How to Dolphin Kick Underwater | Simple Guide

If you've ever done the underwater dolphin kick and thought, why am I going nowhere? This is exactly what you need to do. Most elite swimmers kick dolphin underwater in a matter of a second and I know you can do too. I'm Dasha, a former swimmer and a coach with nearly 20 years of professional swimming experience and in this video I'll teach you how to do the underwater kick step by step. I'll show you how to stop losing your speed off the wall and how to make your dolphin kick a part of your continuous swim. Let's go. Let's start with what is the underwater dolphin kick and why exactly do you need to learn this? So the underwater dolphin kick is the kick used when you push off the wall or you do the dive off the block. Yeah. In general, it's just the dolphin kick that you use when you swim butterfly, but the underwater dolphin kick is a very similar motion, just you're doing this in a streamlined position underwater. And so you're allowed to do only 15 meters of underwater dolphin kick in the races in the pool. So as you dive off the block or as you push up the wall in a turn, you only can do a 15 meter dive dolphin dive underwater. But in general, for example, if you're not a competitive swimmer and you're just training in the pool, it's really good to learn how to do that underwater dive. And the reason being is even if you do a push off the wall or a turn, a touch turn, a flip turn, and you're doing a one to three dolphin kicks underwater, this is going to help you carry that speed that you've developed before the turn, brought it into the turn and off the turn just to be able to carry that speed off and not lose it as you're turning. Yeah. Because if you just do the turn and you push in a streamlined position, you wait, and then you start swimming, you are losing that speed that you've built prior. And so what I want you to do, I want you to really push off the wall and start to initiate the dolphin kick. And today I will teach you how to do that. And by the way, if you want to improve your technique and your performance in swimming, go check in the comments below, I've made 30 different practical ways to help you improve your speed technique and endurance in swimming. Now let's break it down step by step, how exactly you're going to do the underwater dolphin dive. And so you're going to start by pushing off the wall in a streamlined position. Make sure that you love both of your hands, one on the top of the other, you bring them behind your head and you're really nice and stretched in a streamlined position. It doesn't matter if you're diving off the block, if you're doing the turn, or you just push off the wall, you always have to be in that nice streamlined position because it's the fastest way to travel in the water. And so you're going to push off the wall in a streamlined position, and you're going to wait until that speed of the wall is going to fade. If it's really difficult for you to navigate, then you can count to two. So you're going to do one, two, and only then start kicking. The reason I don't want you to start immediately kicking as you push off the wall is because as you push off the wall, or you dive in the water, you're going to have that nice free speed and you don't necessarily have to do anything and you're going to move forward. So again, let it travel, let your body travel through the water, wait two seconds, and only then start to initiate that dolphin dive. The way you're going to do this is you're going to start with your chest, going into your torso, going into your hips, you're going to flex your knees and get that nice extension in your ankle. So technically, it's like you're moving like a dolphin or a fishtail. I want it to be nice and smooth. And so imagine you're initiating again with your chest like a fish, like a dolphin, traveling through your entire body. And so you're not really kicking from your knees, you're not bending your knees too much. You're not bringing your ankles too close to your butt. You're not having a big movement. Instead, I want you to imagine a tube and you're swimming in that tube. You're not going out of there. You're not crossing that line. You're staying nice and efficient with your dolphin kick. And another thing I want you to remember is when you swim butterfly, you have a two-beat kick. When you kick within the kick, you also have two motions. You have an upward kick and a downward kick. And so the downward kick is the strongest kick. That's actually the kick from where you get that propulsion. And so the upward kick is more there for balance and it actually brings your legs up to prepare you for the next downward kick. And what I tend to see that many swimmers forget about that kick. And so they just press the water down and that gives them propulsion, but they forget to bring them quickly up. And so what I want you to do as you push up the wall and practice this dolphin kick, I want you to not forget that upward kick. You have to bring your legs up quickly in order to have that continuous movement. Because if you don't do that, how are you going to have the next downward fast kick? So in order to have the fast kick, you have to first bring them up. So remember that. And if you don't know how your kick, how your stroke looks like in the water, you can go check in the description below. I have video stroke analysis, really, really practical thing, because it's based on your stroke. I'm analyzing your stroke and giving you personalized feedback. Go check it out. Now, some of the cues to help you understand how that dolphin dive works is, my first cue is you're going to always bring your ass, bring your back up. And the way you're going to do this every time you want to do the dolphin dive, think about, okay, I have to bring my hips up. I have to bring my hips up. And that motion actually helps you form that wave. Because sometimes it's really difficult, and you're starting to only bend your knees, or you start to initiate that wave with your chest, but then you forget your ankles. And so bringing the midpoint, which is your butt, which is your hips up, is going to always help you have that nice balance in the water. And so I tend to see that it really helps my students to form and practice the dolphin wave, the dolphin dive. So go practice that as well. And another cue that I tend to see really helps all my swimmers is the towel cue. And so imagine this towel. And so you have a towel. Look how it moves. I start to initiate the movement up to down, up to down. And so this is your chest, and this is your torso. And these are your ankles. And you see, if I initiate the movement with my torso and with my chest, actually ankles, which is the bottom of the towel, don't necessarily have to do anything. They're going to follow the top of your body. And so if you start to initiate that movement with your torso, with your chest, your ankles, your feet are going to follow, just like this towel. And so every time you swim dolphin, I want you to remember this motion. It's really, really helpful. So really, really practice that by remembering this cue, by remembering bringing your hips and your butt up. And so if you're a complete beginner and you're like, what are you talking about, Dasha? I don't understand anything and I need help. Go check six-week beginner swim program that I have down in the description below. Literally takes you from zero absolute, zero beginner swimmer to swimming 500 meters or more in six weeks. Really, really practical program. Going to have drills. It's going to have progression. It's going to have dry land exercises. Everything you really need to progress in swimming. Go check it out. Now let's talk about how do you actually stay underwater and get the most out of it instead of actually floating up on the top of the water or going too deep to the bottom. How do you keep that nice level in the water? So firstly, if you feel like you're going, like you're floating, you're starting to go up too early, that probably means there is too much air in your lungs and you have to be exhaling with every dolphin kick. So yes, you have to hold your breath on the turn, but then as you start the dolphin kick, you can start to exhale little by little, blowing those small bubbles. Another thing you might be floating on the top of the water is because your head and your chest goes too high. Make sure that you're in a streamlined position. Make sure that your kick starts from your chest, but your head is actually stable. It's not really moving and you're really locked in a nice streamlined position. If you feel like off the turn or as you dive, your body goes down immediately, probably the reason being is the level how you dive in or the angle how you turn. Yeah, most likely if you go too deep and you are, instead of being in a 90 degree position off the turn, if you go too down, you're going to fall or you're going to start kicking down. So that can be reason number one. And reason number two, most likely you have a really big dolphin kick, meaning instead of keeping that in the tube, nice and compact, you're going up and down with your legs and with your body. And you're having that huge excessive dolphin kick. And that is also the reason why you're going to the bottom instead of staying in that nice mid-level. So again, as you do the dolphin dive, what you want to be thinking about is being in a streamlined position, blowing out bubbles a little bit as you push up the wall or as you dive in. And you want to make sure that actually you do have the wave, but your upper body is quite stable and you're not making those huge excessive dolphin kicks. Another mistake that I tend to see many swimmers make is instead of pointing your toes, you're going to flex them and you're going to have them like moving up and down. And that is not helping you. Instead, it creates a lot of drag. You don't want to have that. And so instead, I want you to point your toes back. Imagine you're a ballerina, have it still nice and easy, like kind of very flexible, but pointed. Yeah. Don't flex your toes. This is very important. Now let's talk about the drills. I want you to practice dolphin kick in general, on the top of the water, in the different angles and positions and also off the turn or off the dive. And the first thing we're going to do, we're going to practice the regular dolphin kick. You're going to put on the fins. You're going to have the kickboard or kick in the streamlined position. And you're just going to move your body in the dolphin way. Yeah. You're going to kick, do the dolphin kick. Another way to do the dolphin kick is to do it on your side. And so you're going to have one arm extended and you're going to breathe to the side, also doing that dolphin kick. In this drill, make sure that you're not going too wide. The amplitude of your kick is quite narrow, that you're having an efficient kick and the wave traveling through your entire body. And another drill is the dolphin kick, but on your back. And so again, you're going to be stretched in a streamlined position, push off the and do that great dolphin kick with fins, but on your back. And so you can do these drills separately, or you can also combine them in a kick around the world. And so you can do 50 meters doing the dolphin kick on your stomach, then 50 meters on your left, 50 meters on your back and 50 meters on your right. And so it's your, it's like around the world kicking drill. And so I have a power set specifically to practice the dolphin dive. And the way you're going to do this is you're going to have 10-25s doing the dolphin kick in fins. And every time you are pushing off the wall, I want you to have at least three dolphin kicks underwater until you get back on the surface of the water and start actually kicking. And so you're going to do 10 times like this, all the times with great dolphin dive underwater. Then you're going to take off the fins and you're going to do six turns, whether it's a touch turn or a flip turn, you're going to go to the wall, you're going to turn, push up the wall and do three to five dolphin kicks underwater until you actually get back to the surface of the water and start swimming. And so you're going to do six times like this. Really great power set. It's going to help you practice your dolphin dive off the turn, off the wall. That's it for today. YouTube is going to recommend you another video right here. Go watch this, go practice your dolphin dive. And I see you in the next one.