On this video I will show you the 4 styles
I used to swim 50 freestyle in less than 30 seconds. We will analyze the pros and cons
of each style of freestyle so you can pick the one that is best for you. 1- Pros and cons Straight arms or windmill. Best example Florent
Manaudou. 3 pros - 4 cons None of these styles of freestyle were invented
by me. I’ve just studied them by watching olympians, my teammates and by testing them
myself. I know this one doesn’t look pretty or smooth but it has its pros. Pro #1 - With this stroke you can achieve
one of the fastest tempos. In the 50 freestyle of London 2012, Manaudou the winner of the
event, swam with this technique at a .46 tempo. Meaning more than 2 strokes per second. He
was moving his arms this fast… while pulling a lot of water. Pro #2 By hitting the water straight down,
my brother noticed, it elevated my hips to the surface a little, giving me a better angle
to move forward. Pro #3 It forces you to rotate more, therefore
you use the core muscles more which is always a good thing. Con #1 - If you don’t rotate enough it
will be counter productive and it will be more dangerous for your shoulders. Con #2 When you enter the water with your
arms straight it creates a bigger splash, which means more water surface resistance.
To compensate you need more muscle power to pull yourself forward quickly. Con #3 You have to be strong to swim like
this. Like … really strong, and have very efficient complementary kick. Con #4 it is more difficult to breathe with
this style. This is because you are going fast and there is a lot of water splashing
all around. Horse freestyle. Best example Kyle Chalmers.
3 pros - 3 cons This stroke has a subtle difference for the
viewer, but for the swimmer it is really noticeable. Look at this horse first. Its front legs touch
the ground almost at the same time. In fact almost the four legs are in the ground at
the same time and that gives it more power to do a long jump. The same idea brought to
swimming looks like this. This is exaggerated of course. But this is actually how Caeleb
Dressel and Kyle Chalmers swim. Those are the fastest swimmers in the world right now
in the 100. They swim with a 0.1 difference between arms. So the “jump” that the horse
does right here is when they take a breath. It is subtle but if you consider that both
arms are doing the same thing .1 is quite a difference. Pro #1 - Breathing is easier. Pro #2 You get into a better rhythm. I don’t
know why but once you get the hang of it you get into a rhythm fast and it feels like it
is easier to swim at a constant speed. Pro #3 - To be honest I really just learned
this technique a couple of months ago in preparation of this video. I learned that you can use
gravity when you are coming back from the “jump” to help you rotate. It’s a similar
concept to going up high in breaststroke in order to shoot forward. Con #1 - It’s not symmetrical. That might
throw off some people. Con #2 Your pull has to be strong and effective
to do that “jump” part. Con #3 If your kick fades you won’t be
able to pull yourself forward effectively. If you are going to try this technique, what
helped me the most is doing my first stroke with the opposite arm of the side that I breathe.
So for me was doing my first stroke with the right arm to be able to breathe to the left.
It’s funny, I watch a lot of swimming videos and haven’t seen anyone mention this type
of freestyle. Probably because it doesn’t look very pretty. But is very common among
elite swimmers. Balanced sprint or boat freestyle. Best example
Cate Campbell. 3 pros 3 cons. The elbows in the recovery are bent and the
hands are close to the body. The pull is ver symmetrical. The entry is clean. We actually
made a video about this style which we will link in the description. Pro #1 - If you breathe every 2, 3 or 4 strokes
the technique doesn’t suffer. Pro #2 - You don’t have to be super strong. Pro #3 - It’s easier to teach and learn. Con #1 - You ride low on the surface so you
have to breathe quickly. Con #2 - Is’t hard to achieve a high tempo. Con #3 - You need a super strong kick. Arrow Freestyle. Best example Katie Ledecky.
2 pros - 3 cons This way of swimming seems very popular among
you, our audience. It looks smooth and kind of impressive that this almost 30 year old
can still go under 30 seconds with these few movements, good job me. We will check in again
in 30 years. Pro #1 - you save a lot of leg energy with
a two beat kick. Pro #2 - It is the smoothest. Therefore,
you can do less strokes. Con #1 - You have to make up with your arms
and core engagement what you save in energy with your legs. Con #2 - The speed is not constant. You accelerate
and decelerate on every stroke. So your body position needs to be very horizontal to not
decelerate quickly. Con #3 - If you are one of the many people
who have watched our video on the arrow freestyle and have tried it, you know that it feels
great. But it is not easy to swim fast. How should you pick your style? There is no best way to swim freestyle. Even
for me it has changed depending on the distance that I am swimming, and other things that
are in constant change like my age, my strength and my endurance. So my advice is to learn
all four styles and master the ones that feel right because you never know when you are
going to need them. Also no two styles of freestyle are the same, you will find subtleties
that you can change to make it work better for you. For example, you can kick a little
more in the arrow freestyle and you might find that it works better for you. Nathan Adrian swims with three different styles
in the hundred. He starts with boat free, after the turn he goes to horse freestyle
and the last 10 meters he does straight arm windmill. It is amazing to watch and it worked
for him in 2012! Whatever you choose though, keep these 6 things
in mind. 2- 6 Hacks 1- Breathe quickly On every style of freestyle, the breath needs
to be quick. Put aside what you learned in Yoga for a minute and do shallow breaths. 2- Rotate It doesn’t matter if you are swimming arrow
freestyle or horse freestyle, you need to rotate, specially your shoulders, in order
to pull better. 3- Don’t move your head The head moves in a straight line. So even
when you breathe you need to keep your head in line. 4- Quick kicks Make sure your kicks are small and quick on
every style. On these three styles the kick goes a little out of the surface. 5- Use your core The core is the biggest group of muscle in
your body. It doesn’t only help you to keep a good position in the water, but also helps
you rotate, kick and pull water. 6- Use fins The main difference of each style is in the
arms, so to make things easier to learn you can use fins and feel how different each style
is. Bonus: As you could see, the underwater kicks are
a big part of every style. It doesn’t matter if you are doing 2 or 10 dolphin kicks, they
need to be fast and powerful. Practice and perfect them. Free freestyle workout Here is a quick workout you can do to improve
all four style of freestyle. Giveaway I guess because 7:01 Sorry for not posting a video in a while,
we had our San Diego Swimming camp this past February, which went great by the way! Thank
you! {due to the global crisis the dates might be postponed} and we moved to our new offices!
I mean they are not this cool yet, but at least we have a proper green screen. {special
effects and chaos} Here is the winner of the last video! Congratulations!
This time We are going to giveaway one of our brand new designed swim caps! To participate in the giveaway you’ll need
to do the same thing we did last time. Share this video on your swim team chat, take a
screen shot and send it to us via WhatsApp to this number. Talk to you there! Swim fast!
