Now we're going to move into the dolphin kick. The dolphin kick is used in every single
one of the strokes when you get into competitive swimming
It's obviously used in the butterfly
but
it is also used in the freestyle, it's also used in backstroke and
very briefly in breaststroke
so it's important to have the dolphin kick under control and know what you're
doing with it. First things first, when you're dealing with the dolphin kick as
far as butterfly you have to make sure that your legs stay together
This is one of the things that the officials really watch out for is to see while
the swimmers doing a dolphin kick if they have any kind of vertical separation
that occurs. That's actually very bad because they consider that an advantage and they
consider it a flutter kick
so make sure in butterfly
that the kick stays together. They don't have to be touching
but they do need to be close
and kicking simultaneously at the same pace
the dolphin kick actually starts a little bit higher up on the body
then what some swimmers try to start it. They know
that it has a big hip action, that the hips go up and down
so they actually try to start it at the hips
but this swimmer wants to actually focus on starting it higher up on their body
At the bottom of the rib cage, top of the stomach muscles
in that placement on the spine is actually the proper place to start the
motion of the dolphin kick
You'll develop a much stronger rhythm
and you'll have much greater success with it
The dolphin kick is all about the whip of the feet at the end. Make sure
that you have that downward whip of
the feet at the end
that's what it's all about
You want to have a nice rhythm
with the dolphin kick. Once it starts
it feeds itself and it goes. Just like the old break dancers who would do the worm across the floor
The dolphin kick feeds itself. So make sure that you have a
strong rhythm and a continuous rhythm
and there's no breaks in the action
Make sure you have a strong hip action. This is something that with
some swimmers it's going to come very natural.
At an early age they're going to be able to have a nice hip action
that feeds a nice wavelike motion in their kick. But you're also going to
have some swimmers
that have tight hips they're not very loose through the mid-section and
they're really going to have a hard time developing a rhythm
and their kick is going to be very jerky. Because they're basically
just raising their hips up
bringing their hips down and there's not going to be a smooth wavelike
motion it's going to be very choppy
Don't get too frustrated if you have a swimmer
who it's not very natural to because that's actually common
it will loosen up. If they work on the skill
they'll become better at the skill and they'll train their body and their muscles to
actually move in a certain way
if you're going to use it you need to use it at one hundred percent
don't 'baby' the dolphin kick. It's very powerful but make sure if you're going to use it
it's got to be one hundred percent
it's also very exhausting to do the dolphin kick
so be aware of the exhaustion factor that might occur
You can use it
it's very powerful but it will wear you out very quickly
because of the exertion on the core. So it's good practice to practice the
dolphin kick regularly so you can build up that stamina in order to hold onto
the dolphin kick a little bit longer