Many triathletes find it confusing when they try to decide how often they should kick in their swim. Unfortunately, there is no “one right answer” – one person might find something works, and another finds something completely different.
Many swimmers and coaches talk about “a three-beat kick” or beak kicks of some kind. This might work well for some swimmers, but not everyone. Here’s why:
1. Your priority when developing your freestyle swim is NOT how many kicks per stroke you are doing. You have many more important aspects on which to focus. Not to say that kicking isn’t important, but it’s nowhere near being the most important thing to worry about. Prioritize.
2. It’s much more important to find a comfortable kick than to conform to an expectation of a coach or yourself. It’s much more important that your kick helps with balance and hip rotation – it’s less about propulsion than some might think. Kicking powerfully is more important in a sprint than it is in triathlon or distance swims.
3. To determine how many kicks per stroke is most comfortable for you, start out with a six-kicks per stroke drill. Do a 50m of kicking six times each stroke. Repeat and decrease it to five strokes per kick, and every 40, reduce the kicks by one. You’ll find out which one feels most comfortable.
Don’t get obsessed with your kick count. This really isn’t a priority in your swimming technique – balance and efficiency is much more important, and you should delay worrying about your kick until after you have those technical aspects figured out.