Katie Ledecky's Two Beat Freestyle Kick!

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[@speedo1105]

when i see swimmers struggling with kicking and timing i encourage them to try the 2 beat kick. it's like learning to walk, you start with crawling and that image usually helps them......left arm catch, right leg kick and right arm catch, left leg kick. and it helps also to slow them down and maintain streamlining.

[@rantsfromthesofa4653]

I do the 2 beat kick and have a dominant side and thought I was doing something wrong and tried to fix it without success. This helped me understand why.

[@polyzheng6255]

The focus is on mastering the coordination skills of support points and moving arms. The two beats kick are just a natural rhythm and auxiliary.

[@robohippy]

Well, out of all the videos I have watched about Katie, I have never heard some one saying that there is a dominant kick and a passive kick. She does use different kick patterns in the 1500 than she does in the 400. In the 1500, she may do 1 kick, or pretty much no kicks for the first part of the race. She does break into a 2 beat kick pattern once she gets into the race. Considering that I say the body rotation and kick anchor on the pulling arm and not the recover arm, then there will be minimal to no difference in the power of the kicks. With your opinion that the rotation comes from the lower body and cross body rather than on the pulling arm, this might make some sense. The question from me is how do you measure that to prove it?

[@lashondascruggs8809]

Hi, how do you implement a 2 beat kick if you breathe every 3 strokes?

[@polyzheng6255]

It's not difficult. I've always swam like this

[@jc10747]

Wow!

[@lgdneuro9586]

The problem is not doing a 2bk is having the Stroke rate to make it worthwhile no point using a 2bk if you dont have a high stroke rate. I Started using 2bk while being able to hold a 55 stroke rate. I started seeing the benefits after reaching 65 stroke per minute before that I was just a Dead Point swimmer.

[@joejoe-lb6bw]

Looks to me like a scissor kick. As an experiment, I tried doing a very shallow scissor kick and it does give more propulsion at the cost of more effort. But, since I’ve only been swimming for four months, what do I know🤔

[@mimi_micha8815]

I actually need the cue to be the other way around: kick comes on the same side where the arm pulls. Strait arm opposite kick my brain cannot process 😅😅

[@naqibullah4830]

Yes. She misterpreted. You can see in the normal play same side pull and kick right vs right and left vs left

[@jc10747]

Wow, excellent video clip! And great analysis of the coordination….first time I’ve heard any y tube swim coach clearly identify in videos the opposite-opposite end points for coordination. Usually it’s hinted at or mixed in with other points. Check the wonderful hip extension of VL! Her quads, at rest, are directly in line with her hips and torso…absolutely zero drag. And then she lifts her upper leg up towards the surface…even though that doesn’t look like much distance, it’s even greater hip extension than normal. I bet she is easily capable of doing splits in any direction. Then with the upper leg elevated, which is still within the body envelope, her lower leg is set for the whipping action of the lower leg kick…still without creating any drag with her quads!….excellent kick right down the chain from controlled bent knee to elevated lower leg to excellent ankle extension! You’re right…the left leg kick is more powerful than the right, but there seems to be a bit of a fake or subtle movement of the right knee is some shots. Perhaps it’s a coordination move to help with the 2 beat kick but then sets her up for a change to 6 beat for the final 200 or the one beat for a longer race. Other videos show top end swimmers with 4 beat kick, with same opposite-opposite coordination, but with an added same leg kick to same arm catch (catch = under the chin in this definition). But this video makes it more certain that 2 beat is the way to start, along with much more hip flexibility and control work!

[@robohippy]

I would still like an explanation of why you think there is a dominant kick and a more passive kick. For sure, in her longer races, she does have a 1 kick beat rather than the 2 beat kick, and maybe that is why you think this. Raul over at Swim Skills did a video about her no kick swimming. I have watched a couple hundred of videos on swimming freestyle, and not a single one has made the comment about a dominant and passive kick. This includes gold medal Olympians and their coaches, elite triathlon coaches and many others. I know you don't believe in the body rotation coming from the upper body. I am sure you have done the catch up drill where there is no recover arm. Did you never notice that when swimming catch up that you have no problems rotating? The down kick anchors on the pulling arm on the same side. If you ever watch the roll over that you do when you are swimming back stroke, the rotation is from the head down, not from the feet up.