(upbeat music)
- Today we are going to be teaching you
the Free Style Stroke.
We're going to be breaking down the full into sections
so that you can become a faster and more efficient swimmer.
Okay, so let's start with a few of the basics.
Free Style is performed on our front,
facedown in the water and we should be striving to keep
our body as level in the water as possible.
You should aim to keep your head in a neutral position
inline with your trunk and looking down
towards the bottom of the pool.
As a guide, your eye line should be looking somewhere
around one to two meters ahead of you,
but try to avoid lifting your head too much,
as looking forward can create tension in your shoulder
and cause your legs to sink.
Now let's take a look at the Hand Entry.
Your fingers should enter the water first
with your palms facing down.
This should enter directly inline with your shoulder
and this puts your hand in a position that
allows you to flex the wrist just a little bit
whilst keeping your elbow slightly higher than your wrist.
Also aim to enter the water as smoothly
as possible with your hand.
As if you're slicing the water and then slide forward
for the remaining couple of inches under the water
to get that full extension of the arm.
After this Hand Entry,
we then enter what we call The Catch Phase.
This is where we are starting to pull down
through the stroke.
This is important for maintaining your lift in the water
and carrying your momentum.
You should do this by pushing down with your hand
and your forearm whilst keeping your elbow high.
Search for a purchase of the water and hold onto this
throughout The Catch Phase.
A good way to imagine this action
is that you're trying to put your arm around a barrel.
And than from The Catch Phase,
we move into what we call The Pull Phase.
This is when the hand begins to move underneath your head.
At this point the fingers should point directly down
towards the bottom of the pool and the palm of your hand
towards the end of the pool that you're swimming away from.
It's fairly obvious I know, but to move forward
we need to apply force in the opposite direction.
To maximize this you should aim to keep
your arm in a strong position.
This means pressing with the hand, keeping that elbow
in that high position and arm angle of somewhere
between 90 to 120 degrees.
A good way to picture this Pull Phase is that you're
trying to pull your body past your hand and your arm.
The hand should track more or less directly
underneath the body rather than out to the side.
This will maintain your balance and symmetry
and avoiding any nasty snaking down the pool.
And as your hand pulls through towards the hip
it is important to finish the stroke by pushing backwards
and extending your arm as your hand exits the water.
And now we are moving into The Recovery Phase.
As your arm exits the water at the back of the stroke
you should start by bending your elbow as if you're
trying to point to the roof of the pool with your elbow
or sky if you're really lucky.
To actually get the recovery effect of this
it's important to try and lead with your shoulder
so the arm stays relaxed.
Your hand and forearm should more or less dangle
as it comes through before extending the forearm
out to reenter the water at the front of the stroke.
Now there are a number of drills and tricks
that can help you when you're trying to master
the Front Crawl Stroke.
One in particular is the Skull Drill.
Now this really helps to build your confidence
at the front end of the stroke when you're trying
to get purchase of the water for The Catch Phase.
Place a Pull Buoy between your legs, lie flat in the water,
and keep your head up or relaxed into the water.
Whatever feels more comfortable.
Then begin skulling with your arms
to repel yourself forward.
Sweeping out and then back in.
If it helps you can imagine splitting a big pile of sand
and then bringing the sand back together
to one pile in the middle.
Try to minimize any propulsion from the legs
and over time you'll start to feel you're applying
more pressure and getting more purchase of the water.
Another thing you can do is to use Hand Paddles.
If you're starting out swimming, I would actually advise
skipping these until you've been swimming for some time
and you've built enough shoulder strength.
Just start out with some small paddles,
short reps so that you're not putting too much
strain on the shoulders.
Now these will really help to over emphasize The Catch
and The Pull Phases of the stroke and also
slow things down for you to work it all out on the go.
Now as you begin to master the Free Style Stroke
you may want to look at rotating during the stroke too.
Now this can be fairly complicated to get the hang of,
so make sure that you're comfortable swimming
before embarking on any rotation.
By rotation you're able to utilize the larger back muscles
and to stabilize the stroke and by rotating the whole body
around taking one shoulder out of the water,
also means we reduce our surface area in the water,
therefore making ourselves faster.
To rotate both your shoulders and hips should move in sync,
rather than one leading the other.
Now this movement can also help
making the breathing action more natural.
Rather than feeling like you're craning your head
around for a breath.
And on that note a good tip for the breathing is to
start your breath as your hand exits
at the back of the stroke.
And as the arm comes over during The Recovery Phase,
imagine that that arm then forces the head
back into the water as it passed the head
to end that breath.
Well that's it on the Free Style Stroke
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