Having made steady improvements in my swimming over the last couple of years I decided to invest in a kick board and pull bouy. now i’m struggling! I thought that with the added bouyancy of the bouy I might swim a bit quicker, like in a wetsuit! but alas no, my legs sink down, i’ve moved the bouy down to my knees and no effect!. I guess my kick has been all about keeping my legs up and streamlined as opposed to propulsion.
I also struggle with forward momentum with kick board! I tire very quickly, curiously I have no problems on my back kicking.
I am appealing to the ST masses for any help, advice, links or anything else that might make me think that I didn’t waste my money!!
When you kick with a kickboard, you have to keep your hips up.
Your best bet is to find someone to help with your stroke technique.
Sounds like me, I build muscle really easily and my legs just sink when I swim. On the plus side I require almost no weight when I scuba dive 
I have similar problems, poor swim technique/body position, lack of an effective kick, and a natural dwarf-like build. An effective drill I found (which seems to be helping) is stream-lined kicking. Arms out front, body in a streamlined position and kick. I focus on making a tight stomach/core, which seems to lift my legs up, and kicking without bending my knees, which seems to provide more propulsion.
I hear our master’s coach saying this to swimmers all the time during kick sets as well… “keep your hips up”.
What does this mean? Should we be trying to push down on the kick board with our hands and strive for a /\ shape in the water? Clearly this is an exaggeration but I find pursuing these extremes by ‘feel’ leads to the proper position when learning these types of things…
I’ve noticed that some of the stronger swimmers in my lane are extremely slow kickers. They are generally fit and show no outward reason to be so slow kicking - is it all technique and body position?
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Mike
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Mike
Those of us who grow up as fishes just kind of learn how to keep hips up with a kickboard, I guess. It’s not pushing down with your hands, I don’t know how to do it 
I just do.
you can always kick streamlined
I hear our master’s coach saying this to swimmers all the time during kick sets as well… “keep your hips up”.
What does this mean? Should we be trying to push down on the kick board with our hands and strive for a /\ shape in the water? Clearly this is an exaggeration but I find pursuing these extremes by ‘feel’ leads to the proper position when learning these types of things…
I’ve noticed that some of the stronger swimmers in my lane are extremely slow kickers. They are generally fit and show no outward reason to be so slow kicking - is it all technique and body position?
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Mike
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Mike
NO! That’s the opposite of what you want to do. When you push down on the board, you are lifting your arms,shoulders,head and this SINKS your hips. The hips (and legs) come up when you STOP pushing downward with your arms (upward with the shoulders) and just let your upper body be held up only by the water.
Here’s something to demonstrate it: Push off the wall in a streamline and then just coast. You probably find that you are level, horizontal, legs are high up until you come almost to a complete stop. This will be proof that you can keep your feet high without kicking.
For me, the key was learning to relax my core (stomach) muscles. It sort of ‘disconnects’ my upper body from my lower body…if my shoulders rise with a stroke, or my head rises with a breath it only pushes my CHEST down and not my hips.
For me, the key was learning to relax my core (stomach) muscles. It sort of ‘disconnects’ my upper body from my lower body…if my shoulders rise with a stroke, or my head rises with a breath it only pushes my CHEST down and not my hips.
I think this is so important. Everyone always says to look at the bottom of the pool rather than forward, so that your head is down and thus your hips will stay high. Yet it is quite possible to have both a high head/shoulders and high hips. I do it. I hadn’t thought about it the way you describe; rather it is envisioning keeping my abdomen “long”, which probably results in the same “disconnect” that you have.
I barely kick at all when swimming (it’s mostly for balance and rhythm), and the water line is nearly at my eyebrows, yet my legs don’t drag. It’s not about body density (“waah, I have too much muscle so my legs sink”). I’ll bet accomplishing just this disconnect would help a huge number of triathlete swimmers: not only would it alleviate the dragging legs, but it might also banish the dreaded “scissor legs” that causes just as much drag.
Right. This was a huge step forward for me in swimming technique…and my coach couldn’t explain it to me…He always just said to push down with my chest which didn’t do it for me. He could see my legs sinking even with 2 pull buoys and couldn’t explain it. I am DENSE with no fat below the waist and I DO sink with full lungs, but I have no problem swimming at the surface now and keeping it level with very good relaxation. I had to learn that lesson through trial and error.