Freestyle Swimming Tips

When one starts to swim, the chances are that they start off with the freestyle swimming stroke, because it seems to be the easiest and most natural stroke to get into. But if you study this stroke more closely, you'll find that it has a lot of techniques to it and that a perfection of all these will lead to an improvement of this style of swimming and provide for the varied swimming benefits. In the article that follows, we shall be giving you some freestyle swimming tips so that you can better this stroke. Continue reading to understand what makes the freestyle swimming stroke work and get some freestyle swimming techniques and tips.

Freestyle Swimming Techniques and Tips

The freestyle swimming technique has several techniques to it which go on to show how an execution of them will lead to an overall perfection of the technique. Here are the basic freestyle swimming techniques and tips for beginners that you can look into.

Body Position
The body positioning becomes the anchor due to which the entire stroke can be carried out better. The following are some tips to get this freestyle swimming technique right:

1. If your body position is not perfect then you cannot swim faster and better so first try to perfect this posture.
2. Look straight ahead such that your head and forehead are just below the water surface.
3. Relax your neck and back muscles and get into a posture such that the hips are completely below the water surface.
4. The head, shoulder and spine need to be aligned such that there is a slight bend. Do not place your body parallel to the ground 'coz that will hamper your leg movements.
5. Make sure that the head is angled at a 45 degree angle. Do not try to take it lower or the gravity will push you down and push your hips into the air. Not a very comfortable position to swim.

Arm Stokes
Getting this factor right is getting the best of this position right. Here are some important tips on how you can best achieve this:

1. When you start to swim, do not place the hands near your head but outstretch them as far as possible.
2. Do not stretch the arms before you touch the surface of the water or else the shoulders will go under the water and act like a break on the motion and prevent you from taking the maximum swimming strokes.
3. Stretch your arms after you have touched the surface.
4. To pull forward with your arm, begin by extending the arm completely and then bending at the elbows and going into the pulling phase. While sweeping the water under you so that you are propelled forward, you need to bend your elbows.
5. Push your hand under your body as you propel forward. Push the left arm to the center left and the right to the center right. This allows for the entire region of the shoulders, triceps, biceps and pectoral muscles to a great workout and distributes the weight evenly. This is a great technique to learn for how to swim freestyle faster.

Breathing Style
Breathing is another essential component of this stroke. Here are some freestyle swimming breathing tips to look into:

1. The more the distance, the more oxygen you'll require - Keep your head in an angle with your shoulders and continue to look forward.
2. While swimming, turn your head to the opposite side of the arm that has been stretched out and draw in a breath.
3. Do the same on the opposite side.
4. Make sure that you do not rotate the arm too much so that it goes under water. With the arm under water, the body position gets disrupted and breathing becomes difficult.
5. When the arm reaches the shoulder levels while you're taking it at the back, that is when you should breathe. These are some of the breathing techniques for swimming.

Leg Position
The positioning of the leg is as much crucial as is the positioning of the entire body. Here are some freestyle swimming techniques and tips to improve your leg strokes:

1. Choose a leg kicking technique in accordance with the kind of distance you're swimming. While every arm stroke should generate 3 - 4 kicks, for a longer distance, you can go in for a 2 kick routine. This will save on energy.
2. When kicking, start the kick from the hip and bend it at the knees as you go forward.
3. Do not broaden the leg kick more than the width of the body and flail your legs about farther than your hips. Or else extra energy will be wasted and the body will be pulled down making it difficult to swim.

In combination with all these factors of freestyle swimming one must also use a body angle to propel the body to an angle. This helps to give the body the required angle to push forward without bearing the entire weight of the body.

Let's hope that these freestyle swimming tips and techniques will help you in improving your style and don a form that is not only better for swimming but helps you to gain more advantage. All the best!