Freestyle

There are 4 main strokes: freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke. So, it makes quite a bit of sense for me to make four blogs. One for every stroke. Here I'll describe the strokes, give some tips, and explain what makes the Olympians better than us.

Freestyle is the most common of the stroke. It is the fastest strokes. It is the stroke most people can do for the longest without stopping. If you fall into a river with a strong current, you're probably going to want to swim freestyle to get out of it. It's the 'aid you in not dying' stroke. Sounds like you should know about it.

Freestyle is characterized by being on your stomach. You alternate pulling your arm from in front of you to around your waste under water. Then the arm comes out of the water and is put back in the water in front of you. The arms alternate. When one arms is in front, the other is at the waste. When one arm is in the air, the other is in the water. A flutter kick is used with the arms. Your legs go up and down behind you. They alternate, one will go up when the other is going down. You breathe to the side, under your arm.

I hope you knew all of that already...
If not, then thank me later.

I've taught a few people how to swim in my years in the pool. Some problems are almost universal. People tend to swim uphill. Yes, it's possible! Kind of anyway. Swimming uphill is what us swimmers call when your shoulders are higher in the water than your hips. Your whole body gets out of line and your arms don't move you nearly as far as they should. You fix this by swimming with your chin so far down that it almost touches your chest. That lowers your shoulders and raises your hips. Another problem is that people forget to kick. You should always be kicking, and kicking hard. It's something that took me a long time to do. Your fingers should not be apart. You don't row a boat with a rake. Close your fingers. One last thing is that you want to be able to breathe from both sides of your body. You can get shoulder and neck problems and even lip tension from breathing out the same side every time. It takes practice, but it's worth it.

There are some people cool things the pros do. You think of freestyle as a stroke where you pull backwards with your arms. If you watch closely, you'll see that the best swimmers hands exit the water ahead of where they entered, even after pulling backwards. This is because their kick is so strong, and their pull moves so much water. You move forward by pushing water back. Some pros will go entire lengths of the pool without breathing. Usually in sprints. Breathing hurts hydrodynamics slightly, so it slows you down. These swimmers' cardiovascular systems are crazy. If you watch them yourselves you'll see many more amazing things.

Next blog we'll have backstroke! Keep reading!