The Freestyle Swimming Stroke

Overview

Head & Body

Arms

Legs

Breathing

Overview

The freestyle swimming stroke, also called the front crawl, is often the favorite stroke of advanced swimmers.

The freestyle stroke 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 swim 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 stroke 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.

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.