4.2. How Fast should You Kick when Doing Front Crawl? Is it Even Effective?

If you’ve always been gasping for breath after just a few meters while teaching yourself front crawl, even though you know your inhalation and exhalation are fine, pay attention now.

Your legs are huge muscles that consume an incredible amount of oxygen. Most people learning to swim kick their legs at a frantic pace and soon feel completely exhausted. And how much did those legs actually help you swim that distance?

Honestly, I think hardly at all. Legs provide disproportionately little propulsion compared to how much oxygen they consume.

Try swimming a few meters of front crawl with a pull buoy between your thighs, don’t kick, and notice if breathing becomes easier. A new balance problem will emerge, which we’ll learn about later, but the breathing problem might disappear.

What I’m trying to say is – if you think you have good body position and enough space and time to breathe comfortably, but you’re still exhausted after a few meters, I’d venture to say that kicking too fast is the culprit.

I’ve almost never encountered a swimmer who kicks too little; on the contrary, almost everyone kicks too fast. Try to almost stop your legs during front crawl, just kick enough to prevent them from sinking.

In the lesson about 2-, 4-, and 6-beat kicks, we’ll show how it should properly look.