Freestyle Technique

Proper stroke technique can be obtained by utilizing a strong underwater catch, pull-through, recovery and a strong flutter-style kick.

The Catch

A swimmers hand needs to be considered like a strong paddle. The idea of the catch in freestyle is to outstretch your arm and hand from your shoulder and set an anchor in the water out in front of your head and body. The arm should be fully extended and your body should be rotated slightly to one side (never on your side fully; but still allowing for a long reach).

During the catch the swimmer needs to concentrate on keeping the fingers together and wrist inline with the forearm. You should also keep a high elbow to allow for a deep and full catch that will lead you into a solid underwater pull.

The Pull-Through

For the underwater pull through a swimmer should concentrate on moving their body through the water using gravity and a sense of hydrodynamics. Your hands will naturally be pulled towards the bottom of the pull and you should not immediately fight this urge. The underwater pull through should maximize the hand and forearm to grab a large amount of water to “throw down”. This pull should be a straight pull and should not create and shape or “S” pattern as this just disturbs water unnecessarily.

Also, make sure that your arm is slightly extended down to your waist to prepare for the recovery phase of the stroke.

The Recovery

A free style recovery should once again embrace the force of gravity. Personally, I believe that there should be a minor “flair” when exiting the water (it seems as though it gives slightly more force behind the recovery; this is a personal opinion and not backed up by facts) which includes a slight flick of the wrist when reaching the surface.

Swimmers should then concentrate on a high elbow recovery where your hand is always lower than your elbow. Rotate your body to the proper side and fully extend your arm with your fingertips breaking the waters surface first. One should never smack the hand or forearm in the water, but should gently ease fingertips, wrist, forearm, elbow into the water without dipping the hand or crosing over. (See my post about fixing shoulder pain due to improper stroke here)

The Kick

Freestyle should be a leg driven stroke. Major shoulder injuries can occur (believe me, I know) due to a poor kick causing a swimmer to over use their arms.

Flutter Kick is the type of kick used in both Freestyle and Backstroke and should encompass about a 6-1 ratio in normal swimming conditions (even in competition). This means that for every single arm cycle you should be kicking 6 times.

Breathing in Freestyle

Breathing in freestyle is not nearly as difficult as some people may think. The goal is to take a breath without lifting your head out of the water. A good ratio to accomplish is a 3 strokes to 1 breath as this teaches breathing on the left and right side. This can be accomplished by doing the following:

• Hold onto the wall with arms outstretched using a flutter kick to keep your body afloat
• Turn your head to the left and right as needed to breath; Making sure one eye is still under the water and positioning your mouth as needed to get a breath
• Still on the wall; Take a stroke while turning your head to breath
• Use a kick board with the same technique above with strokes
• Put it all together
  • One thing I like to tell my swimmers is to use your shoulders to “push” your chin back in line through the stoke. This will help improve your breath timing.

What other types of recommendations do you have for swimming freestyle? Is there something that I missed that you want to know? Feel free to comment or contact me with questions.