Six-Kick Switch
Ages 8 and up · A pool lane during supervised swim time; fins genuinely help this drill and are standard for it
The six-kick switch (kicking on one side for six kicks, then one full stroke switching to the other side, repeating) is the classic rotation drill: it teaches freestyle's open secret, that the stroke is swum on the SIDES, the body rolling rhythmically from one to the other, with the kick steady underneath. Swimmers who learn the roll early swim longer, smoother, and faster forever.
It is a balance drill as much as anything: six kicks on a side (one arm extended, the other resting on the hip, cheek on the water) demands real body control, and the switch (one full stroke rolling to the other side) times the rotation to the arm the way whole-stroke freestyle does. Slow, supervised, patient lengths are the format.
How to run it
- Side-kick position first: push off and rotate to one side: bottom arm extended out front, top arm resting on the hip, cheek on the water (face mostly down), flutter kicking steadily. Hold for a length to learn the balance.
- The drill: six kicks in the side position, then one full stroke (the extended arm pulls through as the body ROLLS all the way to the other side, the hip arm recovering to extend out front), then six kicks on the new side.
- Count aloud in the head ("one-two-three-four-five-six, SWITCH"), breathing during the roll or with a gentle head turn on the side.
- Two to four lengths per set at easy effort, fins recommended while balance builds.
- Grade the roll: the whole body switches together (hips, shoulders, and head as one log), driven by the hips.
What to say
Common faults and fixes
Flat-body kicking (the side position abandoned, the drill becoming board-less flutter).
Re-establish the side balance alone (a length of pure side-kick per side) before switching returns. Fins and a gentle pace make the position holdable; the drill needs the sides to exist.
The switch as arms-only (the body staying flat while the arms trade).
The log image: hips, shoulders, and head roll together, the HIPS leading. Exaggerate one length of slow, huge rolls to feel the whole-body switch, then re-time it.
Panicked breathing breaking the pattern.
Breathe during the roll itself (the mouth clears naturally mid-switch) or add an extra gentle head-turn breath in the side position. The pattern serves the swimmer; adjust the breath before abandoning the roll.
Make it easier, make it harder
Pure side-kick lengths, fins always, three-kick switches (less balance time per side).
No fins; three-kick and single-kick switches (approaching whole-stroke timing); the drill dissolved into freestyle (swim normal stroke feeling the same roll); backstroke six-kick switch on the back.
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