Flutter Kick! Adding Leg Action to Streamlining: Steve Wallen Swim School in El Dorado Hills and Roseville
Now that your child has mastered floating, breath control, and streamlining, it’s now time to introduce another essential foundational skill: flutter kick. Your child will love being encouraged to use their powerful little legs; a flutter kick is a fantastic way to burn off their seemingly endless supply of energy.
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When flutter kicking, the body maintains its hydrodynamic and streamlined position while moving the legs along with continuing the principles of maintaining the least amount of resistance and drag. Another bonus of a strong flutter kick is the speed at which your little one can swim! Splashing everyone in and around the pool with their feet is fantastic fun.
Learning to flutter kick is a challenging skill for many children, as it involves keeping the legs relatively straight while kicking. For most sports and activities, a kick means bending the leg at the knee, sometimes requiring a total knee bend. Having your child kick with a minimal amount of knee bend is where their instructor will focus their attention and expertise.
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The Flutter Kick
Another challenging factor is that during flutter kick, the up and down action of the leg is also minimal. Many learners make the error of taking their legs too far up and too far down. The leg action of flutter kick can be compared to a ballet dancer moving across the floor on their toes, with their legs moving minimally but with speed and power. A helpful analogy for children is to kick as though they are trying to kick their socks off their feet. Think slight, fast, and powerful kick, beginning at the hip and moving wave-like right down to the toes.
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This skill is introduced early because it is so essential to develop. It lays the foundation for adding the challenging arm movements for freestyle and backstroke; an effective flutter kick will provide needed continuous propulsion through the water while learning to move their arms correctly.
Your child will require hands-on instruction; coaching their limbs into the correct position is key to their success. Once your little bundle of energy is guided into the proper body shape and then gently pushed into propulsion, they will love flutter kicking. This is another one of those fundamental skills that need to be practiced regularly. Bath time can accommodate flutter kick practice; encourage them to keep their toes pointed down and their legs just under the surface of the bathwater.
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Flutter kicking is taught with expertise and fun; Steve Wallen’s instructors consistently focus on your child’s abilities, age, and learning style. Float aids such as kickboards are one teaching tool that may be used to facilitate your child’s success.
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Just as with the skills previously taught, this is a foundational skill that requires mastery before adding on new elements. For example, a child that can flutter kick well will be introduced to increased distances and speed and then stroke arm actions. At Steve Wallen Swim School in El Dorado Hills and Roseville, we always concentrate on keeping your child safe, engaged, challenged, and having fun as they learn the essential life skill of swimming.
Next up, adding a basic arm action to begin swimming freestyle!
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