Breast stroke Kick/Fins ?

[MadHighroller]

Hi all,

I have decided to tackle my awful scissor kick on my Breast stroke. I know what I am supposed to be doing, but it feels so unnatural.

I have be practising and watching whilst inverted, and it looks ok. Turn over and it doesnt work....

I find it hurts my knees to kick a football with the correct inside part of my foot. Also i have been trying to press my feet outwards whilst sitting at my desk and my knees are hurting.

Has anyone tried Breast stroke fins ? Cant seem to find them in the UK ?
Has anyone tried them ? Do they work ?

Any advice please ?

[noeyedear]

These are supposed to be good but I don't have any first hand experience :-

http://www.fit4swimming.com/Zoggs-4-...-p/f4s0212.htm

[city4nil]

Originally Posted by MadHighroller

Hi all,

I have decided to tackle my awful scissor kick on my Breast stroke. I know what I am supposed to be doing, but it feels so unnatural.

I have be practising and watching whilst inverted, and it looks ok. Turn over and it doesnt work....

I find it hurts my knees to kick a football with the correct inside part of my foot. Also i have been trying to press my feet outwards whilst sitting at my desk and my knees are hurting.

Has anyone tried Breast stroke fins ? Cant seem to find them in the UK ?
Has anyone tried them ? Do they work ?

Any advice please ?

If you are getting pain that's the bodies warning system, it could be a simple issue of a strain or similar but I would not keep doing something that leads to pain as it could also be an under lying issue for which a referal to a physio would be an easy first point of call.

In general I find that screw kicks fall into a number of catagories and that a combination of inversion ( which you have been doing ) and excercises targetted at increasing the fine motor control skills of the 'bad' leg generally fix the issue. I find in general that if you kick a ball with your right foot then it is your left that you have much less control off, so the most obvious excercise would be to play keepi upi with your left to a point where you may be able to accept a pass and return it with either foot, even though the right may still be your preference. Hope that helps.

[400IMer]

Quite often (though not always) the screw/scissor kick is caused by non level hips or shoulders in the stroke. If you had someone to look at your stroke - this may help. Slow swimming with a woggle under you arms or hips can help without placing excess stress on the knees.

[MadHighroller]

Read somewhere about trying vertical. So spent alot of time in the deep end doing vertical kicks, definitely improving already.