subject: Freestyle Swimming Technique - Improve Your Freestyle Technique And Enjoy The Benefits [print this page] Freestyle Swimming Technique - Improve Your Freestyle Technique And Enjoy The Benefits
Despite common misconception freestyle swimming technique is not always front crawl, it's just since front crawl is typically the fastest stroke and freestyle racing allows any stroke, most swimmers (or rather racers) adopt this stroke simply because it's quickest.
So for the emphasis of this page we will not only point out how you can improve your front crawl, but also give you tips onto your breaststroke (since it's the second most common stroke!)
Front Crawl Freestyle Swimming Technique
So beginning with the front crawl the following should help guide your technique:
Keep your body aligned
Your face pointing down with your eyes on the underwater pool line and your hips floated.
Let your body rotate as you go for a stroke
Breathing is recommended every three strokes (when breathing place your ear on your shoulder and cheek on the water.
The kick provides power and body balance
Use pointed toes with a straight leg, furthermore a short fast kick is best recommended for speed and balance
Remember the stroke consists of five steps:
Reach, Catch, Pull, Push, Recovery: ensure you fine tune each of these to maximize your freestyle swimming technique.
Further Freestyle Swimming Technique Tips
Extending your stroke as you go for air, will enable you to travel further with less effort through improving balance and resistance.
Flutter Kicks For Improved Freestyle Swimming Technique
Finally, we will discuss Flutter kicks, this is what you should be doing when performing the front crawl (Otherwise known as the freestyle stroke) these will massively improve your overall technique and speed.
Key points to remember are to not keep your legs straight, relax them! Think of snapping through the end of toes with bended knees.
Keep your feet high, set the kick as if your riding a bike. But keep the kick small without creating resistance with your thighs, and remember kick from your hips not your thighs!
The flutter kicks should be quick and small without deep knees, think small with pointed toes. Don't allow your feet to come out too high.
How to flip turn
Flip turns not only look cool but are actually the most efficient way to turn around and actually reduces energy as well as keeping your momentum going.
To flip turn bring your legs up to your chest whilst tucking your chin to your chest with your forehead almost touching your knees, flip into a somersault and when your feet are planted on the wall (and only when they are planted on the wall) spring off!
The key notes to remember when performing flip turns are to keep tucked up until your feet are touching the wall, and practice, practice, practice! Performing a somersault in water first before attempting it moving it, is also recommended.
