How to prevent freestyle kick going off to the side?

[MAX]

In a recent IM race, my dad captured on video from above my right foot on the freestyle kick (my breathing side) kicking going out to the side…..you can see a flume of bubbles go off to the side. I must be losing forward propulsion on that foot.

How can I prevent this by keeping my hips flat and steady on the breath? Thanks.

Discussion

[Gary]

Would love to see a video of that, but remember that the hips and shoulders should be rotating a lot, so 2/3 down kicks per cycle will be directed more to the side than down. Swimmers’ kick propulsion is generated by kicking through the body and feet vortices, so it doesn’t matter which direction they are going. Remember that a fish’s tail moves side to side, not up and down.