How to Kick Without a Board
There are a few reasons to kick without a kickboard:
You are doing a set that is a mix of kick and swim or drill and you will not be starting each lap of kick from the same end of the pool (ie, in a short course pool, 50 kick + 25 swim will leave your board at the opposite end of the pool when you start the next round)
You have shoulder problems (kicking with a board can put extra pressure on your shoulders)
You want to work on body position, streamline, or efficiency off the walls
You don’t have a kickboard
Below are some photos and short videos of what it looks like to kick without a board for each of the strokes.
(NOTE: this is not a post about kicking technique for each of the strokes. Those are separate posts. This is simply to demonstrate what you do with your arms and body when you want to kick without a board.)
Freestyle
There are two ways to kick freestyle without a board. The first is on your stomach, in a streamline position, with your head in line with your body.
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Stay in a tight streamline — head squeezed in between your arms, hands overlapped over your head, and really work to keep your butt at the surface of the water. Your kick should be making a the water “boil”, breaking the surface but no excessive splashing. To take a breath, either take a stroke and breathe as your normally would to one side, or lift your head and breathe forward. A video of how to do the first version of that can be found here.
The second way to kick freestyle without a board is on your side, like this:
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This way of kicking essentially holding your body in a position as you would if you were taking a breath when swimming freestyle. Keep your ear on one shoulder and with the opposite shoulder out of the water. This is more challenging than kicking in a streamlined position on your stomach, but is a great way to work on body position when you are breathing, getting comfortable keeping everything in line. If you are new to swimming and want to try side kick but are completely unable to do it, I would recommend throwing on some fins. The additional speed and lift will help with maintaining body position.
Backstroke
To kick backstroke on your back, simply hold a streamline position on your back and kick. When you see the flags turn over so you don’t run into the wall. Again, try to keep your hips/bellybutton as close to the surface as you can, preventing your legs from dropping and dragging behind you.
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Video of that here. If you find it too difficult to hold your body in a streamline position, you can also do this kick with your arms at your side. This will provide you with a little more stability. If you are really struggling with keeping your head above water when doing backstroke kick, hugging a board or holding a pull buoy over your head can also assist in making you feel like you aren’t sinking.
Breaststroke
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Breaststroke kick with no board is essentially breaststroke swim with no arm pull. Keep your arms over your head in a streamline position, face looking at the bottom of the pool, butt at the surface of the water. When you need to breathe, just lift your head up as though you were taking a normal breath in breaststroke. If you need it to maintain body position, feel free to do a breaststroke pull when you breathe. Video here demonstrates body position, though the swimmer is wearing a snorkel, so she doesn’t need to lift her head to breathe. Other than that it is a good demonstration of what your body should look like when you are kicking.
Butterfly
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Like freestyle, you can do butterfly kick without a board on your stomach (here), or on your back (same as backstroke kick, but doing a dolphin kick instead of a flutter kick.)
Most videos show underwater dolphin kick, which is a technique that is used when coming off the walls in freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly. If you choose to do dolphin kick without a board on your stomach, feel free to dive down and continue to kick underwater after each breath.
On your back, trying to re-submerge yourself is incredibly awkward. Rather try to kick as far as you can off the wall underwater before you need a breath. Once you break the surface, simply stay on your back, keep your body in a streamline position, and continue to kick butterfly with your face exposed.
SIDE NOTE: if you are struggling with butterfly kick, try it with your fins on. This is one stroke and kick where having fins on can really encourage you to begin the kick from your core and emphasize your propulsion.