. \nWhen doing your flutter kick, keep your toes pointed and have the feeling of stretching your body. Your kick is generated from your hips/upper thigh, not your toes. Practice by kicking on your back. Hold a kickboard across your chest/under your arms. Lean back in the water so your ears are underwater but your face is out. Start to do your flutter kick. Visualize a ball floating on the water, above your feet. Imagine that you are kicking the ball out of the water without your feet breaking the surface of the water. Snap your toes upward then whip downward. The water should be "mushrooming" because of your toes but not splashing. Remember that you are kicking both upward and downward.
1073494
butterfly is swam entirely from the chest and hips. if you dont got rythm you probably cant swim the stroke to your full potential. make sure to press the "T" [line across youre shoulders and down your chest] and kick from your hips. dont breath on the first stroke coming off the wall but DONT hold your breath the whole time either. your muscles need oxygen to function so dont try to hold your breath.  try breathin every 2 or 3 strokes. keep your arms straight on the recovery and make sure your timing is right so that youre breathing during the pull of the strok and not the recovery. dont kick from your knees either cuz you actually dont get much power from that.  dont be too nervous either. its ok to be a little nervous.. mostly excited because thats when you are at your peak performance. try to have fun with it.  sing a fast song while youre swimming to keep your rythm up. and dont let up on the last 10 yards. no matter how tired you get its almost over.  \nduring training do lots of im sets because you get to work on fly as well as every stroke, and youre not stuck doing 10x100s fly over and over again. also do a 500 fly kick on your back to work on abs. push ups help too, as well as sit ups and lunges.\nmy coaches are constantly on me to work on my fly because its my weakest stroke. i swim im so they all have to be good. all this crap they tell me well i hope it helps you. just dont get psyched out. good luck!
614614
First of all, try to get someone to explain to you in person, trainer or soething like that, then make sure that you do any exercise to improve the technique as using a pull or something, then after you are prtty sure you are getting into it, try to do 1/4 of laps more than you use to do, then do 1/2 laps more\n\nWithin a month or two(swimming everyday) You won't have any problem with it and you'll improve your technique and the only matter will be the speed that ypu'll be swimming
568706
both hands hit the wall together just below the surface of the water. don't grab the wall, let your momentum carry you towards it.\n\nkeep your head tucked to your chest as you drop one arm behind you like youre going to elbow someone (i use my left arm). at the same time your legs should begin to tuck up underneath your body.\n\nlet your right arm then go to your ear like youre answering the a phone with it. begin to roll a little to your left as your left knee drops down and you plant both feet on the wall.\n\nslide both of your hands up the length of your body into a streamlined position above your hands.\n\npush off the wall with your feet and get into a tight streamline. begin a dolphin kick for about 5 yards and then begin to pull with your arms just as your head is getting ready to break the surface of the water. now you start swimming butterfly again.
290393
crawl, front crawl, Australian crawl \na swimming stroke; arms are moved alternately overhead accompanied by a flutter kick
738819
Well here's the thing. \nThe butterfly or dolphin kick is not supposed to involve your knees at all. The reason Your coaches tell you not to bend your knees, is because as you bend them, you are creating a resistance, quite a strong one I might add, to your swim. What that does is it puts all of your swim onto your arms.\nNow speaking of arms, the biggest mistake that people make when pulling on the butterfly stroke, is that they bend their arms (like you do with your knees). If you make your arms straight as you pull, you wil have a MUCH stronger stroke. You will be using more muscles, and the more muscles that you use, the easier it is on all muscles combined. What I meean is, if you use only two arms muscles when pulling, all of your weight is being pulled by striclty, those 2 muscles. Straighten out your arms, and you will be using many more muscles, distributing your weight.\nAfter you have straightend out your arms and you have just completed pulling the arms right in front of you (and you are about to do another stroke) you must move your arms underwater much lke the breaststroke pull. \n\nI know that this is confusion how I explained this to you.\nPretty much, when kicking on the butterfly stroke, focus on using your hips oppsed to using your knees.\nWhen pulling, arms straight out of the water beside you. When you bring them over your head, do onot cross them.\nTrain hard, and pretty much, ask your coach for help.\n\nI know that it is hard to change your stroke once you have a routine way of doing it. And for a while, changing your stoke will actually make you slower. But over time (a few months), you stroke will greatly improve by several seconds.\n\nGood Luck with your swimming!
1097498
Well, i'm 16 and at the moment I can swim (crawl) 200metres (+-219 yards) in about 2mins and 8secs (I've done better :-), I stopped swimming for a while), when I was 12 or 13, i did this in about 3mins 30secs. What stroke are you refering to, crawl/freestyle, or breaststoke, or backstroke , the strokes are important in comparing time.  Good lengths to do are (sorry i work in meters :-)) 50meters (mine- 30secs), 100 meters (mine +- 1min 3secs), 200 meters, 400 meters. To get better, get your daughter to concentrate on her breathing (this increases ones lung capacity and makes them in a way fitter), in crawl- try not to breathe every 2 strokes but every 3 (breathing once on either side) If shes already doing that then great. Obviously make sure she doesn't overdo it. She can also use a board and just kick for 100meters and then just use her arms (no help from legs) for 100meters and then for another 100 meters arms and legs together, this will also help go faster (obviously all this takes time and it must be constant-everyday, every second day ect). Hope that helped.
1001688
A 50 yard free race is mostly the start, turn and finish with a little swimming in between.  Practice those parts with a REALLY TIGHT streamline and FAST HARD kicking.  Never breathe on your first stroke off the start or turn, and don't breathe right before the turn.  My rule is to not breathe in the area between the flags and the wall.  Your first pull out of the streamline should be the hardest & fastest stroke of all.  From your turn, the first pull should be with the arm that is closest to the bottom.  This will pull you over to your stomache & it will be much more powerful. While you are swimming, make sure that you have a long, full stroke that goes past your hips.  DO NOT CUT YOUR STROKE SHORT!  You will not go faster just because your arms are going faster.  You have to keep your technique good & efficient.  I have seen someone swim a faster freestyle with an efficient, slower stroke than someone with faster shorter strokes.  The more water you pull, the farther you go with less strokes.  Iff your stroke is strong enough, you will be ok.\n\nIf these are new things to you, they will feel weird for a while & it might seem like you are swimming slower.  Just give it time & you will get used to it & you will be swimming faster times.\n\nJust practice, practice, practice!!!   AND HAVE FUN!
706749
practice doing just regular tucks and then slowly modify the tucks into the kickflip, alot of times it is easier to do just a tuck and progress then just try to fix what you have wrong there, buy you could also try having a friends say go or something when you should bring your legs out, that seems weird but it helps alot
386083
I had trouble just flat out doing it but I wasn't afraid of doing it. To fix your fears I'd say go one one of those big twister things that flip you all around and have 3 rings with some guy running it and turning you all around. It'll get you used to flipping. But for the hitting your head part just flip kind of before you're supposed to flip and you should be all set. If you come up too short then just gradually work your way in and the frustration of not doing it right will get you to do a flip and you'll learn that the chances of hitting your head (even for a tall person) is very slim at either end of a pool. The only time I ever hit the bottom bad was when I did a backstroke flip turn and I was pointing right towards the bottom of the pool and I got a bad hang nail. Other than that you should be OK doing flip turns.
1178580
ok when your doing one make sure your feet are in the right place,put your hand(fingertips) on the ground.your feet should be in the middle and on the tale.push down on the tail while jumping your fingertips will come off the ground.while in the air the firt on the tail slides back gives the board a little nudge so it flips.then quickly slide your foot back on the tale but right on the end.make sure both feet are on.then your board will drop down and you keep your balanece.that is a tip and you can think about something like if i land these ill get 1 million dollars or somethin on the lind.i hope this helps.oh yea yuo can practice in a pool,trampiline,or bed.thats what i did when i first learn how to do one now i can do them naturally.have a nice day
566889
I get this after swimming. I find shaking my head in a fast swooping movement sideways and downwards on the side with water in works. I usually twist my head slightly torwards my opposite shoulder as I reach the bottom. This can take from one to a number of attempts to get it out depending how far in it goes.Sometimes I find too if I tip my head sideways (again on the side with water in) and push the palm of my hand up and down fully across my ear this can sometimes suction it out!  \n\nWhether either of these are medically acceptable I have no idea but after over 25 years as a swimmer it works for me.  Just don't get me locked up for behaing madly!!!
648892
Swim under the water.  That builds up more endurance.  Go side to side in the pool.  You can probably go one way without taking a breath.  You definitely need goggles for this. Underwater is often the fastest way because there is less turbulence.
959553
Yes, keeping your legs straight will make you go faster.  You need to think of yourself as a needle or torpedo in the water.  You want the least resistance as possible so staying straight will make you go faster.  You want to kick from your hips and point your toes.  I used to have a large sissors kick and it only slowed me down.  Other swimmers kept pointing this out to me and I concetrated on keeping my legs together.  You can feel your thighs rub together and let your big toes touch each other each time you kick.  Now that I don't have a big sissors kick and I'm more streamlined I can swim 20 seconds faster for 250 yards.
134472
You already know the answer, practice. Don't worry about being last. The more you practice the better you will become. Set small goals for yourself and slowly build up to bigger ones. Work hard diet right and the improvements will come. Talk to your coach and see what you can do to improve your stroke.\nA specific drill that I have my team work on to improve endurance is to take less breaths during practice. Assuming you are swimming freestyle, take a breath every 3rd stroke, then work up to every 5th stroke, then 7th and so on. This is tiring but it helps to build endurance. When swimming concentrate on your body position and stroke. As you take less breaths your body will be in a more streamline position longer. Work on keeping it hydrodynamic. Then when you swim normally you should have enough oxygen, more endurance and a streamline body to improve your times.
61635
If you are trying to swim freestyle (crawl), switch to an easier stroke, like the sidestroke while you increase your endurance. If you can only swim 20m, then swim 20m, rest, and swim 20m again. Repeat that process.  You can time your rests and shorten your rests as you get stronger and increase the number of repititions you do each session. After a while, push yourself to do 40m between stops, then 60, etc.\n\nIn my experience, if you can work up to 400m without stopping, you will be past the point where you are struggling in the water.\n\nIt might be a good idea to have someone look at your stroke and tell you what needs correcting. If you are struggling to make 20m. there are probably a lot of things that you can do to make your stroke more efficient. Find out what they are and work on correcting one thing at a time. Find someone who's swimming laps when you are at pool, someone who's stroke looks good, and ask them to look at your stroke. Ask them what the worst thing that you are doing and what they think you should do about it. You'd be suprised how many people would be happy to help you.
421183
It's not too late.  In swimming I had trouble with Butterfly for a long time because my arms are so much weaker than my legs.  There is a special kind of weight lifting you can do that will REALLY help your butterfly (as well as stroke power in general) and it's called a VASA bench. Butterfly was never my stroke and it was killing my IM (im a backstroker...fyi) They work miracles...the season I started doing it (Junior year of high school) I went from a 1:04 to a 57 in my 100 fly.  YOu can probably find a VASA bench at a high school with a swim team, or maybe a fitness center.  you can also buy them too, they cost around 1000 dollars.