freestyle

Question
Hi George- I am 12 and have been swimming competitively for about 5 years now. I am a pure  breastroker, and that's probably it because that's the only stroke I've won regionals with. Anyways, I'm having a problem with my freestyle. Being a breastroker, freestyle isn't my favorite stroke to do at practice. I am having lots of problems with kicking. I can't seem to kick fast enough without ruining the rest of my stroke-my coach has gotten on to me SEVERAL times at meets and practice about this, and I've been trying to work on it, but nothing I do seems to work. With a kickboard, I can kick very fine and fast at practice, but swimming the stroke is the problem. I've recently had a few knee injuries, and I had to go to phys. therapy for it, and the exercises seem to make my legs/knees stronger, but I still can't kick!Is it some kind of coordination problem? Do you have any suggestions? (sorry this is so long) Thanks~  

Answer
Allison--
Believe it or not it is a little bit of a coordination problem.
First of all, you are too young to be just a single stroke specialist(if you watched any of the recent World Championships you would have seen that virtually everyone swam multiple events Michael Phelps is an good example).
Kicking in freestyle is more of a stability part of the stroke, I have always maintained that a 4 beat kick is the best tempo for most freestylers, but I don't stress anyones kicking tempo as I have seen olympic freestylers use everything from a 2 beat kick to an 8 beat kick(distance swimmers with an 8 beat kick and sprinters with a 2 beat kick), it's very much a personal thing.  The only 3 times I find it important to have a strong leg drive is off the start and off the turns while you are streamlined and maintaining speed before the first stroke and during kicking drills to build strength and endurance in your legs and abdomen.
A good drill to do is called a catch up stroke.  Keep your hands together and try to maintain a good 4 to 6 beat kick, then take a stroke with one hand leaving the other in front.  When that hand gets back to the front take a stroke with the other hand.  Continue this all the way across the pool while maintaining the fast kick.  This is good to work on Maximum distance per stroke as well as keeping the kick up.
Good Luck
George