This video is 4 years old, I’m swimming much better now and have corrected a lot of the issues in the video e.g body position. But my legs still do a scissor kick when I swim. My old coach thought it was because my right arm was crossing over, but fixing the cross-over didn’t resolve the issue. It’s also been suggested that it’s a timing issue, as in I’m breathing too early, too late? Or even a mobility issue. Any help would be appreciated!
This video is 4 years old, I’m swimming much better now and have corrected a lot of the issues in the video e.g body position. But my legs still do a scissor kick when I swim. My old coach thought it was because my right arm was crossing over, but fixing the cross-over didn’t resolve the issue. It’s also been suggested that it’s a timing issue, as in I’m breathing too early, too late? Or even a mobility issue. Any help would be appreciated!
https://youtu.be/q2xhVvuNtbg
I wouldn’t call it a scissors kick per se but rather just the “legs splaying”. Regardless of the semantics, you could try a loose ankle band, loose enough so that your feet can go out, and go up and down, around 6 inches or so but no further. This will allow you to still kick but w/o the splaying. You want to be able to feel your big toes gently rubbing against each other every few kicks. If you were to use the loose ankle band every swim for 6 weeks, I’d bet your splaying would disappear. 
Legs not sticking together like your video is always a stability/balance issue. From what I can see in the video and the most likely cause is that your right side hip doesn’t rotate much and your hips and shoulders aren’t very connected. But that all goes back to core engagement. Think about your hip driving your shoulder and hand straight forward.
Hope this helps,
Tim
One thing I notice from a few bits in that video is that you don’t seem to rotate to the left (ie not ‘twisting’ your body around the axis as though skewered head to toe).
You do it on the right better. (Rotation is needed to get a longer reach and engage your core / Lats etc to drive the stroke rather than just the shoulder and arm muscles).
Not sure if that’s causing it - it would be good to see more video from above the water from above you, and also some below water shot head on. Ideally a length of each
- above water above you
- above water in front
- below water to the side of you
- below water in front head on
Can your mate put the gopro on a stick ?
Thanks for the tips. I’ll get some newer footage this week. Squad swam this morning and I noticed a few things. Swimming with fins, I felt my legs weren’t splaying, I also noticed when going hard 50s/100s, my legs felt like they weren’t spreading also. But I’m feeling like I’m having to really focus on my legs though, they feel quite tense and it doesn’t feel quite natural. I’m not sure it’s a balance issue? I’m guessing I just need to work on that and it will all click. I did notice as soon as I slowed down, doing easy, they really splayed. In fact I don’t swim slowly very well. For easy/wu/cd pace I end up swimming too fast, otherwise it all goes to shit. So perhaps that’s what I need to focus on. Getting it sorted whilst swimming uber slow. I think what will happen, is if I focus on kicking correctly, eventually that will feel normal and splaying the legs will become more noticeable. I’ve got a 70.3 this weekend then will be 100% swimming till feb, so hopefully get it sorted.
I do a lot of swimming with fins. I find it helps to keep a flat position in the water and also helps me focus on the hip drive for the kick. This might help you with keeping your legs together while flutter kicking for freestyle.
Also sometimes when I pull with a pool buoy., I try to add some kicking while trying to keep the pool buoy between my legs. I find this also helps to keep my legs and body position more streamline.
Your splaying legs is an output, not an input. It’s the result of mechanical forces elsewhere in the body, unless you are actively trying to splay your legs. You fix this by changing the way you apply force in your upper body, not by tying your legs together. Any upper body force applied that is not in line with the direction you wish to go will impart “twisting” forces that are counteracted by “twisting” forces in your lower body: splaying legs, snaking through the water, etc.
At the risk of using an analogy, if your car exhaust has lots of unburned fuel, you don’t fix it by upgrading your exhaust system (output): you fix it by ensuring that your engine (input) is more efficiently burning fuel.
Your splaying legs is an output, not an input. It’s the result of mechanical forces elsewhere in the body, unless you are actively trying to splay your legs. You fix this by changing the way you apply force in your upper body, not by tying your legs together. Any upper body force applied that is not in line with the direction you wish to go will impart “twisting” forces that are counteracted by “twisting” forces in your lower body: splaying legs, snaking through the water, etc.
At the risk of using an analogy, if your car exhaust has lots of unburned fuel, you don’t fix it by upgrading your exhaust system (output): you fix it by ensuring that your engine (input) is more efficiently burning fuel.
Yups. I wanted to tie my legs together so I can feel at what point during my stroke do my legs splay, to help identify the root cause. Because I’m not aware when I do it.
This is a more recent video, earlier this year, but you can’t see much as it’s in a race. Although watching it I did notice I’m not kicking much compared to the others and they all seem to have a 6 beat kick, whereas mine is a 2 beat kick. Putting aside the splaying, I wonder if I should work harder on my kicking anyway and swim with a 6 beat kick. (I’m the one coming last),
I’m in my late 40’s and have a similar issue to you, never really resolved as I never bothered to address it completely but two things improved it for me:
1- I naturally breath to my left and that’s when I kick out a bit, it doesn’t happen when I breath to my right so I worked on more bilateral breathing
2 - I don’t kick out when I’m using fins, so a bit more swimming with fins so I get a feel for what the kick should feel like. I find for example 100m with fins then 100m without fins etc gives me a better feel rather than doing say 400-500m at a time with fins. Short busts with fins and then without.
I’m in my late 40’s and have a similar issue to you, never really resolved as I never bothered to address it completely but two things improved it for me:
1- I naturally breath to my left and that’s when I kick out a bit, it doesn’t happen when I breath to my right so I worked on more bilateral breathing
2 - I don’t kick out when I’m using fins, so a bit more swimming with fins so I get a feel for what the kick should feel like. I find for example 100m with fins then 100m without fins etc gives me a better feel rather than doing say 400-500m at a time with fins. Short busts with fins and then without.
Yup I think fins are a good idea.
Legs not sticking together like your video is always a stability/balance issue. From what I can see in the video and the most likely cause is that your right side hip doesn’t rotate much and your hips and shoulders aren’t very connected. But that all goes back to core engagement. Think about your hip driving your shoulder and hand straight forward.
Hope this helps,
Tim
This exactly. I used to do the same thing but have been working with a physical therapist on hips and core. The leg splaying has gotten remarkably better