Front-crawl kick beat: what it means

The kick beat is each individual kick within your stroke cycle, which is one stroke with each arm, i.e. one right arm and one left arm. Typical rhythms of stroke tend to be two-beat, four-beat, six-beat and, in extreme cases, eight-beat.

As a general rule, the shorter the distance and the harder the effort the more kicks you’re likely to do to every stroke.

• How much should you kick in front crawl?
• How to improve your swim kick efficiency and save more energy for the bike and run
• Do leg-kick swim drills matter to triathletes?

Traditionally, tri coaches will recommend to kick less in the swim (a two- or a four-beat kick) to conserve energy. But studies have shown that kicking doesn’t actually use more energy to swim at the same speed or quicker, though this does rely on an efficient kick and good body position.

So this means keeping an extended, straightish spine and neutral head and neck position to keep the hips as high in the water as possible, paired with a kick from the hips and your legs staying reasonably straight.

Play around with how much your legs kick within your stroke. Everyone will have their own natural rhythm, just make sure whatever kick you do is purposeful.

John Wood Swim coach

About

Swimming coach John has competed at national and international levels. He's also a successful age-group triathlete, and has represented GB at four European Age Group Championships. He's raced all distances, from super-sprint to Ironman, and now offers swim, run and tri coaching through his company www.tri-coaching.co.uk.