Freestyle

Freestyle all begins with the kick. A good kick leads to a good freestyle. Yes, the more propulsive the better, but even a not so great propulsive kick can still be a good freestyle. I really liked the kick article that was on USA Swimming, as it showed the importance of driving down the kick rather than just straightening the leg.

When it comes to develop the stroke though. Understand that you spend very little time on your stomach, but rather you spend a lot of time on your side, and then rotate quickly all the way to the other side. It was always told to me that the speed of the rotation helps determine the speed of freestyle.

Kicking on your side is very important, and developing proper body position by placing the head near the shoulder. Do not allow the head to lift off the surface other wise the spine wants to straighten so the hips will drop. Hips dropping will always cause slower swimming.

Another article off of USA Swimming was about rotating to the shoulder forward. This allows for a great reach. The longer you can make the extension of the body the better, as you increase surface area and increase buoyancy. You are on your side for speed reasons, so the length is the best way to increase surface area. We have a progression of drills for freestyle that I will go into more on the next post.

While working on kicking on your side though, be sure to concentrate on moving the head like with a nod as you are indicating "no" and not to nod the head like you are indicating "yes." Be sure that new swimmers and all young swimmers are practicing good air exchange with this head movement while kicking on their side. This is not a comfortable movement and needs to be develop asap, and the sooner the better. This will make swimming a lot easier later down the road. That is one of my main goals as a swim coach also, "make it easy." The best swimmers make it look easy because they have mastered the art of easy swimming, and then developed speed with that art. I teach easy swimming, and add speed as they progress.

More to come, but I have to get to practice.