Now repeat the same exercise as above, this time kicking only while face down with your arms extended in a glide position. To achieve the same range of motion in the hip joint, you need to kick deeper (toward the bottoom). But again, if your legs don't come back up, your legs will create drag and sink.
So pull your leg up toward the surface after each kick with your gluteus maximus and hamstring muscles, so that you can drive the leg down with more snap on the next one.
Floppy ankles and make some noise at the surface. Feel pressure on your feet. Experiment with the range of motion in your hips, especially. When in doubt, make lots of splash to prove you know where your legs are and then tone it down to a relaxed kick.
Lie down on your stomach. Arm by your sides or in a push-up position for comfort. Choose one leg and gently pull up your leg (relax the knee and ankle) so that your knee comes off the floor. It's a very small movement. You should be aware of your glute activating.
Lie down on your stomach. Arm by your sides or in a push-up position for comfort. Choose one leg and gently pull up your leg (relax the knee and ankle) so that your knee comes off the floor. It's a very small movement. You should be aware of your glute activating.
Activate your relaxed but high tempo flutter kick and take 4-7 strokes without breathing. Try this 6-8 times at least with a nice rest interval between each rep.
As you do this, experiment with your ability to rotate around your head/spine axis. Don't breathe yet!
Use your consistent flutter kick to explore how smoothly, quickly, crisply and to what degree you can rotate from side to side.
Try a few more mini-laps without breathing with high-tempo flutter kicking and a slow recovery (3-second count) and then a faster one (2-second count). Can you separate your arms tempo from your legs? Sometimes this can be a confusing process.
Focus on kicking consistently to support full body rotations on each stroke.
Try the same thing with breathing 1-3 times during your mini-lap. Focus on beginning with an effective flutter kick and think especially of maintaining that consistent flutter when you breathe.