Flutter kick

you really want the kick to come from your hips. I would love to see what "too straight" looks like. I've been swimming a long time and I've never seen a kick that was too straight.

A few coaches I've talked to and other 'experts' suggest the following drill to improve kicking:

Find an area of the pool that is deep enough that you can not touch.
Pretend you are treading water with your hands at your sides but instead try to mimic your swim kick - short, quick kick with flexible ankles.

Supposedly if you do it correct, you won't sink, but if you flex your feet too much, or bend your knees too much, you will.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/524467-how-to-improve-a-flutter-k...

I've tried it a couple times and it's tough, but really teaches you what it feels like!

I just read that pointing my toes during the upbeat is a mistake. I thought I should have my toes pointed all the time during freestyle kick. Maybe that slows me down.

Post a video if you can. That's really the only thing I can think of that will help me understand what "too straight" is.

I have taught a lot of people to swim and have seen legs that are too straight before. It's not very common but happens.
Yes your legs should be straight, but they should not be boards. There is a slight bend in the knee when you kick, and you would not tell most people that because they would bend there knee too much. So in your case you need to relax a little when you kick. You probably concentrate on you legs being straight when you kick, you need to stop that and just kick. Do you swim with your masters coach most of the time, because he is the one that will be able to help you more than anyone here.

Also the harder you kick it tends to be more difficult to kick with your legs completely straight. You may want to limit you kick drill to only 25's for a while but kick very hard when doing them.

I have taught a lot of people to swim and have seen legs that are too straight before. It's not very common but happens.
Yes your legs should be straight, but they should not be boards. There is a slight bend in the knee when you kick, and you would not tell most people that because they would bend there knee too much. So in your case you need to relax a little when you kick. You probably concentrate on you legs being straight when you kick, you need to stop that and just kick. Do you swim with your masters coach most of the time, because he is the one that will be able to help you more than anyone here.

Also the harder you kick it tends to be more difficult to kick with your legs completely straight. You may want to limit you kick drill to only 25's for a while but kick very hard when doing them.

Thanks for your advice. I do concentrate a lot to keep my legs straight. I have to stop thinking about them.
I have master swim practice twice a week. The coach does not swim with us, so he can only observe things from outside. I'm glad that he was able to give me any advise. I few years ago I took a few swimming lessons. I tried three different people. One of them helped me a little bit, but he was very expensive. The other two claimed that I needed to have more feel for the water. It was not really helpful. I used to swim more back then, so my technique was better, but I was slow like 30 s per 25 yards , so I'm sure my technique was not good.
I would love to take private swimming lessons, but I guess it is not easy to find a good teacher.

I have taught a lot of people to swim and have seen legs that are too straight before. It's not very common but happens.

BTW I have another question about timing. How the kick work in a relation to the pull. For example at what stage of pull my hand should be when I kick down. I do not really pay attention to timing. Should I?

IMO- don't pay attention to it. My personal feeling is that the kick should be a constant pace and not dictated by the pull at all. So your legs should be in a constant steady kick the whole time. I'm sure some people will disagree.

I love this game! Let's agree to disagree.

Just as you use coordination when you walk or run between legs, body rotation and forward locomotion, you should do the same in swimming. You can learn to use the kick ti initiate body rotation, so that your core is coordinating the action of arms & legs together.

Think about timing the leg downward kick to the same side stroking OR to the opposite side entering. Then play with micro-nuances. (you can still use it for body position too if needed).

However to introduce leg timing with arms and breathing you have another aspect that has to be sinc'ed in, if it is not and you believe it needs to be you will slow down your stroke in order to sinc up again. The amount of rotation you need to breath is very small, more experienced swimmers tend to have most of their face still in the water while breathing. Once you add open water swimming into the mix now you have to also coordinate waves and other people into the timing, which will always cause some timing issues with your breathing and arm. If you learn to keep a consistent kick instead of a timed kick it will help to carry you through and not be another item to think about.

I've always been a strong advocate of learning good body position and kick BEFORE learning to use your arms and breath; that way the kick becomes automatic. A lot of adults are too impatient(pig headed) to spend weeks working on legs and position before trying to put the stroke together.