Unlocking Swim Rhythm: The Two-Beat Kick

Unlocking Swim Rhythm: The Two-Beat Kick

Kicking. The great mystery.

• Do you have a rhythm to your kick?
• Do you know what your legs do and how often?
• Is it the same leg kick throughout your swim?
• Do you kick at a certain point in your arm cycle?
• Or do you kick ‘every now and again’?
• Is your kick rhythm and timing all a bit random?

Swim Squad Focus

In the open water swim squads this week, we’ve been working a little on our kick. Trying to focus on what our legs actually do.

We’ve been trying out a two beat leg kick.

Many swimmers kick their legs too frequently for a long open water swim, raising their heart rate unnecessarily. Others, don’t kick at all, but drag their legs behind them.

We tried this two beat leg kick to reduce the intensity of the swim, without dropping the speed, and to introduce some rhythm and timing to the stroke.

Kick Timing

We were trying to time the kick with the stroke. When the left hand begins the catch, the left leg kicks. And then when the right hand begins the catch, the right leg kicks.

This two beat kick can help with stroke timing, body rotation and overall stroke rhythm.

It does feel awkward to start with and will take a bit of practice, but useful to be able to do on a long distance swim.

If nothing else, we all thought about what our legs actually do back there!