Swimming Technique Tips
Improve your freestyle technique. Get better at freestyle swimming and impress with your technique. You will find the following tips extremely useful.
If you are new to swimming or thinking about joining a swim team, you may be wondering how to improve your swimming skills. One of first steps is to familiarize yourself with freestyle swimming.
Freestyle is considered an easy style!
Here the body is in an almost flat position with the water, "face down" with the face towards the water and the hands move "freely" making circular helical movements.
Head and body
In this swimming style the flat body position, facing the bottom of the pool, allows you to move faster through the water.
Keep your head steady, looking at the "tiles" of the pool, without projecting your head or turning it left and right.
A good rule of thumb is to line up the top of your head with the surface of the water. It would also be good to turn your shoulders and hips slightly at the same time, but without turning completely to the side. This can help regulate your breathing. You must roll the head from one side to the other according to the hand that is at the end of it and the shoulder that is at that moment in front of you, keeping one eye in the water and the other out of it.
Once you get better at synchronizing your breathing with the rest of the movements you can start breathing every two to three hand pulls.
Caution: Do not do more than three strokes without breathing. Your muscles need oxygen to move. Depriving them will limit the intensity of your pulls.
Hands and arms
The position of the body in freestyle allows the hands to have great freedom of movement. This is very important, since the arms are one of the main factors that give your body a boost.
- Start by reaching as far as you can with arms as straight as possible.
- The fingers of the hands should be slightly open and relaxed, do not tighten them, they will "work" by themselves during the pulling phase.
- Allow your fingertips to dip into the water first, above the head, to effectively move-push it.
- Start pushing the water. Rotate your shoulders so that the elbow pushes the water away from the front of your head. This will help maximize distance on each pull.
- When you push-push the water, make sure you bring your arm slightly bent down. From the chest to the belly and ending near your hip.
- Your hand should come out of the water on the outside of your hip, elbow bent. This is known as the recovery phase.
- The time between hand pulls is very important. Make sure that as one hand completes the recovery phase, the other begins to push the water.
The apron kick in freestyle
The type of kick used in freestyle is known as a flutter kick. This type of kick is essential to your technique, as it can greatly help your timing and thrust.
- Your kick should start from the hips. At this point the movement should be intense.
- Kick with your legs alternately. The goal is to achieve a six-beat rhythm. This means for every two claps of the hands do three aprons to the left and three to the right.
- Short and quick kicks can help with balance and reduce resistance.
- A common mistake for all beginners is that they bend their knees too much. Try to keep your legs straight and give more movement to the ankles and feet.
- Make sure your feet are extended.
Follow these little tips and enjoy the pool waters, improving your performance in different swimming styles. Swimming Technique Tips
Saltamanikas Nikolas
TEFAA graduate, swimming specialty
Class A swimming coach
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