Four easy steps to freestyle [video]

Today's post is about freestyle and how to learn it for the beginners or improve it for intermediate swimmers. It’s something I wanted to post for a long time now but since the swimming facility in my home town was closed for eight months it was impossible. In the following video I present 3 freestyle drills that will help you learn how to breathe properly and how to move your body during this stroke. Before you start practicing these drills you should be able to balance in the water and can put your face in the water.

6 kick switch (freestyle drill)

This drill can be used effectively for feeling the length of the stroke and proper alignment. Moreover, it's a very good drill if you want to teach core centered swimming. You kick on your side for six kicks, your low arm is leading, the other arm is at your side. You then switch sides and arms positions and repeat. A more advanced version of this drill is with your face in the water while doing the kicking. You can also have your fingers touching the side of your body while switching sides and arms positions like you have a zip on your side and you are trying to zip (or unzip) it. This tip will also help you maintain a relaxed high elbow recovery.

High elbow drills

Today I'm going to post a few videos about high elbow drills (at recovery and during the catch).

The purpose of the recovery is to to place the arm in position for another underwater stroke. While this is an important function, it does not provide any propulsion, so the goals of the recovery should be : to get the arm over the water with the least disruption of lateral alignment, and to provide a short period of reduced effort for the arm, shoulder and trunk muscles. The shoulder should come out of the water first, followed by the upper arm and the elbow. The forearm and hand are last to leave the water. To do that the body should be rolled approximately 45 degrees toward the recovery side through the first half of the recovery so that the arm can carried over the water with a high elbow. The elbow should be the highest part of the arm from the times it leaves the water during the recovery until it enters the wtaer again in front of the shoulder. To accomplish this, the arm should be flexed at the elbow so that the forearm and hand can be carried almost directly below and only slightly outside it. Recovering in this manner will reduce the amount of outward arm motion during the recovery, and that will reduce the tendency for the swinging arm to pull the hips out of alignment.