The Freestyle Stroke

The freestyle stroke, also called the front crawl, is the fastest and most energy-efficient of the competitive swim strokes. This explains it's use in the freestyle event of swimming competitions and in the swimming leg of triathlons.

It is often difficult to learn how to swim the stroke for several reasons. The face is submerged for the most part of the cycle and the swimmer must rotate to the side to breathe. The arms and legs move in an asymmetrical fashion. Synchronizing all these motions can be quite a challenge for the beginner.

Freestyle Swimming Video

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The Freestyle Stroke's Phases

We will now try to understand the freestyle swimming technique by analyzing its basic movements. Let's imagine that the swimmer has just pushed off the wall in a streamlined position and starts a new length:

  • The swimmer's body is flat in the water in a prone position.
  • The head is aligned with the spine and the swimmer looks straight down.
  • Both arms are extended to the front. The palms are turned towards the bottom of the pool.
  • The swimmer kicks with a supple flutter kick.

Now the swimmer starts the swim stroke's cycle:

  1. One of the wrist flexes and the hand starts to stroke back following the middle of the body.
  2. The elbow flexes and is kept close to the surface as the hand moves back. This is often called the high-elbow catch position.
  3. As the hand strokes back, the body starts to roll to the side of the stroking arm.
  4. When the hand arrives at the hips, those should already have rolled out of the way. The hand can now exit the water, the arm is nearly fully extended.
  5. The elbow flexes again and the hand starts the recovery to the front.
  6. At the same time, the swimmer inhales quickly.
  7. When the hand has passed the head, it enters the water again, extends to the front and the whole body rotates back down.
  8. When the recovering hand is at the level of the other arm's elbow, the pull phase of the other arm starts in a similar fashion as the first arm.

Basic Swimming Technique

The following articles explains the stroke's technique in more detail:

Head and Body Positions: Learn how to properly position your head in the front crawl. Learn how to position and move your body for maximum efficiency while swimming the crawl stroke.

Arm and Hand Movements: Learn how to swim freestyle with correct arm and hand motions to move efficiently and avoid shoulder strain. In the stroke, the arms move alternately, one arm stroking back in the water while the other recovers to the front above the water.

The Flutter Kick: How to do the flutter kick used in the freestyle swim stroke. The correct technique, when to use various kicking rhythms and additional tips.

Breathing Technique: How to breathe in the front crawl stroke. Breathing is difficult in this stroke as the head is submerged and must be rotated to breathe.

Learn To Swim

Learn How To Swim Freestyle: Teaches a set of progressive swimming drills to learn the freestyle stroke with ease. At first, balance is learned while floating on the back, on the chest and on the side. The next step is to learn dynamic balance, which means balance must be maintained while changing positions. Then balance is learned while extending the arms to the front. The final set of drills teaches correct arm motions and swimming rhythms.

Advanced Swimming Technique

Front Crawl Mistakes - Putting on the Brakes: Describes a common error intermediate freestyle stroke swimmers make during the arms' recovery that is called "Putting on the Brakes". The article also explains how to correct your swimming technique.

Front Crawl Mistakes - Overreaching: Explains why overreaching during the arm recovery in the freestyle stroke is considered bad swimming technique. Gives tips on how to correct this.

Related Pages


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