Various Uses of a Kickboard for Swimming Drills

A kickboard is a very useful rectangular swimming accessory made of EVA foam that can come in handy if you want to improve your swimming technique or learn a new swimming stroke. Kickboards are often overlooked and discarded by swimmers that are unaware of their numerous benefits and uses. The kickboard has many more uses than people tend to think, and we outline and explain some of the various ways that a kickboard can be helpful for both new and experienced swimmers.

Learning the Body Undulation in Butterfly

Kickboards can get beginner swimmers started when it comes to learning the body undulation that is used when performing the butterfly stroke.

Forthis exercise, you will need some swim fins as well. Once the finsare on your feet, get your kickboard, hold it in front of you by oneof the narrow edges and get into a prone position in the water. Tryto push your hips down into the water, then release them. As you arereleasing your hips, push your feet down. Then as your hips aremoving down again, your feet should move upwards. Repeat the exercisein intervals.

This body undulation is one of the basics exercises that all new and inexperienced swimmers should practice in order to learn and perfect their butterfly stroke.

Learning the Breaststroke Kick

One of the best uses of a kickboard is to isolate the leg movements while the swimmer is learning to swim breaststroke.

In order to do this, grab one of the narrow ends with your hands, and make sure to be holding the board with the other narrow end facing away from you. Once you are holding the kickboard correctly, push yourself off the pool ground, get into a horizontal position, and start doing the leg movements necessary for performing the breaststroke. Do this exercise in short intervals with breaks in between to catch your breath and avoid cramps. In this scenario, the kickboard is used to provide enough buoyancy to the upper body, which allows you to be free to concentrate on the breaststroke kick, therefore improving it.

Learning and Improving the Font Crawl and Backstroke Arm Movements

Another use of kickboards is to isolate the arm movements when learning and working on your front crawl and backstroke.

Inorder to do this exercise, squeeze the kickboard between your thighs;you should feel that your legs are entirely supported. The supportprovided by the kickboard will allow you to be completely free toconcentrate on your arm movements while trying to swim and learningnew swimming movements.

Using a kickboard to support the legs can be especially useful for the new, inexperienced swimmers, primarily if a pull buoy doesn’t provide enough buoyancy.

Learning and Practicing the Flutter Kick

Like previously mentioned, kickboard is a versatile tool with many uses, and it can be used to learn the flutter kick in the front crawl. To do that, hold the kickboard in front of you to have the free narrow end pointed away from you. Then, get into a streamlined horizontal position and start performing the flutter kick in short repeats. The kickboard will take your upper body weight, allowing you to concentrate on your flutter kicks, therefore working on your technique.

Track Laps also for Kickboard Drills

With the right swimming tracker, you can make sure that your drills are logged even if you are not moving your arm, which most swim watches require. Swimmo has the unique Kick&Drill mode that allows you to track laps even when your arm is resting on the board.

Kamil Market Development Expert at Swimmo

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