How To Achieve The Perfect Freestyle Stroke | Swimming Technique

our movement is the most important part of effective freestyle but as a result it's also one of the most difficult to implement with the majority of propulsion coming from your arms it's therefore essential to be able to understand it and perform it correctly so let's take a look at the correct freestyle arm movement [Music] before we break the stroke down and dive into this a quick reminder to click on the globe and the bell icon so you don't miss any of our new videos as they come out well now to look at the stroke and in theory you could break the freestyle stroke down into as many as six parts in series three parts for the recovery phase and three for the propulsion but obviously they're all interchange and one run straight into the next therefore each part of the state will affect the next so with that in mind we want to make sure we perfect each one individually so today we're going to be breaking the stroke down and working out what you should be doing for each aspect what you need to avoid and in order to make it all right when it gets put back together [Music] foreign obviously the freestyle strike is continuous but for this video we need to break it down and choose somewhere to start we're going to begin with the extension phase so once your hand has entered the water your hand and arm needs to continue to extend or reach out in front of you before you can move on to the next phase and for this you want your hands to stay nice and relaxed so your fingers just ever so slightly apart but you are trying to reach as far forwards as you can in this relaxed manner so your hands will be leading the movement and it'll be ever so slightly beneath the water surface and just slightly beneath your forearm which will be ever so slightly lower than your shoulder so it's a very mild downward trajectory just under the surface and making sure that you don't go over the center line from the extension you move directly into the catch and like we said there are no pauses and this is an element of the stroke where you really need to concentrate on making sure the movement remains continuous and the catch is actually the first element of the stroke that is propulsive so it's going to start to move you forwards and this is why it's vital you're basically setting up you're handing your forearm into the best position to be able to get hold of that water which you're then going to use to propel you for the rest of that stroke so a cue you've probably heard before is to imagine that you're actually reaching over a barrel so from that extension element you're then going to start to very slightly break the wrist and more so the elbow as though you're reaching over something that is round in front of you and this will then open up the surface area of the palm of the hand and that forearm for the purchase on the water and it's really key to try and focus on your elbow staying nice and high it's a really common mistake at this phase to drop the elbow so really concentrate on that element this first part of The Proposal phase is really key because it's setting you up for the rest of the stroke so with that in mind you need to make sure that you don't rush through the catch [Music] now for the key propulsive phase the pull this makes up majority of the arm movement underwater and it obviously runs straight in from the catch and once you've got hold of that water you need to make sure that you maintain this High elbow we mentioned throughout the whole pull phase and a good way to Picture This is think that you've got that water under your forearm and under your hand and instead of pulling it past your body think of your hand almost staying still the resistance of the water that is caught and your body moves over the top of your hand and the whole way through this movement as your arm does move past your shoulder and towards your hip the elbow must stay high and that will allow you to keep hold of that water keeping the large surface area for the maximum propulsion now this is combined with rotation so you'll naturally find that this shoulder will be lower in the water than the recovery shoulder and this will allow you to engage all of those large muscles not only the muscles around your shoulder but also your lats are really big side muscles and this phase needs to not be rushed as soon as you start to rush it and think the quickly move your arms quicker you'll go actually you'll lose the water and you could end up going slower so make sure once you've got hold of that water you allow this process of the pull to happen the Finish now we haven't finished the video this is the final part of the propulsive phase of the stroke so leading straight on from the pull and basically a continuation of the pull it's just that latter aspect so you've gone from keeping that elbow high in that catch through there and then once your elbow actually reaches back towards your body you've got to finally extend your arm down so your wrist actually gets towards your hips and that is that final push phase when you're just pushing that last bit of water out behind you and this actually speeds up slightly in the stroke getting ready to move into the recovery phase [Music] foreign and now we move on from the Finish to the recovery phase and like all the aspects this needs to flow very smoothly in fact you actually want to carry some of the momentum from the Finish into that recovery and the other key point is to have everything super relaxed it's the shoulder muscles that will actually be working at this point but you'll see the elbows start to come out of the water first so if you've got everything relaxed you think you're working your shoulder there'll be a natural slight Bend in the elbow at the start of the movement now beyond that how your recovery looks is actually quite up to you and it's really not too structured the key point being it's relaxed and comfortable because you just want to get your arm over the top of the water and back past your head in the most efficient way possible and you'll see some swimmers having a really high elbow in recovery others with a straight arm and it's not like the underwater phase where we're going to be really precise on what it looks like here is about keeping that momentum keeping it smooth and making it easy and comfortable for you [Music] well the final part of the puzzle the hand entry we're basically back at the start or almost and this is as it sounds it's your hand going back into the water before the next element can start and you've come from that relaxed arm and relaxed hand in the recovery phase but you still want your fingers to be pointed enough that they enter the water first and you want to think about making the minimal amount of Splash so you're not causing resistance with that while still keeping it relaxed with fingers first followed by your wrist and then your elbow imagine it's all going through one hole and you want this to be going happening just above your head not reaching out too fast your hand slaps down but also not going into the water too early just wherever is comfortable for your shoulder and you can combine this with the rotation as your hand comes forward making sure again that it just goes in above your shoulder not across the center line and equally not too wide there's obviously a lot to think about different elements in fact but when you're swimming just try to work on one or two at a time and then move on to the next and your brain cannot compute all six for every stroke rotation so maybe if you identify one or two that you think need more work for your stroke go and focus on those well good luck with putting it all back together and with your freestyle progression and if you didn't do it at the beginning remember do give us a like and click on the globe

Channel: Global Triathlon Network

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Keywords: the stroke, swimming stroke, extension, the catch, the pull, hand entry, swim training, how to swim, get better at swimming, freestyle, perfect technique, improve swimming, swimming technique, freestyle technique, swimming freestyle, front crawl, GTN, Global Triathlon Network, triathlon, Triathlon (Sport), tri, ironman, Sports, swimbikerun, triathlon training, triathlon skills, iron man, triathlete, swimming, cycling, running, training, skills, coaching, Ꮮ, 4959, Ꮵ, ቿ, Ᏹ, Մ, Շ, Ꮲ, ꔨ, ᠫ, ཙ, ፕ17

Id: 5MiRCS9NCEI

Length: 7min 32sec (452 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 07 2023