The Fastest Swim Technique - Dolphin Kick

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We are so proud of Race Club swimmer Maggie MacNeil who won the 100 meter butterfly Olympic Gold in Tokyo. Maggie has been coming to the Race Club since she was a 13 year old age group swimmer from Ontario, Canada. Through the years we have not been surprised with Maggie's rise to the top from swimming at the University of Michigan to World and Olympic Champ! One thing that Maggie has always excelled at is her dolphin kick.
She recently came to the Race Club in San Diego to work with coach Gary. Using our technology we tested Maggie's strokes, starts and dolphin kick. Once Coach Gary analyzed the results he sat down with Maggie and her coach Rick Bishop at University of Louisiana to go over the results and possible ways to improve.
Maggie MacNeil is the fastest dolphin kicker that we have ever tested at The Race Club. She is the best in 11 of 17 metrics we use to test the dolphin kick technique. Coach Gary highlights 5 key swim techniques that makes her kick so extraordinary and fast. Kick cycle time, knee bend, range of ankle motion, hand movement and hip flexion are the key metrics that coach Gary discusses in this video.
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[@rocketdude698]

That dolphin kick tempo is insane. Now I understand how olympic-level swimmers have such incredible underwaters.

[@theraceclub]

Exactly! The tempo alone is a challenge but the amount of propulsion she still gets at that tempo is what makes her world-class.

[@truefitness118]

What's tempo(fr)

[@coltonbeatty7668]

I just started swimming around 2 months or so ago and I’m already as fast as some of the fast swimmers in my area due to training dolphin kick for speed and kick board for feel and power and the rest came naturally

[@exit3073]

Holy crap, I've been swimming a long time, this young lady is actually a dolphin. That is as fluid a kick you will ever find

[@theraceclub]

Thanks for watching - there's a reason she's a world record holder 👍

[@robohippy]

This fits in with my 'theories' on the dolphin kick. Had an old school swimmer tell me that I was moving my upper body too much. The kick is a 'crack the whip' action/body wave. Used to play crack the whip on ice skates. The longer the whip, the faster the poor kid on the end went, so using the entire body makes sense. If I want speed, small amplitude and faster cadence. If I want minimum kicks per length of the pool, then high amplitude and slow cadence. I would have liked to see how her upside down dolphin kick compared to the right side up one. Oh, you need a spring steel body to get max results/power. Too loose or too rigid and you lose energy transfer along the path.

[@theraceclub]

Thanks for your thoughts, robohippy! Small, tight & fast is the answer if you're going for speed! We always say "bend don't break" but I love the steel spring analogy! And that's exactly why we want to initiate the kick from high in the body - gives us the best chance as having a high velocity at our feet (and therefore a higher propulsion). As always, it's about finding the balance of minimum drag vs maximum propulsion that works best for you!

[@Outdoors-HH]

This is the best dolphin kick video I have watched! It also helped me get a better kick. Thanks for the video!🐬🐬🐬

[@theraceclub]

Glad it helped!

[@JorgeRzezak]

Amazing video and very educational. The best dolphin kick video I've ever seen.

[@theraceclub]

Thank you!!

[@RobertGuilman]

That's a hell of a dolphin kick, she move like an actual dolphin. Now I'm curious to see a side by side comparison between her dolphin kick and actual dolphin 🐬 lmao

[@silversurfer8237]

Thank you for this great video. It helps people of all ages to better understand how to swim the Butterfly stroke. Butterfly is the stroke you cannot swim with bad technique.

[@theraceclub]

You are so right! You are most welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@Slowhand871]

True but you use this kick on free and backstroke off t wall. For up to 15 meters.

[@rofgabor]

beautifully filmed! and very educational, as always!

[@theraceclub]

Thanks for watching!

[@ClaireRoss-lt2lr]

Awesome video love this. Thank you Raceclub. I'm an Australian coach and this will be great help for my swimmers.

[@theraceclub]

Thanks for tuning in, glad we can be some help!

[@CoachConnorUSA]

Well shit I’ll have you know I’m an American coach and this will be great for my swimmers. GL out there everyone. Great vid

[@Aaron-zk6jn]

Once again goes to show that there are multiple methods to achieve similar results. Dressel is somewhere around a huge 90+ degrees but in a similar way to Maggie, does not let it go outside his “slip stream”

[@theraceclub]

And for him, taking that extra drag might be worth it due to how much extra propulsion he gets from going slightly "bigger".

[@jonigudel6912]

she is truly a water creature 👍👍👍

[@theraceclub]

that she is!

[@missbeans]

As a kid in the 80s, Disney's Little Mermaid had just come out, and all my friends and I spent all summer at a friend's pool trying to swim like Ariel! This lady has mastered the mermaid swim! It's also amazing to me, as someone who hasn't been in the swimming world since the early 2000s, how much we are able to learn through underwater video. Back when I was swimming laps for fitness, I remember ordering books on swimming technique from early-days Amazon. If I was lucky, there would be a diagram or illustration. Most of the time, I was trying to envision what the text was describing, and then trying to remember that during my next swim to try to integrate it into my technique. I can learn so much more from a few minutes of video than I could from hours of reading. It's really amazing to me how far swimming has come!

[@theraceclub]

Yes! Video teaches us way better than a drawing. there are many subtleties to Maggie's kick that even coaches would not pick up on.

[@mariatarazona7995]

Brilliant! It seems to me that having a body with increased but not exaggerated muscle mass helps him develop strength in his core and extremities and with his dedication to maintaining the right and correct technique to move as necessary and at the same time as quickly. It seems that he does not move his upper body at all. she makes it look so easy

[@lordemed1]

He's a she 😉

[@mariatarazona7995]

@@lordemed1 language translation 🙃

[@lordemed1]

@@mariatarazona7995 😁

[@theraceclub]

Maggie shows very little wasted motion and takes more advantage of inertia by holding on to her speed.

[@mariatarazona7995]

@@theraceclub ✨

[@parulshah8197]

Awesome video love this Thank you so much Race Club 🙏 I am a Indian coach & this video. Very helpful my Swimming And every day Practice Thank you so much 💗🙏 Sir 🙏

[@theraceclub]

You are welcome!

[@parulshah8197]

@@theraceclub Thank you so much sir 💯👍🙏

[@indramani8888]

sir could you please cover ryan lochte's underwater kick?

[@theraceclub]

Ryan was one of the best ever. He kicked a 22.7 50 meter fly kick on his back (no fins) when he was in his prime.

[@MariaJose-oh5yh]

Truly amazing!

[@theraceclub]

Agreed!

[@wolfmanjock]

Oh to have such a core!!

[@theraceclub]

The core of an Olympic Champ!

[@ucfnathan]

Very cool! thanks!

[@theraceclub]

thanks for watching!

[@mohammadsiyahvoshi1099]

Sehr gut

[@theraceclub]

Appreciate it!

[@jonigudel6912]

Big thanks from bali, indonesia 🙏🏼😊🙏🏼

[@theraceclub]

Thanks for watching!

[@bezetuba]

amazing, looks like a dolphin or some animal born in water

[@theraceclub]

Spend as much time in the water as she has and maybe you will too haha!

[@luammerces2461]

That's what I immediately thought after seeing her dolphin kicks 😳

[@theraceclub]

@@luammerces2461 pretty amazing, right?

[@brianmcd9492]

If you had to Fly kick through a narrow tunnel this would have to be the technique.Great Video analysis🙂👍

[@theraceclub]

Great analogy for teaching the tight kick! Thanks for watching!

[@mizeri5008]

how about someone like caeleb dressel? is there some kind of explanation to his underwater kicks or is he just an exception? the way i see his underwater kicks is that he continuously rises every kick

[@theraceclub]

Rise in terms of depth in the water?

[@mizeri5008]

@@theraceclub yes thats what i think so

[@theraceclub]

@@mizeri5008 Caeleb would probably be through the roof in a lot of our metrics. I don't know if he's an exception... but he likely does a lot of small things better than his competitors. That constant rise you see during his underwaters is likely a result of his uber-powerful downkick; it probably helps him take a smarter line to the surface after a few kicks in deep/clean water.

[@saiwolaw2842]

He may need to rise more per dolphin kick simply because he’s taking fewer kicks than others.

[@gioswimmer]

Thanks for the interesting videos analysis. Is her speed faster when she is dolphin kicking on her side compared to regular dolphin kick?

[@theraceclub]

slightly faster on her side and even faster on her back...Has to do with gravity and the vortices.

[@ceedbourne6638]

Heu sir thanks for the information you give it us us lover of swimmer you help me a lot with my progression ❤, for me the angle is higher I think because morphology because I see legs longueur that's mean longer distance 😊😊

[@theraceclub]

Yes, the length of the legs and body are also a factor in determining the ideal stroke rate.

[@rbl4641]

Shes incredible

[@theraceclub]

What it takes to win Olympic Gold medal!

[@AmitSingh-tl3ge]

0:26

[@LearnToCompound]

How do I work on my up kick? I have a stronger back kick, and more limited ankle mobility, everything feels a bit stiff.

[@theraceclub]

Start with ankle flexibility stretches....2 and 20 on Instagram post

[@danielcser8144]

Sorry, where can i find the post? Thank you.

[@lordemed1]

Joseph Schooling is 5' 11". Mark Phelps is 6'4". Both won olympic gold in butterfly. Their mechanics are very different. Just sayin'. 😉

[@theraceclub]

That's why we love late breath butterfly! Schooling might be the best example we've seen to date.

[@sickoid87]

Mark Phelps and Michael Spitz

[@반금이동희]

Technic,dolpin kick,helpful human.

[@theraceclub]

Thanks for watching!

[@반금이동희]

@@theraceclub wow, i am luckey because of your answer. You are so talenty,pretty skin. Yes Nice

[@maxmeier532]

I dont think when it's said the knee bend is 50° it really is. It looks much more.

[@theraceclub]

We measure with a protractor to be somewhere between 50-55 degrees

[@jaromino]

i wish i could do this

[@theraceclub]

Me too! Gary

[@pepingrillin3995]

Those girl’s feet look like fins 😮. How can she bend them like that?!! Amazing

[@theraceclub]

She worked on ankle plantar flexion every day growing up (and did a lot of fast kicking)!

[@Slowhand871]

Now we need to see drills/ strength training to get on this path.

[@theraceclub]

we have many on Lane 3 of our video subscription. www.theraceclub.com

[@idamwid3343]

👍

[@theraceclub]

😁

[@James-hs3tu]

First and only swimmer that is a household name and the only name i know is Michael Phelps 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🏊🏊🏊🏊🏊🏊🏊

[@theraceclub]

Michael Phelps is certainly in the mix of fastest underwater kickers of all time 👍👍

[@James-hs3tu]

M.P. in THE MIX??? DON'T understand that??😐😐🤔🤔🤨🤨🤨😕😕😕🤷🤷🤷🤷🤦🤦🤦🤦🏊🏊🏊🏊🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥈🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇

[@kabes1776]

Maggie 🫡

[@theraceclub]

😁

[@Blairo.1]

I believe that I am more faster then her using my arms at side body. I can prove

[@theraceclub]

When hands are at your sides, there is more drag than in the streamline position.

[@hoegge]

All the angles used for illustration are not correct. The first comparison saying 50 and 78 degrees are more like 60 vs. 65 degrees, and the hip angles are 35 degrees for both swimmers. So cannot be the main explanation, or maybe the shown examples are not really representing the difference well?

[@theraceclub]

There is definitely a small margin of error in using our transparent protractor placed directly over the knee and hip joints. We don't know how you are measuring, but believe our measurements are accurate.

[@vondenballs]

Absolutely beautiful.

[@theraceclub]

Right?

[@jdkim6829]

where’s the credit to her? whats her full name?

[@theraceclub]

Olympic champion, World Champion, Commonwealth Games Champion 100 m butterfly, WR holder 50 M SC backstroke!

[@kathrynnewberry6823]

It's Maggie MacNeil. Canadian Butterfly swimmer.