Freestyle: Underwater Dolphin vs Freestyle Kick

[Bill]

I have a great many age group/ high school swimmers who are much fast using a freestyle kick vs a dolphin kick off the wall. Most can do good Dolphin kicks, but are faster when trying freestyle. Is this something you have tested?

Discussion

[Gary]

Bill,

That doesn’t surprise me. Most Masters swimmers are better off doing free kicks than dolphin kicks off the wall. They are all over bending their knees on the dolphin kick resulting in a huge deceleration.

Keep working on their dolphin kicks. They need them. When they do use them off walls, make sure the kicks are tight, strong in both directions, fast tempo and initiate the first up kick immediately off the walls.

In the meantime, until they learn those things, keep having them do free kick off the wall. BTW. Gary Jr did free kicks off the walls and start in 1996 and won a few Olympic medals doing it that way.

[Gary]

We put together a nice video on free kick vs dolphin kick with a Master Swimmer in Lane 3 membership. It is worth watching. https://theraceclub.com/video/masters-swimming-finding-a-faster-flip-turn/

Masters Swimming – Finding A Faster Flip Turn