Proper Freestyle Swimming Technique

Freestyle swimming is an unstructured style of swimming where a swimmer can use any kind of swimming stokes. They can either choose front crawl, dog paddle, sidestroke, and various other swimming strokes. However, the use of breaststrokes, backstrokes, and butterfly strokes are not allowed. More often than not, when a swimmer needs to swim the freestyle stroke, he/she opts for the front crawl stroke as it is one of the fastest strokes. For beginners, learning the techniques for freestyle swimming is important as it helps them gain speed, improve their swimming skills, and learn to glide through the water in a short amount of time. With practice, hard work, and dedication, you too can learn the common freestyle swimming techniques. And as an added benefit, you can read through the following article that will explain to you the correct techniques for beginners.

Tips and Techniques for Freestyle Swimming

As we discussed earlier, freestyle swimming is also known as front crawl swimming. This swimming stroke makes you glide through water really swiftly as the efficiency of the strokes is marvelous. Throughout the strokes, your body remains sleek as only your arms and legs are constantly propelling you. In the following section, we will learn how the entire body comes into play when performing the freestyle swimming stroke.

Your Breathing
Breathing while swimming is one of the most important element. Many times, beginners are so busy understanding what the movements of arms and legs are, they completely forget about the breathing pattern. Also, it is vital that you are relaxed while swimming freestyle. Why? Because if you don't relax, you will end up holding your breath inside the water and then get scared and confused as to what you're supposed to do. During freestyle, a swimmer has to exhale when his/her face is inside the water. You might be a bit nervous about this but that is the correct method.

Instead of breathing after every stroke, you need to learn how to hold and exhale your breath after every 1 ½ strokes. Whenever your right or left hand comes out of the water to perform another stroke, your head will come out of the water. This gives you time to take a deep breath before returning your hand and head back inside. Concentrate on breathing evenly and at specific intervals. Only then can you ensure a smooth stroke every time. To work on your breathing, keep practicing with your coach and perform various breathing techniques.

The Arms
Your arms will be ahead of the head at all times. Both arms will alternate with the fingertips being inserted in the water. This alternate arm movements give you speed and agility during the freestyle swimming. When your right or left fingertips enter the water, the movement should seem as if you are trying to catch something. Don't overstretch your arm as you do so. Many beginners think that if they stretch their arms way ahead, they can increase their speed. In actuality, you will only hurt yourself and/or get tired really fast.

Now the same arm, which entered the water first, will sweep down (remember, we are trying to catch something), pull itself when it's close to the thigh, and then bring it back up. At this time, that arm's elbow should be high because your bent elbow is the first thing that needs to come out of the water to finish the stroke. Your fingertips will be the last to come out of the water. To complete 1 stroke, the other arm has to follow this same swimming technique.

The Legs
Similar to the arms, even your legs have a proper technique which needs to be followed. The kick from your legs begin from the hips and go till the feet. As the arms alternate, even your legs alternate the kicking stroke. You move one leg up and then push it downward with force. The entire leg has to be moved in order to gain the momentum and move ahead. Just as you are riding a bicycle, when one leg is down, the other leg will go up. You need to use your thigh muscles in order to kick with force and then straighten the leg at the end of the kick. All throughout the kick, you need to keep your ankles and feet as loose and flexible as possible. This way, when your legs are helping you glide ahead, your body is stable and leveled in the water.

The Body
I know that we should have discussed the position of the body before we learn about the strokes, but I think that without knowing what your arms and legs are doing, how can the body respond. As the arms and legs are performing the freestyle swimming strokes, your body has to be as flat as it possibly can on the surface of water. Your head will be aligned with the body as it requires stability. During the strokes, you will keep your eyes slightly down and forward. Do not raise your head as it will droop your hips and legs inside the water. This won't make you glide ahead but will make you struggle to float. Keep your shoulders at the waterline and synchronize their movements along with the arms.

Apart from incorporating the above mentioned proper freestyle swimming stroke, you can also ask your instructor or coach to teach you some swimming drills. These drill will help you in becoming a better swimmer and keep improving overall.