The freestyle stroke is one of the most well-known strokes in swimming, and it’s the one that most people learn first. But even though you have probably used this stroke for many years, there are always ways that you can improve your technique on this basic stroke. Below are seven tips that you can use to help with improving your freestyle technique.
1. LINE UP YOUR HEAD
Line your head up with your body and keep looking down to the pool’s bottom. Don’t look to the front because this will mean that you’re more likely to lift your head up. This is going to make your legs and hips to drop. This means you’re going to have to kick much harder so that they stay up.
2. KEEP PRESSING YOUR BODY
This is going to keep your legs and hips up without a lot of effort. This technique will require you to put downward pressure to your chest and head. Since your lungs of full of air and extremely buoyant, doing this will cause your lower body to come up. This means you won’t have to kick as hard anymore.
3. DON’T LIFT UP YOUR HEAD BEFORE YOU BREATH
This is a common error and it will cause your legs and hips to drop. Instead, roll onto your side and allow your head to roll a bit further so that your mouth’s out of the water. This should feel as if your head’s laying on your pillow but that pillow’s made out of water.
4. DON’T SWIM FLAT DOWN
Rather than swimming on your chest and stomach, try swimming on your sides. Roll as you are lifting your arms. This will let you engage your bigger muscles in your back as well as your shoulder muscles. This will improve your propulsion.
5. EXHALE CONTINUOUSLY
While your face’s in submerged, make sure you’re exhaling continuously. There’s not enough time both to exhale and inhale while your face is to the side. Exhaling also will help you with relaxing more while you’re swimming.
6. CONSERVE ENERGY
Save your energy by doing a more relaxed kick while swimming medium and long-distance. This kick means you’re going to kick in a pace that’s the same as your arms’ strokes. This is going to help you with conserving your energy and it may even make a big difference during races.
7. WEAR A NOSE CLIP AT FIRST
This is often useful because it’s going to keep your nose from getting water in it and this will be one fewer thing to be concerned about and allow you to relax. After your coordination and technique improves, you may not need it.
These are seven things that you can do to help you with improving your freestyle stroke technique. Whether you are looking for someone to help your swimming, want to have swimming lessons for you or your child or you want a personal trainer, contact me. I’ll be happy to answer any questions that you have.