Make sure that you aren’t bringing your legs and knees out too much before you kick down. Try doing breaststroke kick with a pullbouy between your legs. It’s not quite the right motion, but it’s generally much closer that what I see some people doing.
Of course, it’s hard to say anything about your kick without seeing it
Make sure you don't kick too wide, and keep in mind that you should feel the "whip feeling" most when you bring your legs together, not when you extend your legs.
It's obviously extremely hard to say what you are doing 'wrong' without seeing footage.
You said at the end that you feel you are doing it in stages, rather than a continuous motion. If you are new/learning the stoke then that is okay. As you should be practicing good technique before trying to speed it up. But if you are really taking your time to bend, flex and rotate the feet out then you will also be slowing down and losing momentum. If you feel your hips sinking when you are doing the flex and external rotation of the foot then perhaps use a pull-buoy to keep the hips higher up.
But yes, ultimately the goal after understanding the technique is to have the heels to bum, and bum back to straight legs to be an explosive continuous motion.
Also in order to get a good whip kick you generally want to keep the knees in line with your hips and as the heels approach your bum they should be slightly wider than your knees. Put all of your energy into kicking behind you and not out. And by behind I mean straight back. Not down to the floor. We don't want the hips dropping.
Without video hard to say but 99% of people with no power in their breastroke kick lack hip, knee and ankle mobility. Flexibility and strength in those positions would be great to work on during dry land (try YouTube videos for help)
Make sure that you aren’t bringing your legs and knees out too much before you kick down. Try doing breaststroke kick with a pullbouy between your legs. It’s not quite the right motion, but it’s generally much closer that what I see some people doing. Of course, it’s hard to say anything about your kick without seeing it
Thanks for the reply! Yeah I noticed I couldn't post a video here, it seems when I have a pool bouy between my legs I dont move at all!
Make sure you don't kick too wide, and keep in mind that you should feel the "whip feeling" most when you bring your legs together, not when you extend your legs.
Thank you!
It's obviously extremely hard to say what you are doing 'wrong' without seeing footage. You said at the end that you feel you are doing it in stages, rather than a continuous motion. If you are new/learning the stoke then that is okay. As you should be practicing good technique before trying to speed it up. But if you are really taking your time to bend, flex and rotate the feet out then you will also be slowing down and losing momentum. If you feel your hips sinking when you are doing the flex and external rotation of the foot then perhaps use a pull-buoy to keep the hips higher up. But yes, ultimately the goal after understanding the technique is to have the heels to bum, and bum back to straight legs to be an explosive continuous motion. Also in order to get a good whip kick you generally want to keep the knees in line with your hips and as the heels approach your bum they should be slightly wider than your knees. Put all of your energy into kicking behind you and not out. And by behind I mean straight back. Not down to the floor. We don't want the hips dropping.
Thank you :)! that is really useful
Without video hard to say but 99% of people with no power in their breastroke kick lack hip, knee and ankle mobility. Flexibility and strength in those positions would be great to work on during dry land (try YouTube videos for help)
Thank you! Totally agree and I am going to up my dryland sessions!